When we published our feature on Fable: Anniversary Edition a few weeks ago, I was personally so pleased to hear from Pure Xbox readers who had been inspired to play the game for themselves. Thank you to everyone who reached out — it's been amazing to hear that you've been enjoying it recently as well!
With that in mind, I thought I'd try it again this weekend, but with something that possibly won't have as much mass appeal. The Winter Olympics dominated much of my time during February, and therefore I've been feeling inspired to play a bit of NHL, maybe an old Olympic game or two... but mainly to check out the utterly superb SSX 3.
This game came out all the way back in 2003, and it's still beloved by countless fans to this day. It's backwards compatible on Xbox consoles as well, so everyone can still enjoy it to its fullest here in 2026.
So, here are five reasons I think you should at least consider trying SSX 3 on your Xbox console!
1. The Seriously Impressive Visuals Across Xbox One, Series X & Series S
SSX 3 was always a good-looking game, including when it released in 2003, but its backwards compatibility glow-up for the Xbox One transformed it into a stunner for such an old title. The Xbox One S version received a 4x resolution boost around eight years ago, whereas the Xbox One X version received a whopping 16x boost. Those Xbox One X enhancements transfer to the Xbox Series X these days as well, and the result is a game that still impresses in the visual department over 20 years later.
Here's what Digital Foundry said in their analysis back in 2018:
"In terms of pixel count, the actual rendering resolution ranges from 512x448 on PlayStation 2 to a full 640x480 on the Xbox. And this is where Xbox One comes into play, with a 4x resolution boost to 1280x960 on Xbox One S and a 16x increase on the X, delivering 2560x1920. Widescreen support is included, but this achieved by the emulator stretching the base image horizontally, effectively delivering rectangular pixels. While the image is softened by this process, the result is a game much cleaner than ever before."
Better yet, the performance also got improved when SSX 3 was added to Xbox backwards compatibility, meaning that some of the chugs on the PS2 and even the original Xbox version were ironed out almost entirely. The Xbox One S is the only version that sometimes still dips a little bit, but every other console offers a smooth 60FPS.
2. It's Semi-Open World — You Can Ride SSX 3's Mountain From Top To Bottom
The big debate in terms of SSX is usually whether SSX Tricky or SSX 3 is the best game in the series, and the arguments for the latter are often centred around its mountain that can be explored as part of a semi-open world. When you play the game, you're free to cruise from the top to bottom of Peak 1, with the ability to unlock Peaks 2 and 3 as you progress. There are events that you can navigate to along the way, such as trick events and races, or you can just take it easy and find collectibles, complete challenges and casually ride around.
This allows you to explore the mountain your own pace, and it lends a very "chill" vibe to SSX 3 in general. If you want to get competitive and prove your skills, you can focus entirely on that if you want to. If you'd rather just mess around for 15 minutes while you've got a bit of spare time, there's no need to enter any events at all. It might not sound like a big deal these days, but this was a very ambitious feature back in 2003, and it remains a key selling point of SSX 3 even to this day.
3. Radio BIG Is Full Of Nostalgic Tunes From The '90s & Early 2000s
I mentioned that "chill" vibe in the previous section, and Radio BIG definitely helps cultivate it. As you ride down the mountain, you'll be greeted with an announcer discussing the weather, events that you might be about to enter, and various other bits of chatter, with music filling the gaps. The soundtrack is full of hits that you might remember from back in the day, including a remix of The Red Hot Chili Peppers' Higher Ground, Jerk It Out by The Caesars, a remix of No One Knows by Queens of the Stone Age, Hypersonic by Jane's Addiction, Don't Let The Man Get You Down by Fatboy Slim, and so many other fantastic tunes.
Your guess is as good as ours in terms of how Xbox managed to relicense SSX 3 for backwards compatibility considering how many big-name artists are on the soundtrack, but we're so glad they did! The music works in tandem with the gameplay as well — it's crafted to play certain parts depending on where you are in a race or trick event. They did such a good job with the music in general, and it's great to see it all remain intact in 2026.
4. Over 20 Years Later, It's Still Arguably The Best & Most Beloved Snowboarding Game
We've had quite a lot of snowboarding games since SSX 3 first hit the mountain in 2003, but there's a reason people keep talking about it and keep going back to this one in particular. The gameplay has that Tony Hawk style of addictiveness to it — anyone can pick up and play to a degree, but there's an absolute ton of depth if you're willing to master the controls, and it strikes a nice balance between feeling realistic in some ways, but mainly prioritising fun and the ability to let your imagination run wild in terms of the tricks you can perform.
I will say that I don't think it has a good onboarding system though — you're literally just dropped onto the mountain with no real indication of how to play, and the controls for the Xbox version in particular are awkward to learn at first. That's why I've included the "Basics of SSX 3" video up above, which I think is a must-watch if you've never played SSX 3 before. Once it all clicks, which maybe will take an hour-or-two, you should start to pull off some cool maneuvers and hopefully begin to understand the game's true appeal for its devoted fanbase.
5. It's Really Cheap These Days (And Hasn't Been Delisted Either!)
SSX 3 is obviously an old game now, so it's not going to break the bank. The digital version is £9.99 / $9.99 on the Xbox Store, and it works across Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Alternatively, if you have a console with a disc drive, you can go and grab the original physical copy of SSX 3 and it'll still work in your modern console.
As far as I know, SSX 3 very rarely gets discounted on the Xbox Store, and it's definitely not part of the EA Play or Xbox Game Pass subscription services at the time of writing. SSX from 2012 is part of the EA Play and Game Pass libraries though, so you can always go and try that one instead, but it wasn't anywhere near as well-received as SSX 3.
For me personally, I bought SSX 3 at full price almost a decade ago, and ignored the game for the most part until this year. That's the way it goes sometimes — but I'm really glad I've finally started to discover its charm thanks to backwards compatibility!