The Powerpuff Girls Snowboarding

Who hasn’t enjoyed the magic of the Saturday morning cartoon? That special time before you have to get out of bed/go shopping/accept you have a hangover (delete as appropriate) contains the greatest concentration of kids’ entertainment known to man. Part of the fun-loving fraternity that includes the likes of Spongebob and Yu-Gi-Oh are the Powerpuff Girls, a triplet of feisty, yet cute, girls thwarting the nefarious schemes of a collection of bonkers bad guys.

How they're taking on the world's evil and fighting injustice by sliding on a board down a snowy slope is never fully explained, but we're prepared to let that slip as not only is the game pretty darn good, but all of three of the little cherubs are oh so cute! Taking on the role of Blossom, Bubbles or Buttercup, you're presented with three different mountains to snowboard down. Each peak is made up of four different stages, each stage with a set of objectives you must meet to unlock the next stage. Simple, yes, but it’s surprisingly compelling: in one stage you might have to perform 10 board-grabs and 10 back flips, whilst another sees you desperately trying to collect 50 balloons.

Viewed from the side, your chosen girl zips down the mountainside, over ramps, avoiding boulders and grinding along handy railings. The controls are really responsive, which is crucial as the game is always asking you to think about what you will need to do next: "Do I follow up that back flip with a board grab or go for the front-flip then grind the railing?" Apart from progressing, further rewards for ‘extreme gnarliness’ are delivered by the jump meter and course score. Net enough jumps and grinds without falling off your board and you fill up the jump meter. When this is full, you can slow down time, Matrix-style, cramming in yet more moves and enabling you to judge the perfect landing, netting you a ‘combo bonus’ for even more points! You're then free to record your name by the stage high-score for that warm glow inside.

PPG Snowboarding certainly looks good, with different animations for each girl and a fast pace down the slopes. If there’s one criticism to be made, it’s that there's very little variation in the backdrops, which can make it seem like you’re always shooting down the same bit of mountainside. The sound is also pretty good; the girls’ catchy theme tune is present and correct, together with a range of bombastic tunes to accompany the action.

All in all, this makes for a great game. It won't last for ever (what does?) but the difficulty increases at a good pace and there’s always replay value in trying to top your previous best scores by pulling off increasingly impressive stunts. Just watch out Mojo Jojo doesn’t get you!