ESPN's Winter X Games Snowboarding 2002

When gauging this latest entry into the highly crowded snowboarding genre as a purchase, you must first decide among which two camps you belong. The first camp is that of the X Games devotee. If you rank among this lot, then Konami's latest snowboarding update might be of some appeal. The majority of things found in the real-life X Games (riders, equipment, courses) are found here. Want to play as Travis Parker? Go for it! Want to grind all over Truckee, Calif.? No problem, dude! The available options, modes and mountains are extensive enough to keep any X freak happy. Which brings us neatly to camp two, that of the fair-weather fan who cares not a whit about the X Games license. Casual couch-boarders will be hard-pressed to decipher the labyrinthine menu interface, struggle with the low-gravity physics, or bother with the no-skills-required grinds. This is a shame because the game boasts some delightful hi-resolution 1080 Snowboarding-on-crack graphics, and a fantastic create-a-player mode, oh well.