Cool Boarders 3

I was a big fan of the second Cool Boarders. But when I heard the series was being taken over by 989 Studios I started to have my doubts. Of course the new guys decided to throw out the anime-style graphics & the basic gameplay was switched with their 2Xtreme game engine. Meaning that you can now knock over your opponents in a rash manner. However that doesn't really say 'Cool Boarders' to me, but what did come out good was the stunts. Unlike the previous game which also featured stunts, the stages this time around offer alot more chances to perform the wild moves. So there's actually plenty of involvement with the racing & stunts on top of that. Definitely breaks the old straight forward race theme. The levels are also twice as long & twice as wide offering for more paths to be taken & a wider variety of stunts to perform. Another excellent improvement was in the graphics. Everything is alot more realistic & the background has a natural curvy look to them when opposed to the normal blocky style. Way Cool. They also manage to license all the clothing & boards in the game. So what you see in the title you can actually buy in real life. It's really just hook to catch all the hard-core snowboarders though. In the end Cool Boarders 3 turns out to be a better game despite some of the changes. I'm sure snowboarding & extreme fans are going to love it.

Overall 8.4