Dark Summit

"Rent it, beat it, send it back."

If you want a good, realistic snow boarding game, don't get this. If you want a snow boarding game that looks like the game designers were on some bad acid the whole way through the creation, rent this. Don't buy, rent. Here's why:

-Levels:

If you got about 1000 teens with spray paint to go up and down a mountain, it would look like this. Color is everywhere in this game. From the trees, snow, jumps, to the radar stations, outhouses, radioactive goo, artificial alien cow bombs, snowmen, train tracks and metal girders sticking out of the snow everywhere. Oh yes, I said snowmen. This is definitely not a sparse game. The levels are like an extreme snow boarders dream. But the most interesting thing about them is they seem to work very well in game. Their almost cartoon like design fits in well, and is very fun to board on. Not very many of them, though, since the whole game takes place on one mountain.

-Tricks:

The tricks got a resounding ''dude, can you do that?'' from my friends. Almost as extreme as the levels. From iron monkeys to honey flips, this game has some nice eye candy. But they get old quickly. Compared to a game like Tony Hawk 3, this game has a very small amount of tricks. By the end, I was even getting bored of the 720 inverse backside corkscrew. Still, enough to keep you interested for a few hours.

-Sound

X-box sound. Who could ask for more? This is one thing the designers did very well. Tracks are good, but not being able to import your own songs takes this down a notch. Sound effects are great. Each special move gets it's own little ''theme song'', landing big air gives you a congratulations sound... Stupendous!

-Riders:

Hot ladies, cool guys, and balding fat men. In single player mode, you have access to one rider until you beat the game with her. Then, about 6 others open up. You can buy different boards or outfits for you main character with points you get doing tricks, but with the other characters, the clothing is fixed. In multi player, you have access to everyone in the game. This includes the ski patrol, Chief O'Leary (the balding fat man) and Ranger Ford. All the animations, from grabs to flips, are very well done.

-Story

What puts this game aside from the others. It really what makes you keep playing this sort of game, what makes it so addicting. Only downside is, the story is the games major weakness. In game, you must complete challenges to continue the story (do 6 540's, smash the chief's lunch, etc.) But, after completing all the challenges, and finishing the games story, there is really no more point in playing. And as always, the ending was a bit weak.

-Multi player

This was disappointing. The game only supports 2 players. On top of that, the modes are kind of boring. Race to the bottom, Half pipe (a trick competition) and something I like to call Smash-Stuff-On-The-Mountain-Down-To-Get-Points. With such a story driven game, playing multi player will probably mean playing Halo again in about five minutes.

Overall, since you can beat the whole game in about 12 hours anyway, I would rent this game. You can play it for 3 hours straight and still be having lots of fun, but in a week, it will just be collecting dust.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/20/02, Updated 01/20/02