SSX Blur

Although the SSX series began on the Playstation 2 back in the year 2000, snowboarding and skiing seem much more fulfilling sports when played on the Nintendo Wii. After all, isn't skiing just about holding two poles in your hands and moving them around a bit? Okay, so there's a bit more to it than that, especially in SSX Blur which has some pretty difficult controls.

No doubt countless minors have bought this game thinking it'll be a bit of fun - Tony Hawk on a snowboard perhaps - and then gave up during the tutorials. Why? Because the simple act of steering takes a long time to get to grips with, and that's before you even mention tricks. The nunchuk controls your direction, with tilt controlling wide turns and the stick controlling small turns. You'll need to use one or both of these controls, depending on how sharp a turn is.

Apart from skiing down the various mountains (tracks are quite clunkily stitched together, unlike the smooth runs in SSX 3), you are required to perform various tricks in the air to keep your 'groove meter' full. If you hit 5 on this meter you're good to perform an 'uber-trick', as in drawing shapes in the air with your nunchuk/remote to initiate spectacular flips and spins. Tilt the nunchuk for grabs and flick the remote for flips/spins. Right yourself by pressing A just before landing or you'll wipe out.

Along the tracks, there are occasional markers that you need to throw snowballs at. This is a hit and miss affair (literally), with your snowball only leaving your grip if you throw heartily and well in advance (chances are you'll slam into an obstacle anyway). Holding down the Z button gives you a turbo boost, but remember to let go for sharp corners or you'll put your face through a pine tree. Turbos are good for half-pipes though. There are also rails present for grinding on, with your balance controlled by nunchuk tilting.