SSX

I’ve had all of the SSX games over the years. They’ve been on the Xbox rather than the PlayStation but I’ve had ’em and I’ve enjoyed them too. In fact I took up Snowboarding as a result of playing them!

A new SSX then was something to look forward to. I had memories of cruising down slopes, finding new routes, pulling off incredible tricks and generally exploring then finding a race and dropping in to it for a bit of action! The new SSX, though, is nothing like this at all.

After my first couple of hours with SSX I left my office and walked downstairs for a cup of tea, wondering whether it was me or if I’d missed something.

The premise of SSX is that a team was put together of the big names in the EA games world in order to conquer the nine deadly peaks of the world. One of the team jumped ship and took the major sponsors with him. It’s your job to guide the team through supporting events earning enough cash in the process to enable them to take on this splitter scumbag and reclaim the nine deadly peaks.

Each of the team has a specialty and it’s this specialty which you learn about as you go through and use them to re-take the peak in question. If only it was actually that simple, though. On the first run through it’s nigh-on impossible to win the events no matter what you do.

As I was staring into my tea, wondering if I’d lost my ‘touch’ it came to me. The usual ‘earn-cash-to-buy-pretty-new-clothes-and-boards’ SOP has been engineered directly into the heart of the game. The reason I couldn’t win is that I had crap kit. If I wanted better kit I had to earn more cash and to to that I had to be happy with 2nd or 3rd place as I progressed through. Then I had to go back and race again with better kit to get more cash through winning on the slopes to let me complete on the later, harder ones. SSX has become a game of strategic planning and execution.

Once this realisation hit I had conflicting emotions. I knew what I had to do in order to win but this wasn’t the game I thought it was. This wasn’t the spend 10 minutes playing on a mountain game I remembered and had enjoyed. This was something more grown up. It was darker and it was demanding that I invest myself into the mechanic in order to get back the rush of a victory. I initially felt this may be a demand to far but the thing about understanding is it enables you to conquer.

Oh yes; SSX’ll kill you too! As soon as the second peak you can literally fall off the mountain. The game has implemented a rewind function but this only pulls you back from the abyss and allows you to change your line, it doesn’t rewind the game clock, so if you’re in a race, you’re pretty much screwed and have to hit the restart button anyway. In ‘Trick It’ and ‘Survive It’ sessions this can be handy, though, especially if you’ve racked up a decent score and starting again would be a pain in the arse. So, you can fall, smash, crash, freeze, all of these things, and still you’ve got to win. Make no mistake this is a tougher and more demanding game.

Coming back to SSX after my initial WTF moment and with a fresh set of expectations I found myself enjoying the challenge much more and spent much more time “gearing up” with new shiny bits and pieces. There is a handy “Optimize” button to press which will pick out the best set of gear from your stash for the challenge coming up but you’ve got to buy it first. I found that the best strategy was to buy the best I could afford every couple of races and then use that special button to make sure I was as well prepared as I could be.

The visuals are great in the game, as should be expected from a mature title on a mature platform from a mature developer. We expect these things but sometimes we’re disappointed so it’s nice to have things confirmed. The soundtrack is solid and typical for the genre but once again the tracks have been implemented to rise and fall in time with the on-screen action. If you’re just cruising it’s pretty subdued whereas if you’re ripping things up you get an immense set of beats to keep you pumping!

My biggest issue, though, has to be with the controls. I found that there was a failure in two-key rollover which caused me to plummet to oblivion on a number of occasions. Holding down X for the jump and immediately hitting R1 for my wingsuit just didn’t work; I had to leave a conscious gap in order to soar and swoop.


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One response to “SSX”

  1. Roxyneider avatar
    Roxyneider

    my 360 flips dont do that. um i guess just scoop your back foot harder or maybe your spicoon to hard? i dunno youll eventually find the g spot. front heels huh. im regular and i put the toe of my back foot on the edge of the boardso that my heel hangs way off. then my other foot is pretty much in the heelflip position then i just pop it and kick. a lot of the landing is in how you turn with your board. just try to keep your shit under you. tail slides are tough. you kinda have to lock in like w/ your truck against the edge of the box. then kinda push your tail forward with your back foot. if you dont slide much wax the shit out of it or go faster. a good way to practice getting into them is by doin tail sets on curbs. the secret is pop. you gotta have pop. you gotta be quick and snap your tail hard. then jump like a motherfucker. if you do all that you should be ollien a lot higher. and gaps, well thats balls. you got to have balls to try some stuff. take a few falls and you should be ok. and switch? well just cruise around switch a lot like when you skate somewhere skate switch. youll eventuslly find your balance and youll learn some tricks. its like starting out skating again. only tougher cuz its switch ya kno. anyways good luck.

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