SSX

Game Info

Extreme sport games have almost trickled to a halt in the past 4-5 years. They’ve been extremely watered down and not that enjoyable, especially after the original release of SSX.

It didn’t seem that anyone could recapture the glory of the original snowboarding champion days. SSX Blur on the Wii was a flop; it was a mere distraction while the developers were secretly working on this new official fifth installment of the SSX series.

EA Canada went all out on this title bringing back classic characters and upping the ante with a little story. The basic premise is the SSX team has embarked on a mission to conquer the nine Deadly Descents (Clearly the most famous and dangerous mountains in the world).  The whole conflict arises when douche muffin “Griff” states that he’s going to conquer these first! After that claim…its on like Donkey Kong. So it’s a race within the team to beat Griff down the mountain.

Whether you are launching yourself from cliffs in Alaska or from the mountains of Sibera, you are bound to be enjoying yourself. Every mountain has a unique vibe and different ways to get down, whether you are “Racing it” or “Tricking it” you’ll be able to carve down in style. Using NASA CAD data EA Canada modeled these mountains pretty accurately and removed the boundaries you are free to explore the whole thing as you descend down these beasts. Different mountains are set at different times of day; there are some treacherous dark mazes and bright beautiful powder runs. No matter where you are on the globe, you are bound to see breathtaking views that will make you want to carve down the slopes again and again.

The actual core of SSX since Tricky has evolved greatly and it’s quite nice. You can pull off some amazingly cool tricks now-a-days in abundance and makes it looks so easy that you feel like you could do it real life (but obviously don’t try). Both Analog sticks work well and the combos with the triggers and bumpers along with button combos leave it open to do a lot. They’ve also worked out a great balance so now, while you are tricking it if you release the analog sticks you balance out to land properly. There are no more control fumbles pulling off amazing tricks only to land on your head unless you are overtly trying to. They also incorporated a nice rewind function, so if you eat snow you can rewind to a place where you were doing well and retry your trick (Note that points are deducted for the length of your rewind so use it with caution).

New components to this game are character build out and strategy! Of course you can just go trick it out but there are races that involve skill and gear change which can improve or hinder your performance. For example a dark mountain side with large trees and boulders would best be suited to body armor and headlamps, while a open cliffy mountain may be good for light gear and a squirrel suit to soar over large gaps. Another great component is selecting your gear type, suit, armor, board type, and perk. You can combo these all up and take on courses at full speed and get extra trick points. An awesome strategic play style they included is called “Survive it”,  where you are able to test your savvy snowboarding skills and either survive it or eat rock and die. Each of the nine mountain ranges feature a Deadly Descent, a mountain so dangerous you need special gear to ride it, think of it as a final boss after you rock and ravage the other slopes at one mountain range. Some of the natural disasters that could kill you are pretty exciting. Giant avalanches can be triggered and try and swallow you up, freezing cold temperatures test your endurance and lack of oxygen will suck the life from you, as well as jagged rocks and trees threaten to impale and crush you. Yep, all in a days work right?

A fun aspect throughout the entire game is a feature called RiderNet, it keeps track of your progress. RiderNet alerts you to what your friends are up to and lets you compete with strangers online. You can post scores, collectibles and set challenges for peeps across the world. Multiplayer in SSX comes in form of Global Events, an updating series of challenges open to everyone in the world or just your friends, your call. EA has challenges going on all the time and you can just pop on in and post a high score or fast time. You can race along courses with other people showing up in an insane simultaneous event, which is a site to behold. This is something new and totally awesome.

One of the best aspects of this game though is the soundtrack, with dope beats and songs a plenty. Whether you are jamming out to Skrillex or chill riding with Foster the People you get a wide variety and flavor of music that suits a lot of great courses and add inspiration you need to pull off some dope tricks.

In closing, this game is a must play game for snowboarding enthusiasts or any casual/hardcore gamer. It’s a video game that’s been missing from this generation of games since the original SSX tricky game! It holds an extremely high replay value, is an easy play or can be tuned for serious strategy your call. This game is fueled with adrenaline to keep you buzzed for hours. SSX redefines the snowboarding genre and steps it up setting the pace for future games. The bar has been raised, they have hopped over it and squirrel suite glided over any competitor! I recommend giving it a try.