SSX on Tour is a snowboarding and skiing sports game developed by EA Canada and published by EA Sports BIG, released across all major platforms of the 2005 era: Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PlayStation Portable. The fifth main entry in EA’s SSX series, it’s the direct successor to SSX 3 (2003) and one of the last titles in the franchise’s original run.

This isn’t a Mario game — it’s a real snowboarding sports title with an original cast, mountain racing, freestyle tricks, and a campaign mode about climbing the global racer rankings. But the GameCube version is exclusively bundled with one of the most striking Mario crossover deals of the era.

SSX on Tour came out in October 2005 — eight months after NBA Street V3 and at the tail end of the GameCube’s commercial run as Nintendo prepared to launch the Wii. It would be the second and final EA Sports BIG title to feature the Mario trio, and arguably the higher-profile of the two thanks to the Japanese co-branding.

The three playable Nintendo characters in SSX on Tour are the same trio that appeared in NBA Street V3 earlier in 2005 — Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach, modelled in EA Canada’s SSX house art style.

How they look

The trio appear in snow-appropriate variations of their standard outfits. Mario wears his red cap and overalls with added winter layers; Luigi gets a green snowsuit with his trademark cap; Peach wears a custom pink snow ensemble that retains her signature dress silhouette. Their character models are fully rigged for SSX-style ski and snowboard animation, including all the standard tricks and grinds.

What they can do

The Nintendo trio participate in every game mode available to the rest of the cast: race courses, freestyle competitions, Big Air events, the global Tour campaign mode, and head-to-head local multiplayer. They can perform all the standard SSX tricks — rail grinds, halfpipe jumps, monster tricks, signature combos — with full animation work.

Screenshots in action

This is one of the very few games where you can see Princess Peach pulling off a 720 with grab variations against an EA-licensed pro snowboarder.

The Nintendo Village is a fully custom snowboarding course designed around the Super Mario universe, exclusive to the GameCube version of SSX on Tour.

Design

• Super Mario themed environment throughout — Mushroom Kingdom architecture, themed scenery and props, recognisable Mario-universe visual cues lining the course
• The course features both daytime and nighttime variants, each with distinct lighting, atmosphere, and visual treatment
• Standard SSX run length and difficulty curve, but with Mushroom Kingdom dressing throughout
• Available as a selectable course in race, freestyle and tour modes once unlocked

Day & Night Variants

Mechanically the Nintendo Village runs the same as any other SSX on Tour course — it’s a visual reskin rather than a gameplay variant. But for Mario fans the atmosphere is unique: watching Mario or Luigi shred a black-diamond run through what looks like a snow-dusted version of the Mushroom Kingdom, with day-to-night transitions, is a one-of-a-kind moment in Nintendo cross-publisher history. It pairs perfectly with the Nintendo Court from NBA Street V3 as the two Mario-themed venues EA created for the GameCube exclusives.

The Japanese release of SSX on Tour on GameCube goes further than any other regional version in foregrounding the Mario content. The game shipped under the official title “SSX On Tour with マリオ” (SSX On Tour with Mario) — the only EA Sports release in history to feature Mario as a co-headliner on its official box title.

Japan-Specific Differences

• The box title itself reads “SSX On Tour with Mario” — not just a sticker, the entire title bar of the cover features the wording
• Box art features Mario prominently alongside the SSX logo, rather than tucked away as a bonus feature
• Japanese marketing materials heavily emphasised the Mario inclusion as a primary selling point
• Japan released the game on 24 November 2005, several weeks after the North American and European releases
• Otherwise the game content is identical to the NA/PAL GameCube versions — same Nintendo Village, same Mario/Luigi/Peach playable trio

The Japanese co-branding underlines just how committed Nintendo Japan was to the EA partnership during this period. The fact that EA was willing to put “with Mario” on the box of a flagship EA Sports BIG title in their second-biggest market is a striking moment of brand cooperation, especially given EA’s historically prickly Nintendo relationship through the GameCube era.

The Nintendo trio and the Nintendo Village course are unlockable in SSX on Tour — you don’t start the game with them available.

Unlocking Mario, Luigi & Peach

• The Nintendo trio are unlocked by progressing through SSX on Tour’s main career campaign (sometimes called “Tour” or “Rockstar” mode depending on regional manual)
• Specifically, players need to reach a certain rank threshold in the global racer rankings before the Nintendo characters become selectable
• Once unlocked, all three characters are available together across every game mode — race, freestyle, Tour, multiplayer
• Mario typically unlocks first, followed by Luigi and then Peach as the campaign progresses further

Unlocking the Nintendo Village

• The Nintendo Village course is unlocked separately, typically through completion of specific Tour mode milestones
• Once unlocked, both the day and night variants become permanently available in the course selection
• Some events specifically take place on Nintendo Village once unlocked, factoring it into the campaign’s later stages

Tips for Unlocking

• Focus on Tour mode as your priority — it’s the unlocking path for the Nintendo content
• Earn medals across multiple event types rather than focusing on one discipline — ranking up is broader than just race wins
• The Nintendo unlocks are tied to your save file specifically — a fresh save resets the requirement
• Performing high-scoring trick lines speeds up rank progression in freestyle events

The Nintendo cameos in SSX on Tour are the second half of an EA × Nintendo cross-promotional deal in the late GameCube era. The first half was NBA Street V3, released eight months earlier.

The Deal

• EA had a strained working relationship with Nintendo through much of the GameCube era — the third-party publisher famously skipped releasing key franchises on the platform for stretches at a time
• Nintendo wanted EA back on GameCube with major sports titles — EA Sports was the dominant sports gaming brand of the era
• As part of the renewed publishing relationship, EA agreed to include Nintendo-exclusive content in the GameCube versions of certain multi-platform games — a way for Nintendo to differentiate its versions of EA Sports BIG titles and incentivise GameCube purchases
• The Nintendo content varied by title: NBA Street V3 got the Mario trio and Nintendo Court; SSX on Tour got the same trio and Nintendo Village
• The Japanese SSX on Tour additionally received co-branding rights for the box title, going further than any other deal point in either game

Why It Was Significant

This was an unusual deal at the time. Nintendo first-party IP — especially Mario, Luigi and Peach — is tightly controlled. Allowing a third-party publisher to model and animate these characters in non-Nintendo developed games was a rare licensing arrangement, and the fact that EA could put “with Mario” in the box title in Japan represents the deepest brand cooperation Nintendo had ever extended to a third-party EA-published game outside of Smash Bros. crossovers.

What Happened After

The deal ended with these two titles. EA and Nintendo continued working together on the Wii (and subsequent platforms) for FIFA, Madden and other sports releases, but the Mario-as-cameo arrangement did not continue. NBA Street V3 and SSX on Tour remain the only two EA Sports BIG titles to feature Mario cameos as core content.

The companion to SSX on Tour in the EA × Nintendo deal was NBA Street V3, released by EA Sports BIG in February 2005 on GameCube, Xbox and PS2.

What NBA Street V3 Got

• Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach as a playable team called the Nintendo All-Stars — EXACTLY the same Nintendo trio that appears in SSX on Tour later in the year
• A custom basketball court called the Nintendo Court, themed around Mario universe visuals
• The cameos are exclusive to the GameCube version, with Xbox getting SpongeBob characters and PS2 getting Master Chief instead

The Mario / Luigi / Peach Pattern

It’s notable that EA chose the exact same Mario/Luigi/Peach trio for both NBA Street V3 and SSX on Tour. This wasn’t a coincidence — it’s a deliberate Nintendo-EA brand choice. The Mario Bros + Princess Peach trio is the most marketable Mario character lineup outside the Mario Party ensemble cast: instantly recognisable, family-friendly, and easy for non-Mario fans to identify with from box art alone. Together these two games established a brief but striking template for Mario-as-cameo in EA Sports BIG titles.

For the basketball half of the EA × Nintendo deal, see our NBA Street V3 page on this site.

The core gameplay of SSX on Tour is downhill snowboarding and skiing in the EA Sports BIG arcade tradition — over-the-top, trick-heavy, and rooted in racer-ranking progression rather than simulation realism. This applies whether you’re playing as one of the original SSX cast members or as the Nintendo trio.

Core Mechanics

• Race mode — head-to-head downhill races against other riders. Win medals based on finishing position
• Freestyle events — trick-based scoring rather than racing. Rail grinds, halfpipe combos, monster tricks, signature moves earn points
• Big Air — launch off a massive ramp and string together as many tricks as possible before landing
• Tour mode — SSX on Tour’s career campaign. Build a career as a global racer, climb the rankings, unlock new courses and characters (including the Nintendo trio)
• Character editor — create custom riders with appearance, stats, and signature trick configurations
• Snowboard or ski selection — unlike earlier SSX titles, players can choose between snowboarding and skiing as their discipline, with each character having a preferred style

Trick System

Tricks are performed via combinations of the analog stick, A/B/X/Y buttons, and the shoulder triggers during jumps. Successful combos build up the Rockstar meter, which when full unleashes signature super-tricks for huge points. The character can be steered mid-air for precise landing setups.

Game Modes

• Quick Race — jump into any course with any unlocked rider
• Tour — main career mode and the unlocking path for Nintendo content
• Slope-style / Halfpipe events — freestyle competition
• Local Multiplayer — 1-2 players head-to-head on split screen

SSX on Tour was the fifth main entry in EA’s SSX snowboarding franchise, and one of the last titles in the original series before its mid-2000s hiatus.

Series History

• SSX (2000) — the original. PlayStation 2 launch title. Established the trick-heavy snowboarding template
• SSX Tricky (2001) — PS2/GameCube/Xbox. The series breakout hit; introduced the signature Run-DMC “It’s Tricky” soundtrack tie-in
• SSX 3 (2003) — PS2/GameCube/Xbox. Critically acclaimed; the direct predecessor to SSX on Tour
• SSX on Tour (2005) — the Mario-cameo entry. PS2/GameCube/Xbox/PSP
• SSX Blur (2007) — Wii exclusive. Used Wii motion controls. No Mario content
• SSX (2012 reboot) — PS3/Xbox 360. Full series reboot

SSX on Tour’s Place

SSX on Tour came out at an awkward moment for the franchise: the GameCube era was winding down, the PSP was new, and EA was preparing the series for next-gen platforms. Critical reception was mixed-to-positive rather than the universal acclaim of earlier entries, with reviewers praising the trick system and Tour mode but feeling the series was beginning to feel formulaic. The Mario cameos in the GameCube version were genuinely well-received by Nintendo fans and added notable value to that platform’s edition.

• Developer: EA Canada (Vancouver studio)
• Publisher: EA Sports BIG (the EA sublabel responsible for arcade-style sports titles including NBA Street, NFL Street, NBA Live, and the SSX series)
• NA Distribution: Electronic Arts
• JP Distribution: Nintendo (Japan only) — Nintendo handled distribution of the “with Mario” Japanese version
• Series Director Heritage: EA Canada had been developing the SSX series since the 2000 original; the same studio handled all main entries through SSX Blur
• Nintendo Cameos License: Granted by Nintendo as part of the EA × Nintendo cross-promotional deal
• Rating: ESRB E10+ (Everyone 10+); CERO All Ages (Japan); PEGI 3+ (Europe)

• SSX on Tour is the only SSX game with Mario cameos. Earlier entries (SSX, Tricky, 3) had no Nintendo characters; later entries (Blur, 2012 reboot) also lack them. The cameos are platform-and-deal specific to the 2005 GameCube version
• The Japanese release is titled “SSX On Tour with Mario” on the box — the only EA Sports release in history to feature Mario as a co-headliner in the title itself
• Same Mario trio as NBA Street V3: Mario, Luigi, Peach. EA chose the same lineup for both titles — a deliberate brand choice for marketing simplicity
• The Nintendo Village course has both day and night variants, offering two visual presentations of the same Mushroom Kingdom-themed course
• NBA Street V3 (Feb 2005) and SSX on Tour (Oct 2005) are the only two EA Sports BIG titles ever to feature Mario cameos. The arrangement did not extend to FIFA, Madden, NHL, or any other EA sports series
• Unlike NBA Street V3, which gave its non-GameCube platforms exclusive cameos (SpongeBob on Xbox, Master Chief on PS2), SSX on Tour’s PS2, Xbox and PSP versions don’t have any equivalent celebrity cameo content — the Mario inclusion was specifically a GameCube-only carrot
• Mario, Luigi and Peach are voiced for the game: Mario uses standard Charles Martinet vocal effects, Luigi uses Charles Martinet’s Luigi voice, and Peach uses her standard Nintendo voice patterns. EA was given access to the standard Nintendo voice clip libraries
• The character models for the trio are custom EA Canada art, modelled in the SSX house style rather than imported directly from Nintendo asset libraries. Their proportions and posing match the SSX cast’s stylised look
• Princess Peach on a snowboard remains one of the more unexpected images in Mario history — the SSX on Tour Peach screenshots are widely circulated in retro Mario discussion online
• SSX on Tour was the fifth main entry in the SSX series and the last on GameCube; SSX Blur followed in 2007 on Wii without any Nintendo character cameos
• The Nintendo Village course is exclusive to the GameCube version; no equivalent course exists on any other platform’s release of SSX on Tour
• The EA × Nintendo deal is sometimes cited as a turning point in the EA-Nintendo relationship of the era — it helped restore EA Sports presence on Nintendo platforms after a difficult GameCube period, and laid groundwork for the smoother Wii-era cooperation that followed
• The game features a character editor mode allowing players to design their own racers. While Mario, Luigi and Peach themselves are pre-made models, custom characters can still race against and alongside them in any mode
• SSX on Tour was rated E10+ in North America — a step above the SSX series’ earlier T (Teen) ratings, reflecting the toned-down attitude of this entry compared to SSX Tricky’s more punk-rock presentation
• The Mario cameos in SSX on Tour represent the last time Mario, Luigi and Peach appeared together as playable characters in a fully third-party-developed sports game until much later cross-publisher arrangements (such as Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games with SEGA starting in 2007)

Sub-pages, guides, and related cross-publisher Mario cameo content.

Box art gallery and screenshots for SSX on Tour (with a focus on the GameCube version and its Mario cameos).