Moreover, the degree of articulation that is possible in these oversized player characters is pretty stunning. Intricate flip moves, hanging onto the board (for all of our sakes, I'm deliberately avoiding the jargon here), twirls and wipeouts are portrayed with just that much greater level of realism than we have seen before on a console. As good as a the Tony Hawk series of skateboard games may be in recreating the feel of the sport, in SSX the characters feel more natural, less a product of wise programming and more believable puppets that are responding to the terrain.

Even though SSX may not interest me as a game, the ways in which the programmer used the PS2's power to bunch around the action these ephemeral visual effects and even devise layers of sound (player, color commentary, snow sounds and crowds) demonstrates where console gaming can go with this level of power. It may not be about ever-greater 3D textures or handling simultaneous visual elements on screen without slowdown. Instead, it may be about overwhelming and immersing players with multiple sources of stimulation at once. At its most mundane, SSX is a good but not breathtaking step up from what is already possible on the Dreamcast. But in those moments when it deploys all of the PS2's strengths for sound, visual detail, and 3D animation at once, it sucks you into the gaming moment more effectively than any console before it.