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Here is a review for the newest snow boarding game on American Sega Saturn, or should I say ONLY?! =) Steep Slope Sliders (SSS) is a 1 player snow boarding fest. There are 7 courses and 4 players to start with. But as you move on into the game there are 8 more riders and 4 more courses. This game is just plain fun to play. Let's get on with the review!

Graphics: 8/10

They look really good for a dead system =). The engine is polygon based and very fast feeling. There are a lot of colors and great backdrops. You'll be screaming down a course and just die looking at the whole screen turn at lighting speeds with no slowdown. They only downfall I really got with the graphics was the kind of blocky looking ground textures and the sloppy textured walls at times. But pretty much all polygon based engines have messed up polygon walls so its really just being picky. I'm more of a animation guy myself. Oh, I must say the riders animations are some of the best polygon animation ever! The look and act true to life!

Sound: 6/10

The sound kind of lacks. There really isn't much on the side of game sound effects. There are sounds for craving, but it sounds kind of dull. No environment sounds either. Kind of just dull sound as the game effects go. But the game sound track is very upbeat and techno. Before each race you can even select which track you would like to hear. This is a really nice feature. Also the music is red book, so pop it in your CD drive and listen away. I'd give the music a 9 and the game effects a 4. Ah well, can't have it all, but the lack of good game sounds don't hurt the game play!

Control: 8/10

The control is very crisp and it easy to pull off most tricks. Some of the harder flips with twists are hard if your at the wrong angle though. I guess this is a realistic feature since I don't do tricks while boarding. The button layout is simple, you use A,B,C and the L, R buttons for sharp craving and twisting in mid-air. Pulling off big point tricks isn't hard, its just the timing, which doesn't take long to figure out. Some problems do happen when hitting walls, trees or buildings. Sometimes you just sit there, wasting time not being able to move your rider at any speed. The hit detection seems to be lacking greatly when hitting buildings. Its hard to move the rider around a building when he's almost stopped, and you lose about 10-15 seconds by turning and twisting him around the building. Overall the control is good, just don't hit anything =).

Game play: 9/10

This game is very fun to play. I played for about 5 hours when I first got the game. Didn't stop. Now I just try and make great runs with lots of tricks. What is really great about doing this is you can save your best runs! Kind of like Mario Kart 64 but better. You can save up to 6 runs per save device, i.e. 6 slots on the internal memory and 6 in a RAM backup. After saving your best runs you can edit them! You can chop out the bad parts and just paste all the best tricks and air together. Not only that though, you can add great camera angles and lighting effects! Another great feature in the game play, the game has an internal time feature. If you choose, the game will play each course in the correct daylight for the country! So in Russia its 10pm and the course is dark!! It adds to the replay value greatly! Its fun to see the courses in different lighting. The only downside is that it is only 1 player. If you never play with anyone, you won't care. My wife and I just switch off and try to beat each others scores. Its not that it hurts the game at all, its just that it would be fun to race each other at the same time.

Overall: 8/10

If you've been jealous of the Cool Boarder series on PSX, don't be any longer. This game beats those hands down. Lots of courses, 11 total; plenty of riders, 12 total and plenty of replay value, edit your own saved runs! The graphics look great and the game moves fast! If your looking for something to play when you can't go boarding, play this! It makes me want to board! Thank god I live near the snow. This is probably one of the better Sega racers because of the added courses and more racers! Also the whole edit feature is just awesome! I would recommend this game to any diehard boarder for sure and also for anyone looking for a lasting quality racer in their library. Steep Slope Sliders just scream replay value!