EA wanted to take the series in a new direction, but only made bad decisions. all the personality and dialogue from the original characters have been removed. the game runs at half the framerate of SSX3 and Tricky. the monster tricks break the flow of gameplay by introducing slowmo and turning the camera so that you can't see the ground beneath you. there's like 2 diplo songs on it. every aspect of the game is a downgrade from the masterpiece that immediately preceded it, and yet it's still an arcade snowboarding game that came out after everyone else had abandoned the genre, and that in itself is a damn triumph.

God, I wish I had better things to say about On Tour. I hadn't played this since I was ten, but remembered broad strokes of different areas, as well as it being my first introduction to LCD Soundsystem. While I still proudly stand by SSX 3 as the complete package, and Tricky as the fun but flawed progenitor of the series as we know it, I can't say anything nearly that positive about On Tour. Runs poorly, feels a little worse, and is just plain uglier than 3. The best I can give it is that the painfully mid 00's, Napoleon Dynamite reminiscent aesthetic is a fun, sorta cringeworthy relic to look back on, and the soundtrack has its share of bangers.

Medication for us all
It is a new way
And we're gonna take it 'cause we love it, don't you know?
Is this the dose you've been dreamin' of?
A revelation from a gun, doesn't matter
Overtaken, mine was yours, now overthrown
Just copulation in a song
I'm so contagious, can I cum?
In the new way, all of us cast asides became what has become
Medication for us all
You think you know me, well you're wrong
Doesn't matter, all of us cast asides became what has become

I know the SSX series is worshipped, and, growing up, I always wanted to play these games, but they were console exclusives, and by the time I managed to get a PS2 and a PSP, I kinda lost interest. Still I felt a sort of obligation to play it to appease my childhood self. And I gotta say, this doesn't really impress me. I mean, gameplay-wise this just feels like THPS, and the presentation is kinda what you'd expect from a snowboarding game. It's alright.

I couldn't figure out how to do those challenges where you're supposed to just earn points by jumping back and forth doing tricks. And I didn't feel like looking this up.

I think I might revisit the SSX series some day, but in that case I'll probably go with a different entry. I have a feeling that this little PSP spin-off might not be the best representation of the series.

There are some good PS2-to-PSP ports out there, but unfortunately, SSX On Tour isn't one of them.

The PSP version of On Tour is different from the main console versions, with the most noticeable difference being the courses seem to be taken from SSX 3. This sounds good in theory, but the backcountry tracks end up just looking generic on the less powerful hardware. The number of courses is also small, making for a lot of repetition. Less buttons on the PSP means some buttons are pulling double duty leading to extra bails.

If you are a big fan of the series, there might still be some fun to be had here, but overall the game is few tiers below the excellent PS2 games.