Of all of the Gizmondo launch games, as near as I can tell, this is the only one that is a port game. SSX 3 of course has been already released and did quite well originally. So now we have it on the brand new Gizmondo portable gaming system. How does it stack up to it's console original? How does it control and does it do the original justice? And more importantly, if I want to get this game and this system, how do I get one?

Of course it's hard to complain about a game as good as SSX, right? I mean currently it is the top-rated snowboarding series out there and it's hard to mess with success; for heaven's sake EA makes it and they are one of the bigger and better game developers out there. So, let's go from this point: SSX 3 is such a good game, that it almost would be work to make it fail, even on a new handheld system. There, I've said it, it's like knowing you already have the job you are applying for, and it's yours to lose.

Now, the play involves you racing down an absolutely gi-normous mountain where hidden paths and all sorts of insane runs are located. No, you don't start at the top and race for 30 minutes down the thing (at least not right away), rather you complete and compete to unlock the runs that take you further up the mountain. You can see that there are three peaks to the mountain and each one features several challenges, if you will, that must be beaten in order to continue your icy mission uphill. There is an awful lot of play in this title and you could literally play for hours on end and still not find everything.

It looks pretty good, the Gizmondo has a tight little two-inch screen that does a nice job of displaying the crazy depths of the title, I mean, here you are zipping along taking those impossibly high jumps that would scare an eagle and the little processor is pumping out clean lines and a true sense of depth. The colors aren't as awesome looking as the console version but still look nice and fluid. Shading is done nicely as well as a smooth framerate throughout the runs. I must admit I was happy with how nice this game appeared and since the Gizmondo actually has some power under it's hood it handled the exploration factor of the game with generous aplomb and for the first game I have gotten to review on this new system, I am quite happy.

The Gizmondo is a pretty small and tight feeling in my hand and the D-pad moved my snowboarders pretty well. Not as tight as my PS2 controller, but still fairly dialed in. The action buttons on the right side of the machine also were fairly crisp and the game reacted as I would have expected. The game overall seems to be a good fit for the Giz from a graphics standpoint and my hats off to EA for making a darn fine translation to a system that isn't receiving a lot of fanfare. 

How about that multiplayer with the Bluetooth we've heard about. Well sadly I don't know anyone out there with a copy of SSX 3 much less a Gizmondo as it is still pretty obscure. In fact, there is only one place in all of Washington State to buy one. But I can tell you that it does not appear to be anything that would be difficult to achieve as the menu and setup screens all appeared to be nice and manageable. At this point it would be swell if the folks over at Gizmondo would send me another unit so's to thoroughly review these games (hint-hint, wink-wink).

Lastly, the Giz only has a single audio speaker on the unit and although I would have preferred to hear the action in stereo, but the music was audible and was a direct copy of the music (to the best of my recollection) form the original console version.

Gameplay: 8.7
For a handheld, it handles pretty smoothly, the snow spits up at the dynamic third-person camera and you can transition moves with some ease as you get along. The D-pad is pretty tight.

Graphics: 8.5
Snow flies by as you rush down the mountain, I gotta figure that it's clipping at around 60 frames per second (but I could be wrong, I don't have tech specs) with the decent processing power of the unit. The colors look nice and clean as does most of the visuals, not much wrong with this portion of the game, nice.

Sound: 7.0
The sound sounds decent enough with the action music, but with a single speaker I think there is some breakdown in the energy.

Difficulty: Medium
It's a hoot of a game and there is some challenge to be had here with the wildly designed courses. Beating the CPU players is fairly easy in the beginning, but you have your work cut out for you as the game reaches it's final races.

Concept: 7.0
It is a port game in a genre that has plenty of titles. Not much new if you have played a snowboarding game. What I thought was neat was that this appears to be the big title in the Gizmondo's launch, and I got it... score!

Overall: 8.4
I logged an awful lot of time on SSX 3 when it first came out two years ago, and I must say that they did a fine job converting this title to a handheld game. Of course, EA took a big gamble putting one of their finest on a portable that has yet to be tested in this over-saturated market, but hey, sometimes you have to take a gamble and in this case I think they should be proud.