Big Air in China - Murray's Sly 3 challenge on PS3

I was nearly at 100% for Sly 3 on the PS3 just that trophy and the platinum one would be mine. All that lay between me and it was Murray's Master Thief Challenge in the episode "A Cold Alliance" namely "Big Air in China". Murray the big pink hippo has a Ball Move that allows him to bounce around, the mechanics are simple - use the analogue stick to move and hit the X button just as you hit the ground so as to rebound; yeah simple...

The challenge is to hit three way-points without taking any damage; so no going into water, no landing on explosive barrels, no being hit by any enemies. Oh and all this within a time limit.

On the PS2 this was quite simple provided you timed your X button presses and looked out below - on the PS3 this is soul-crushing. Some online sites suggest they've changed the height of Murray's maximum bounce. I'm not sure; try bouncing on some of the highest points and you can only go so far up. I think there's a ceiling in place and sadly it's not that far above the way-points you're supposed to reach.

So you start high up and the first challenge is to bounce up to a pagoda that's almost as high as your starting point, but first you need to make it across the stilt houses on water. Land on the walkway of the closest then do the same for the next avoiding the sloped roofs as they can both bounce you in the wrong direction and mistime the X button press. Land on the closest flat part of the pagoda roof directly next to the target pagoda or the ground next to it, then onto the one to the right, then up to the rock ledge. If your bounce is good it should take only one or two bounces to be high enough to reach the top and the target.

Do NOT attempt to bounce up the pagoda. Each tier overlaps and you'll waste a lot of time trying to curve around the roof edge.

From the pagoda you're heading towards General Tsao's palace. Head for the archway, you can save a bounce if you can land on the sloped roof of the arch and be directed closer to the wall; if you miss remember the explosive barrels on the left in the depressed section. Avoid the trampoline they don't work and mess up your bounce. Over the wall and you may hit the top roof in one bounce or you may need to bounce off the lower tier. Hit the next way-point. Don't dawdle as there's an enemy on the roof and you don't want any damage.

A choice of two routes here. One over water one over land. Water's quicker but I'll take the land. Head off the roof towards the left side entrance; bounce over the bridge and head left to the bell. Bounce off the bell pavilion roof and onto the snowy slope. The last way-point is on the top of this cliff and this is where the fun lies.

Your ball height is not that much greater than the ledge and there's no intermediary steps. Logically you should get as close to the cliff face and keep bouncing then inch over. Sadly some %$*&% designer has made the base of the face slightly sloping outwards along with the snow; get too close on the way down and you'll either slide down the face and lose your momentum or you'll hit the snow slope and... lose your momentum.

There are two ways of doing this 1) keep bouncing and when you hit maximum push inwards as you travel up on the next bounce and hope you hit the ledge; 2) at the maximum height turn off ball move (L1 by default) and double jump towards the ledge. The second method is slightly easier. I did it the hard way [sigh].

Then congratulations every other challenge should seem a doddle after this.

As an aside is it just me or do you get a higher bounce when you hit X as you land on an enemy?