As the premier snowboarding series in video games, EA's SSX franchise is known for massive air, unique characters, and a fun presentation. The newest game in line is SSX Blur for the Nintendo Wii, and while it's not perfect, it's a fun ride.

The basic premise of SSX Blur is the same as all the other games in the franchise. You pick a character, take to the slopes, and try to win all of the tournaments, challenges and races on the mountain. Doing so unlocks more characters, boards and skis, and the game's two other peaks.

SSX Blur adds a leaderboard to track your progress against the other characters in the game. The Groove Meter not only works as a boost, but changes the music of the game: the more you've got it filled up, the more dynamic the music becomes. However, in contrast, the tricks and timing become harder to pull off at higher levels, making for an interesting game experience.

There's also the addition of being able to make snowballs, which you can throw at competitors to knock them down. It's not essential to the game to learn how to throw snowballs, save for a few challenges in the game. The controls are also unique to SSX Blur, but more on that later.

The game's graphics style and art direction seem to reflect the SSX franchise's previous game, SSX: On Tour. Compared to that last-generation game, there doesn't seem to be a huge jump in graphics improvement, but in SSX Blur, it really doesn't matter. The soundtrack is completely created by electronic musician Junkie XL, and while it's okay, it's a disappointment compared to the licensed soundtracks of the other SSX games.

SSX Blur's controls are both a blessing and a gripe. Using the Wii Remote to flip and rotate your character into moves feels incredibly natural, but using the Nunchuk to pull off grabs, carve into turns and both accelerate and slow down feels very, very awkward at first, and doesn't always work as it should. Using the Wii Remote to pull off Ubertricks doesn't feel awkward, but also seems to work about half as often as it should. That's a pity, because it otherwise works well for the Ubertricks.