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EA Sports Big have pretty much had the Midas Touch when it comes to PS2 games with excellent titles such as NBA Street, SSX and SSX Tricky already under their belt. Their newest title, Sled Storm 2, is the sequel to the PlayStation classic and after spending several hours with an alpha version it looks as if EA Sports Big's streak of producing top notch titles is set to continue.

The first thing that hit me when I loaded up the game was the graphical style – it's very much like SSX with the same style of pseudo-anime characters, the same polished menus, and even when you get onto the race tracks the sweeping pre-race camera shots are much like those in SSX and its sequel. Sled Storm 2 also features a slightly similar control set-up: Triangle, L2 & R2 for tricks, L1 & R1 to lean left or right, X is accelerate, Square is brake, and Circle for a S.T.O.R.M. boost. The Storm boost is much like a regular speed burst and like in SSX you can fill up your Storm boost meter by doing tricks, however you can also fill it up by smashing obstacles such as signposts and barriers as you make your way around the courses.

Once the races start and you squeeze the throttle, comparisons to SSX get pretty much thrown out the window. Even at the Alpha stage Sled Storm 2 is blazingly fast - there's still a tad bit of slowdown when four or five sleds are on screen at one time, though with a March release date there's still time for EA Sports Big to put this right. Regardless, the speed in Sled Storm is quite staggering especially when you consider the high quality of the trackside details and great lighting effects. Control is very tight and the races are fast and furious with lots of wheel to…er…I mean ski-to-ski action and aggressive AI riders. The best part about the racing has to be the incredible courses. Much like the original these courses are just littered with, quite literally, dozens of shortcuts. After several solid hours of play I haven't successfully navigated all the shortcuts on even the first track! The track locations range from the Canadian wilderness to a iceberg in Bermuda (it was towed there) that puts the 'Aloha Ice Jam' in SSX to shame. My favorite track so far has to be 'Rumble Ridge' in the South American Andes which goes around and through an ancient temple complete with a recently exploded volcano nearby and of course several dangerous jumps over streams and pools of lava! The tracks are massive and take around 4 minutes or so per lap if you don't use any shortcuts. Speaking of shortcuts I also think it's great that the opposing riders all use a lot of these alternate routes and at first I found myself getting utterly destroyed by the CPU riders when I just stuck to the defined track. It's a shocking experience to be riding down the bottom of a canyon alone in first place, wondering where the other 5 riders are just before seeing 2 snowmobiles fly across the top of the canyon into first and second place before another one flies right over you landing into third! The shortcuts themselves are all really exciting and interesting (just before sitting down to write this preview I found a shortcut that took me onto the deck of the ship that was towing the iceberg in the Bermuda course) and the more time the shortcut saves, the more risky it is.

Sled Storm 2's championship mode allows you to unlock other riders (only two are available at first) and more tracks, while points received for performing tricks and smashing obstacles can be used to unlock snowmobile enhancements as well as brand new sleds. As I mentioned before, the graphics are very impressive (though I hope EA Sports Big can get rid of the slowdown for the final release), while the sound is also done really well with a great selection of dance/techno tunes, excellent voices for each of the 8 riders and the 2 hilarious pre-race announcers, and some great in-race sound effects.

Even at this early alpha stage I've been really impressed with Sled Storm 2. While SSX and SSX Tricky were both excellent titles, the emphasis was just as much on tricks as it was on racing and I'm more of a traditional racing fan than a snowboarding one. With Sled Storm 2 you get the same brilliant graphical style as SSX but with even better courses and exciting, addictive, arcade-style racing action. Sled Storm 2 is slated for a late March release and I can't wait!