Review: SSX3 - Xbox

First, the visuals—for those of you with HDTVs and component cables, SSX3 is gorgeous.  It is probably one of the most visually impressive games I own (you can see my library of games if you like in my profile), and that is saying a lot considering its competition of games like H2, Doom 3, and Forza.  10/10 on visuals.

Second, interface navigation—the menus are pretty straightforward and intuitive.  There is a twinge of redundancy (i.e. a “Buy Gear” menu and an “Equip Gear” menu could be easily consolidated) but minimal confusion or randomness.  The biggest gripe I have is “confirmation prompts” that appear to ask you if you are sure you want to make a choice (overwriting your save file, quitting a race).  You basically have to make the choice twice.  While I’m sure this is just a precautionary measure, it can get annoying, especially when trying to quickly restart a race or something of the sort. 8/10

Third, the levels (a.k.a. “the Mountain”)—EA Big did a really good job of tying levels together into one big mountain (or “world”).  The mountain consists of 3 peaks, each of which has various runs. The runs have specific events that you can board right up to.  There are still load times, but you still get the feel that you “happened upon” the event, which is hard to describe, but adds to the game’s continuity.  Even better, though, is the ability to transport to a different peak or run from the start menu.  This option alone makes this game outshine a plethora of other xbox titles involving “worlds” or large levels.  I am reminded of MMORPGs like EverQuest and WOW, where travel is a fairly significant part of the game.  Sure you can use a mount, teleport, or other means of transportation, but in the scheme of the game, travel becomes monotonous and a significant waste of time.  SSX3’s transport feature allows you to zip to a different location at the touch of a button or two.  This time-saving feature keeps you in the action.  I can assure you I doubt I’d still be playing the game if I had to board down to a lift station or lodge or a specific location to transport elsewhere on the mountain.  The biggest gripe I have about the levels is their moderate linearity.  Sure, there are a few paths down the run, but for the most part they are adjacent to one another and not all that diverse.  It would be neat if multiple runs intertwined like a real life ski slope, but I understand that level-wise, it would be too large and add to load times and, in reality, be just one single massive run that had more drastic path diversity.  So I’ll let that one slide. 9/10

Fourth, the gameplay—controlling your rider is pretty simple.  It takes some getting used to using both the left thumbstick (steering) and the D-pad  (trick rotation) but it soon becomes second nature.  I was slightly disappointed at first because I remembered SSX Tricky being a bit easier to control, but I realized this was only because my rider’s stats were low.  Bumping them up to par reunited me with the fluid control I remember, which is pretty spot on.  I do have two gripes about the controls, though.  The first is what I call “slope push” which is when you are steering toward a jump, rail, or obstacle that is on a horizontal slope (left to right, not downhill/uphill).  The slope pushes your rider back down toward the center in a slightly over-exaggerated way.  It’s kind of like eccentric gravity, and the biggest detriment of this slope push is that it makes it significantly difficult to hit rails you wish to ride that are on a horizontal slope, as you will often miss the rail to the lower side of the slope.  I remember this being much easier in Tricky, but it’s not a crippling negative.  The second gripe is EA Big’s assigning of the “X” button.  On snow, X is used to boost your rider to achieve greater speed.  In the air, X is used to perform a grab.  As you can imagine, the result is your rider going over a small bump, catching some air, and performing a grab by mistake, making your rider bust for not releasing the grab.  This gets pretty annoying, especially since each time you fall, your boost meter is decreased as a penalty.  EA could have done a better job of button assignment, having a dedicated boost button that wouldn’t perform accidental grabs.  For the most part though, if you can anticipate this annoying behavior somewhat, the problem is minimal.  The rest of the gameplay is fun and unique and does not grow tiresome.  8.5/10

Fifth, the music—no hard drive soundtracks stinks a bit, but the game’s soundtrack is extensive and is fairly diverse, from Fatboy Slim to Red Hot Chili Peppers to YellowCard to Chemical Brothers.  There is a decent amount of techno/drum&bass-esque music, but unless you hate that style, it’s tolerable (and you can lower the volume to your liking if you so choose.)  You can buy songs to create custom playlists, but if I understand it correctly, you’re just buying songs they would play anyway in the normal course of the soundtrack.  It would be worthwhile if you could unlock new songs as you progressed. 9/10

The last thing I’ll discuss as part of the game is the Lodge.  As you progress, you can use money you earn from events and collectibles to purchase just about anything you can think of.  First and foremost you can buy attributes to make your rider better, which is sweet and crucial; some events you simply cannot win until your rider is better.  I spend most of my cash here.  By winning events, you receive rewards not only monetary but also in terms of “unlockables.”  These include gear (boards/apparel) and things like trading cards and posters.  You can buy some unlockables in the Lodge, but unless you have money to burn, it’s pretty pointless to do so, and the concept is a bit lame in itself, since the posters/cards are framed as opposed to full screen and aren’t that visually impressive.  Another thing you can buy in the lodge is “UBER tricks” which are the special moves you perform after performing a series of successful tricks.  The Uber tricks were the highlight of Tricky, although I remember them being easier to “activate” in Tricky.  In SSX3, you have to do 4 consecutive grabs that each spell a letter of “UBER” and once you fill in the 4 letters, you activate your UBER tricks and can then bust them out.  Anyway, you can buy different UBER tricks than the 5 or 6 your rider comes with if you wish, but they’re pretty expensive.

In summary, the open feel of the game and ability to “freeride” rather than jumping from event to event makes this game very fun and enjoyable.  Another awesome addition that I don’t think was available in Tricky was the ability to restart a Heat without having to restart the entire event, so if you have a great Run 1 and botch Run 2, you can restart and keep your Run 1 score/time.  I recommend this game to anyone that is even remotely interested in the series, and overall give it a 9/10.