Dark Summit set around Mt. Garrick, is a snowboarding game with a twist and twirl in its tale, you assume the role of Naya who appears to be a simple gal with not to many worries in the world, but wait the evil chief O' Leary of Mt, Garrick is trying to stop boarders on the mountain but why the borders and why try so hard?

Dark Summit is simply a break from the normal extreme sports genre and assumes the role of the first mission based snowboarding title on the market yet retaining all the tweaks, flips, kicks and grabs of more traditional titles, during the game you are presented with various tasks which you must complete to gain points, gaining points gains you access to ski-lifts which will take you further up the mountain and closer to your goal. Whilst performing the tasks you will also be able to pull of a variety of tricks 'and we all know what tricks makeö 'Prizesö from pulling of tricks and stunts you will gain points towards better equipment which in turn will improve your performance and aid you in your quest.

From the off Dark Summit is quite a visually impressive although not groundbreaking for the Xbox and slight pop up but these are not quite as bad as I experienced whilst at the X01 event playing earlier code of the title, occasionally you will also experience mysterious disappearing items but this is quite rare and generally unnoticeable, all that said about the graphics from dark Summit they are however clear, sharp and very bright, the characters both good and evil are very well designed and fit in very nicely, The snow effects as you cut your way through are good enough and some nice particle effects have been used when you turn sharp on the edge of your board.

The setting of Mt. Garrick is very well designed, the actual mountain is huge and offers plenty of opportunity to pull off and bust your next big move, the sound is generally quite good with a good balance between bass and a slight touch of techno, again nothing original but if a formula is not broken why fix it? The controls in Dark Summit are quite simple which make the game easy enough to pick up and play which is always a good thing, an interesting feature of the game is before you can pull of some cool button bashing combo tricks you must first find them, this is a matter of finding keys which unlock a variety of special tricks which in turn earn you higher scores and better equipment. Again a nice blend between exploration, and a story mission based title.

Although Dark Summit is mission based and involves a certain element of exploration the game is full of big tricks and prizes, again a blend of genres, which the game does do quite well. The game is overall an interesting title, may not appeal to everyone and has certain but generally acceptable flaws when upgrading your equipment I felt that there was not enough boards and gear and that no major noticeable differences were noticed once upgraded, after all it was hard enough earning the upgrade so I actually wanted to notice the difference, which I didn't really and found disappointing.

Multiplayer in Dark Summit offers 3 modes, Half Pipe Battle, Wrecking Ball and Race to the bottom, Wrecking ball is good fun and where both player must destroy as many objects as possible on their way down the slope, Race to the bottom is as it implies a simple sprint to the finish head to head race from the top to the bottom of the hill and Half Pipe battle which is simply a split screen competition within a half pipe pull off the most & biggest tricks to win. All 3 modes offer a good multiplayer challenge and will keep you and your friends amused for a fair few hours.

Overall Radical Entertainment and THQ have produced a quality launch title in Dark Summit which is a very good attempt at a new slant on a proven genre and theme, the game offers a unique experience throughout the game and although nothing overly impressive graphically (and would appear simple enough to port over to a PS2) we have to remember this is a launch title and only better will follow on the Xbox, this alone is warming thought to me. Full marks must be given to the developers and publishers for there attempt at breaking the mould which overall they achieved well.