Three peaks of one mountain replace the course menu in SSX 3, EA Canada's connected snowboard descent. A rider in the 2003 entry can drop from the summit toward the village without loading a separate run.
Tricks, a boost meter, and rival boarders still score the descent. Lodges on the way down are both checkpoints and the place a new board gets bought, which makes the mountain a place rather than a loading screen with snow.
Earlier SSX games picked a track and then raced it. The third entry's map is the whole alp, and bailing near the bottom means a long climb back in spirit if not on foot.