SSX (Multi Platform, Reviewed on XBOX360)
When you speak of videogames, you think of extra lives, raiding tombs and escorting plumbers and blue porcine creatures from left to right, to save a princess, animals, or a winged alien who is the head of a cosmetics company. Seldom do you think of sports, however EA Games have continually tried to make sports titles, year in year out, with the churning machine that is the FIFA franchise, the relentless assault from the American Football field, and the NBA Basketball games, they kind of have the market cornered. A long long time ago, they took a dive into the snowy worlds of winter sports, namely, the SSX series. Taking over from where Cool Boarders, 1080 Snowboarding and Ski Free left off, the SSX games were massively popular, and welcomed with open arms as a highly detailed but very arcadey feeling sports game, that allowed mental tricks, blistering speeds and exploration of the most dangerous imaginary and real world peaks out there.
Snowboarding games always interested me, and SSX3 was the culmination of my obsession, being as close to perfection as a snowboarding game could get. I played this game for hours on end through university, constantly resetting the Metro City peak as me and my mate started out with a fist fight, or missing the perfect line down the left side, where all the most dangerous gaps were. It was really a fantastic game, and since then, SSX games have been very poor by comparison. The series staled, and I lost interest, turning my eyes to Shaun White, which was fun, but not enough to keep me into for the long haul. I then read that a new game was on it's way, under various different names, but the main point that stood out to me when hearing of this title was that it was going to be a return to it's roots. I told myself that EA had spurned me before, and that I shouldn't let myself get hurt again, my heart was stamped on too many times by the previous poor attempts at sequels, but that little spark inside me was lit once more, and anticipation began building. Boy was I in for a surprise...
Snowboarding games always interested me, and SSX3 was the culmination of my obsession, being as close to perfection as a snowboarding game could get. I played this game for hours on end through university, constantly resetting the Metro City peak as me and my mate started out with a fist fight, or missing the perfect line down the left side, where all the most dangerous gaps were. It was really a fantastic game, and since then, SSX games have been very poor by comparison. The series staled, and I lost interest, turning my eyes to Shaun White, which was fun, but not enough to keep me into for the long haul. I then read that a new game was on it's way, under various different names, but the main point that stood out to me when hearing of this title was that it was going to be a return to it's roots. I told myself that EA had spurned me before, and that I shouldn't let myself get hurt again, my heart was stamped on too many times by the previous poor attempts at sequels, but that little spark inside me was lit once more, and anticipation began building. Boy was I in for a surprise...
First Impressions
After a long wait and some underworld trading, my copy of SSX landed in my mailbox yesterday morning. A long day of work followed, as after playing the demo, I was very very excited to get my gnarly on. Installed the game with no issues (remember installing 360 games removes the noise the console makes, and extends the life of it dramatically), and after a short update, was greeted with the automatic EA Origin login screen, and as my details were already on the system, it logs me in, and prompts me for my online password. Not a problem, in it goes, the little downloadable pops up, I have my online pass, and the game takes me through the tutorial section. Annoying as it was in the demo, it's no different now, but for a first time player it is good enough to get you to grips with the 2 different control styles, and shows you the basics of whats to come, as you free fall down to your first tutorial peak. The game then sends you down a simple run, teaching you jumps, tricks, tweaking and how to rewind the game if you make a mistake. I am not sure if this section was skippable as I just plowed through, but for veterans to the series, it is a little like being taught to suck eggs, but a small complaint with what is otherwise a class act so far. The controls are feathertouch responsive, the moves are varied and very customisable, and the slopes are beautifully designed, so alls going well. I notice at this point that the game is very much as it was hyped, in that it feels just like SSX3 in both looks and control, with the tricky bar at the bottom of the screen and the music reacting to your jumps, getting quieter as you reach the peak of your elevation, and slamming back to full volume when you land.
Navigating the menus I found a little unclear, as there is a lot of sparkly effects but it can be difficult to see what you are selecting sometimes, and the gear selection is overwhelming. I believe there is just too much to choose from, in a negative way, as it doesn't seem to end.
Stepping into this game, im happy with the purchase and enjoying it, it lives up to the hype, but there are still a few things it's missing, which I will cover further ahead.
Navigating the menus I found a little unclear, as there is a lot of sparkly effects but it can be difficult to see what you are selecting sometimes, and the gear selection is overwhelming. I believe there is just too much to choose from, in a negative way, as it doesn't seem to end.
Stepping into this game, im happy with the purchase and enjoying it, it lives up to the hype, but there are still a few things it's missing, which I will cover further ahead.
Gameplay
At first, I was a little confused as to what each goal was on a map. Was I supposed to be tricking, surviving or racing here? Eventually I worked it out from the rank list in the top right, but it's not always clear what you are actually doing. As I got into the game though, I discovered 3 game modes.
World Tour is the meat and potatoes of the solo game. Here is your single player experience, and you conquering the storyline. You face off against Griff, a mildly annoying character from the previous games, who is always just a few steps ahead of you, with the goal of conquering 9 of the worlds most deadly descents. These mountains take you through a brief explanation of the hazards to be found and then walk you through them as you race and trick, and finally survive the most dangerous parts of the peaks. I found the Deadly Descents to be a nice change from the normal top to bottom holding boost type runs, as each jump requires a precision line up and sometimes if your racing line is just a little wonky, you are heading down into an abyss. This is one of the few games where a rewind function is actually useful, and thankfully is in place, allowing you to pull yourself back up the slope to the point just before it all started to go pear shaped and line yourself up better. During these rewinds you also have the option to drop Geotags, which are a core focus in the multiplayer game experience, as you see everyones dropped Geotag, and gain credits by picking up other peoples. The World Tour is huge, spanning across 9 mountain ranges, each consisting of usually 3 peaks, split up into multiple "drops". Basically you get plonked at different drop points along each run, giving you access to different areas of each slope, depending on which kind of race you are doing.
Next up is Explore. This mode is your standard time trials and friends based multiplayer. You can run every peak in the game, using the large range of characters available (each one having their own storyline and reason to be tackling the slopes, and able to be levelled up individually), setting your times on each run, allowing your friends to then race your ghost and beat the times. Even though the back of the box misleadingly teases, there is no direct multiplayer, head to head or versus mode in this game. I don't know what EA were thinking when that decision was made, as the core mechanic of any sports game is competition. Nothing gives you more satisfaction than beating your friends directly on a slope in SSX3, but no, they seem to have decided that ghosts are enough, but I strongly disagree. I was immensely let down when I found this out, but get the feeling it may be coming in the future as paid for DLC, which while I am not happy about paying for it again, if it comes out, then fine, good. One thing I really liked though, in lieu of the omitted multiplayer, was the menu screen itself here, which shows, when connected to the internet, all your current best times, and alerts you when a friend has beaten one, as well as telling you when your friend has placed a Geotag to be collected, and which peak it's on. It also tells you if anyone in the world has picked up one of your tags, and how much money it awarded you (they increase in value, the longer they remain untouched).
Finally there is the Global Events section, which pit you (again, against ghosts) against the rest of the SSX playerbases best times on either globally ran racing, tricking, survival objectives, or custom made events that you and your friends list can challenge each other with. I saw that option and got so excited, thinking I had finally found a multiplayer head to head mode, but alas, no, ghosts again. The global events themselves are fun, always putting you against someone who is just a few seconds faster than your best time, which kind of conditions you to getting a little bit better each run, and once you beat that one, your next fastest opponent appears, and so on I would guess until you rank 1st in the world.
World Tour is the meat and potatoes of the solo game. Here is your single player experience, and you conquering the storyline. You face off against Griff, a mildly annoying character from the previous games, who is always just a few steps ahead of you, with the goal of conquering 9 of the worlds most deadly descents. These mountains take you through a brief explanation of the hazards to be found and then walk you through them as you race and trick, and finally survive the most dangerous parts of the peaks. I found the Deadly Descents to be a nice change from the normal top to bottom holding boost type runs, as each jump requires a precision line up and sometimes if your racing line is just a little wonky, you are heading down into an abyss. This is one of the few games where a rewind function is actually useful, and thankfully is in place, allowing you to pull yourself back up the slope to the point just before it all started to go pear shaped and line yourself up better. During these rewinds you also have the option to drop Geotags, which are a core focus in the multiplayer game experience, as you see everyones dropped Geotag, and gain credits by picking up other peoples. The World Tour is huge, spanning across 9 mountain ranges, each consisting of usually 3 peaks, split up into multiple "drops". Basically you get plonked at different drop points along each run, giving you access to different areas of each slope, depending on which kind of race you are doing.
Next up is Explore. This mode is your standard time trials and friends based multiplayer. You can run every peak in the game, using the large range of characters available (each one having their own storyline and reason to be tackling the slopes, and able to be levelled up individually), setting your times on each run, allowing your friends to then race your ghost and beat the times. Even though the back of the box misleadingly teases, there is no direct multiplayer, head to head or versus mode in this game. I don't know what EA were thinking when that decision was made, as the core mechanic of any sports game is competition. Nothing gives you more satisfaction than beating your friends directly on a slope in SSX3, but no, they seem to have decided that ghosts are enough, but I strongly disagree. I was immensely let down when I found this out, but get the feeling it may be coming in the future as paid for DLC, which while I am not happy about paying for it again, if it comes out, then fine, good. One thing I really liked though, in lieu of the omitted multiplayer, was the menu screen itself here, which shows, when connected to the internet, all your current best times, and alerts you when a friend has beaten one, as well as telling you when your friend has placed a Geotag to be collected, and which peak it's on. It also tells you if anyone in the world has picked up one of your tags, and how much money it awarded you (they increase in value, the longer they remain untouched).
Finally there is the Global Events section, which pit you (again, against ghosts) against the rest of the SSX playerbases best times on either globally ran racing, tricking, survival objectives, or custom made events that you and your friends list can challenge each other with. I saw that option and got so excited, thinking I had finally found a multiplayer head to head mode, but alas, no, ghosts again. The global events themselves are fun, always putting you against someone who is just a few seconds faster than your best time, which kind of conditions you to getting a little bit better each run, and once you beat that one, your next fastest opponent appears, and so on I would guess until you rank 1st in the world.
Characters
The series has a group of returning faces, as well as a few new ones in the mix each time, all having their own personality traits, but as with most sports games, it isn't built around character design and story progression, it's all about getting faster, trickier and over all, better at the game, but this isn't to say EA haven't made a noticable effort in making the characters a little less flat than in previous outings.
As you progress through the World Tour mode, you play as Zoe Payne (aka Royal Payne). She is American, in her late twenties and the co-founder of the SSX group. According to her tag line, she is a motocross legend and "loves to beat the boys". Meh, generic power woman type in sports games, not really going any deeper than that, she is a snowboarder and you make her go from high up top on a mountain, to not so high up. I don't really need to know her favorite alcohol or where she summers, but I do give Kudos to the developers for giving you a little backstory, which can be skipped if you only care about racing. Zoe meets a different friend on each slope, having been assigned out to the different peaks based on their individual skill set, for example, Kaori is experienced at riding in high altitudes, so she gets to be the one you use for the Oxygen events (you have an oxygen tank on your back which you need to keep sucking air through as you descend, or you black out). Each of the 10 characters has their own gnarly and righteous reasons for tearing up the slopes, but none were very memorable, nor did I care much to learn more about them. Their design, physically though, is nicely inkeeping with the games look and feel, as while very detailed, they all maintain a slightly unrealistic look, but not enough to distract you.
Each character also has an extensive wardrobe, consisting of Suit, Board, Gear, Mods and Geotag. Each slope has different obstacles that your gear can greatly increase your survival chances on. For example, on very rocky slopes, you can equip armor to give you a more durable health bar, allowing better survival on the slope, or even a wing suit for maps that have huge gaps to traverse. The most sought after of the items though is the head light, as some tracks are completely pitch black, and without a head lamp, you cannot even see your character. The suits are in their infinacy, as I have bought literally hundreds for Kaori (my character of choice thanks to the selective DLC I got for pre-ordering from Amazon) and the list offered just doesn't seem to end, most of which are just slight colour changes, however some of the high cost pieces offer various stat bonuses, or even big hand/big head mode, so there is a collectable element to each of your chosen prodiges.
As you progress through the World Tour mode, you play as Zoe Payne (aka Royal Payne). She is American, in her late twenties and the co-founder of the SSX group. According to her tag line, she is a motocross legend and "loves to beat the boys". Meh, generic power woman type in sports games, not really going any deeper than that, she is a snowboarder and you make her go from high up top on a mountain, to not so high up. I don't really need to know her favorite alcohol or where she summers, but I do give Kudos to the developers for giving you a little backstory, which can be skipped if you only care about racing. Zoe meets a different friend on each slope, having been assigned out to the different peaks based on their individual skill set, for example, Kaori is experienced at riding in high altitudes, so she gets to be the one you use for the Oxygen events (you have an oxygen tank on your back which you need to keep sucking air through as you descend, or you black out). Each of the 10 characters has their own gnarly and righteous reasons for tearing up the slopes, but none were very memorable, nor did I care much to learn more about them. Their design, physically though, is nicely inkeeping with the games look and feel, as while very detailed, they all maintain a slightly unrealistic look, but not enough to distract you.
Each character also has an extensive wardrobe, consisting of Suit, Board, Gear, Mods and Geotag. Each slope has different obstacles that your gear can greatly increase your survival chances on. For example, on very rocky slopes, you can equip armor to give you a more durable health bar, allowing better survival on the slope, or even a wing suit for maps that have huge gaps to traverse. The most sought after of the items though is the head light, as some tracks are completely pitch black, and without a head lamp, you cannot even see your character. The suits are in their infinacy, as I have bought literally hundreds for Kaori (my character of choice thanks to the selective DLC I got for pre-ordering from Amazon) and the list offered just doesn't seem to end, most of which are just slight colour changes, however some of the high cost pieces offer various stat bonuses, or even big hand/big head mode, so there is a collectable element to each of your chosen prodiges.
Design
This game is a meaty meal to take on, and in no way something anyone can sit at for a few minutes each week and feel happy with their progress. It's a monster and needs to be tamed, as you flip, spin, grind and crash your way down the mountains across the world, and graphically, it delivers in reams. It really is a beautiful game, not trying to be ultra realistic, maintaining the slightly unreal feel SSX3 had. Each peak and drop are brutally designed, giving you multiple routes, but only one thats going to net the gold, however I did feel that exploration seemed a little more limited this time around, as other than a few side caves, there isn't much deviation from the main route down the slope.
I did find my character quite often got stuck in the terrain too, after hitting a particularly solid cliff face, if there was any kind of inverted corner where I hit, I would find myself spinning infinately in place, with no option to quickly get back on the slopes, instead, having to use the rewind function to roll back, and as the function doesn't rewind the timer, it was an annoying barricade to keep getting stuck in, but as the game kept reminding me, I needed to just get better.
Overall the tracks are solid, and fun, and have enough detail to impress, but it did feel like it was a little "slapped together at the last minute" sometimes, and a small complaint, but a valid one none-the-less, is the grind rails. It's red or nothing. One would think when building 9 slopes across the world, they would deviate from using red only as a grind rail. With the exception of a few cable car cables, all I saw was red rails all over the place, and it got very boring, when even a simple colour variation could have fixed that.
I did find my character quite often got stuck in the terrain too, after hitting a particularly solid cliff face, if there was any kind of inverted corner where I hit, I would find myself spinning infinately in place, with no option to quickly get back on the slopes, instead, having to use the rewind function to roll back, and as the function doesn't rewind the timer, it was an annoying barricade to keep getting stuck in, but as the game kept reminding me, I needed to just get better.
Overall the tracks are solid, and fun, and have enough detail to impress, but it did feel like it was a little "slapped together at the last minute" sometimes, and a small complaint, but a valid one none-the-less, is the grind rails. It's red or nothing. One would think when building 9 slopes across the world, they would deviate from using red only as a grind rail. With the exception of a few cable car cables, all I saw was red rails all over the place, and it got very boring, when even a simple colour variation could have fixed that.
Sound
Ok, SSX games have always had a thumping soundtrack, using commercial tracks to accompany you on your excursions over the icey tundras such as Do Your Thing by Basement Jaxx, and Don't Let the Man Get You Down by Fatboy Slim, but sadly this is a huge let down in this game, as the music, while fitting to the game style, was generic and boring. It was either dub step or house music, but either im getting old, and thus out of touch with kids today, or it was stock music from unknown bands. I was really looking forwards to this soundtrack, however, it was poor at best. BUT!!!!!
Yes that's a big but there, it has the option to put in your own custom soundtrack, so I dropped in the SSX3 music and some videogame beats, which made me a happy boarder again, so a redeeming feature there, and a nice touch is that the custom music also reacts to jumps and your Tricky progress ingame, getting quiet as you leap up, and popping back to full volume when your board touches terra firma.
Other than the music, the game delivers realistic and beautiful audio, sounding loverly on a surround system, as well as performing admirably out of TV speakers. Each scrape, glide, smack and bend of your board is recorded beautifully.
Yes that's a big but there, it has the option to put in your own custom soundtrack, so I dropped in the SSX3 music and some videogame beats, which made me a happy boarder again, so a redeeming feature there, and a nice touch is that the custom music also reacts to jumps and your Tricky progress ingame, getting quiet as you leap up, and popping back to full volume when your board touches terra firma.
Other than the music, the game delivers realistic and beautiful audio, sounding loverly on a surround system, as well as performing admirably out of TV speakers. Each scrape, glide, smack and bend of your board is recorded beautifully.
Rating
Compared to previous SSX games: 7/10
(no multiplayer is a huge ommission)
Standalone score: 8.5/10