Snowmobile racing is a wicked sport to watch. Ripping through powder, dodging trees at high speed - if there was ever a winter sport that could translate well to the small screen of consoledom, this would be it. The original Sled Storm on PS One was an amazing piece of kit. Fast, dialed-in control combined with state of the art (at the time) visuals and near-perfect track design made for one of the great 3D racers of all time. Now, the EA Big brand is dragging it kicking and screaming onto next-generation hardware - so how does Sled Storm fare?

If you've played SSX, SSX: Tricky, or NBA Street, you'll be familiar with the controls already. The shoulder buttons are used in different combinations to perform tricks, which in turn pump up your Boost - oops, sorry - your Storm Meter. Use the Storm Meter to blast past your opponents in key situations and win the race. Once again, you've got wacky characters to identify with and unlockables to earn, upgrades for your sled and loads of extreme attitude. The track design is very well done, with loads of shortcuts for the enterprising racer to find and use against his opponents. The tracks themselves range from SSX-style courses to even more visually fantastic treats. The level of graphic and animation detail is very good, with colourful racers actively shifting back and forth on their vehicles, leaning into turns and bumping opponents. The character voices are superslick indeed - celebrities like Mean Gene Okerlund, Bif Naked and Matthew Lilliard provided their talents for Sled Storm and were well worth it. In fact, I prefer the voice talent supplied here to those from SSX: Tricky. I wish that more samples were available. Music ranges from the typical hardcore rap-rock nonsense no one will remember 5 years from now to some more esoteric, edgy electronica-style music that fits the game much better. The frame rate is almost uniformly smooth, and in comparison to its nearest rival, Arctic Thunder, Sled Storm comes up looking like a world-beater.

Time trial, practice, multiplayer, and rival challenge modes are are included - but the majority of your time will be spent battling through the championship mode. It is here where you earn new sleds, unlock new players and levels. It is also here where the cheating AI will make you want to launch the CD out of the window - if it was any more blatant, I'd call the police. Note to all racing game developers: RUBBERBAND AI IS LAZY. It robs the paying customer of a fair racing experience. Either take the time to fine-tune your racers or do a better job of disguising the cheating. When it is as obvious as Sled Storm, the single-player campaign becomes more of an exercise in frustration than anything else. Running a perfect race and timing use of the Storm Meter correctly should be rewarded by hard-earned wins, not a last-second run by the computer.

The control is rather sloppy compared to Sled Storm's 32-bit predecessor - the PS One version's delicious feeling of just being on the edge of losing it while still maintaining control has been lost on PS2. Instead, you end up constantly fighting the game for control at the lower levels, and as your sled receives upgrades to acceleration and steering it gets better, but not by much. It's frustrating, especially as the older version had it down perfect. While the original Sled Storm wasn't the most realistic racer available, it is still preferable to the hyper-racing style that Sled Storm PS2 provides. The collision detection is spotty - since the game rewards you for going through certain breakable objects, nailing a tree branch in one race will break the racer through and earn points, where another race on the same course hitting the same branch will result in your racer flying through the air sans bike. This lack of consistency wears thin after a while.

It's a shame. Playing Sled Storm is a lot like going to a rave - a lot of bombast, hype and crazy visual chemical hoopla...but once the effect wears off, there's little left of substance or interest to anyone older than 15. EA Big has a good thing going with SSX and NBA Street - but without real innovation in subsequent titles like Sled Storm, it looks like this brand is just going to run the formula into the ground. The risk involved in creating SSX from the ground up has paid off handsomely and put the EA Big brand squarely on the extreme sports map, but this game feels like resting on one's laurels. That spark of creativity just isn't there in Sled Storm. Frankly, I don't need to play the same game with the same controls - but hey kids! this time it's on bikes/snowmobiles/fill-in-the-blank - time after time after time.

Sled Storm is good-looking, well-crafted, technically sound, formulaic code-by-the-numbers entertainment, and you won't remember squat about it 30 seconds after turning off your PS2.