SSX 3

It used to be if you wanted to experience the high-speed, adrenaline-laced sport of snowboarding without actually getting off your butt, Nintendo’s 1080 franchise and Sony’s Cool Boarders series were your only choices.  But times, they are a’changin’, and EA Sports BIG has left the lucrative field of making games that are strictly simulation and expanded into the more stylized, and accessible make-believe sports market where they are free to defy physics, gravity, and, well, anything else they want to throw out the window in the name of unfettered entertainment.   It started with SSX back in 2000 on the PS2, from there the skies were the limits.  On second thought, maybe the limits of BIG games extend even further as the sky is certainly not an uncharted area in any of their games.  Then came SSX Tricky, which bolstered the excitement level of snowboarding even more with greater trick variety, off-the-hook tracks, and a new sense of overall style.  Both those games hit big, leaving indelible impressions with fans and playing up expectations for the inevitable sequel into stratospheric regions.

Enter SSX 3: a bigger, faster, more hellacious trip down snowbowl alley than has ever been witnessed before.  While not fundamentally changing the original foundation of the first two games, SSX 3 brings more realistically rendered environments that are every bit as outrageous as those found in Tricky yet without the aid of artificially made obstacles and over-the-top pyrotechnics.  Featuring three fully realized mountain peaks all residing on the same mountain and dozens of different courses, part three busts out with some mad silly environments that seem ripped right out of the minds of the most creative snowboarding enthusiasts around. 

You’ll start the game not unlike the way you began in the previous titles: choosing your rider from an eclectic cast of personalities that are mutually exclusively passionate about snowboarding and, for lack of a better word, insane.  Though it doesn’t really matter which character you choose as each begins with only the lowest of stats possible, it is a treat for fans to see that plenty of past personalities make a comeback here, as well as a few fresh faces.  Right from the first time you lay fiberglass to snow, each character will be capable of impressive tricks and outlandish combos, but you’ll eventually play the game enough to purchase stats and increase your player’s abilities even more.

The main mode in SSX 3 is its long and satisfying “conquer the mountain” mode, which is structured a bit like GTA3 in the sense that you choose what to do, when to do it, and how.  Three styles of play are available in this mode and conquering any of them all the way through will unlock the next mountain peaks.  But before we get to what those three styles of play are, let’s touch a bit on the open-ended method of progression in the game. 

As you ride down the peak after taking a gondola ride to the top, you’ll notice informative signs displaying the direction you need to go to get to different types of competitions.  You can also use your handy instant messenger device to hitch a ride directly to the desired competition, but the fact that you can board around on your own and show up at different competitions gives the game a real sense of immersion that has, until now, not been realized in a snowboarding game.  And since every square foot of real-estate in the game is completely unique and impressively detailed (and lacks even a second of loading thanks to a new fangled dynamic loading technology implemented here), you’ll savor every minute.

But I digress.  Once you’ve acclimated yourself with the controls (which are perfect, by the way), you’ll want to get down with some downhill racing, trick competitions, and free ride action.  These competitions can be played in any order you choose and each peak offers an assortment in each category.  The racing contests are pretty much of the same ilk as the previous games where crossing the finish line first will put you in the top spot.  You’ll have to place at least third through the multiple racing heats in order to medal and successfully complete the course.  The trick competitions challenge you to score the highest in a set amount of time.  Racking up huge combos is necessary to coming out on top.

The third style of play is free ride, which allows you to cut ice around the expansive environments with no time or objective constraints.  As you make your way around any area of the peak you’re at, you’ll notice that scads of money flakes can be found that add to your total monetary sum ranging from 500 to 2000 bucks a pop.  As if that wasn’t enough to keep you free riding all the way to the bank, there are also stark spotlights scattered around the area that allow you to compete in “BIG” challenges such as jumping through all the hoops, sliding through all the markers, etc, in a set amount of time.  While these objectives add quite a bit of variety to the expected monotony of the oft-used “free ride” mode, they aren’t as diversified or indeed fun as they could have been had a little more creativity went into their creation.  But the fact that the developers even went to the trouble of including such incentives is admirable.

While the new characters, enhanced navigation system, quick warp feature, and multiple play styles are great additions and exponentially enhance the SSX experience, it’s the insanely huge three-peaked mountain in SSX 3 that takes the starring role.  Every course that takes place on this mountain is meticulously designed with straight edges to grind on, ramps to fly off of, and twisted trails to blaze.  You’ll start out with only the first peak unlocked, but as you complete competitions the other peaks will open up.  Each peak is progressively steeper and more chock full of crazy obstacles and ingenious hazards such as falling boulders, avalanches and other such natural disasters than the previous peak.  There is also more focus on taking the path less traveled, as the areas you’ll board on are not strictly limited to a single or even multiple paths.  Lots of shortcuts, optional areas, and dangerous out of bounds areas can be navigated and learned, though if you wander too far off the course you’ll automatically be warped back to an established trail.  Hitting the Y button on the GameCube controller also restarts your racer, and this is a problem as accidentally hitting Y happens all the time.

Lodges are carefully peppered throughout the mountain and this is where you’ll want to go to spend all that hard-earned cash you’ve acquired in the game’s various competitions.  Here you can buy exclusive clothing items for your boarder, buy stats to improve their skills, customize the music playlist, purchase new songs, and some other stuff that I can’t recall right now.  Basically, the lodge largely represents the “more” I spoke of earlier. 

Tricks in SSX 3 are another aspect that has received a substantial improvement.  Like Tricky, where pulling tricks would slowly replenish your uber meter and, once full, allowed you to perform some pretty incredible, high-flying feats – SSX 3 goes a few steps further.  Here you’ll not only have an uber meter but a super uber meter as well.  Executing uber tricks will light up the letters in “Super Uber”, starting with “Uber”.  As fans of the previous games know, filling your uber meters opens up a new trick set.  Here, though, you are able to open up multiple trick sets, each progressively more deft-defying and potentially high scoring.  Another new feature in SSX 3 is the ability to quickly recover from bails.  When your racer crashes, a recovery meter at the bottom of the screen will be displayed.  Quickly punching the B button will replenish this meter and if you fill the meter before the computer automatically respawns you, you’ll be back on your feet and flying in no time.

From a visual standpoint, SSX 3 looks better than Tricky but not in an in-your-face, smack-you-up-and-don’t-call-the-next-morning kind of way.  The environments are markedly more detailed and diverse, trick animations are smoother and more realistic in terms of movement (don’t worry they are every bit as improbable as Tricky), and the snow effects in the game are second to none.  You’ll notice that each of the three peaks in the game are drastically different, not only in terms of course design but also in terms of the environments and general ambiance of your surroundings.  Slowdown is, for all intents and purposes, a non-issue, though you may notice some minor stuttering in particularly hectic areas.

As much as the graphics in SSX 3 are improved, it’s the audio that has really received the lion’s share of development.  Gone are the celebrity voiceovers from SSX Tricky but introduced are a wide assortment of spot-on voice talent representing the extremely stylized characters in the game.  The ambient sounds that can barely be heard when music is enabled is perfectly implemented, providing a genuinely convincing aural arrangement for everything from the crunching of snow beneath your board to the piercing wind slicing through natural high elevation mountain symmetry.  But the music is why I’m so adamant about praising this game’s sound.  Every track rocks hard and loud.  Aside from the recently released Tony Hawk’s Underground, SSX 3 features the most diverse and entertaining song roster.  I’m tempted to list all the songs in the game right here and now, but I don’t want to deviate from traditional review writing etiquette, plus, I’m too lazy.  Suffice to say that any videogame soundtrack that features Fischerspooner is OK by me.

Overall, SSX 3 is a lovingly crafted work of art that perfectly captures the exhilaration of make-believe snowboarding while making good on every other element of videogame goodness.  The lack of fantastical obstacles and other Tricky-exclusive elements is admittedly missed, but the inclusion of so many other excellent improvements makes you quickly forget that this ain’t Tricky.  One of the best games of the holiday season.

Gameplay: 9.3
If you’ve played either of the previous SSX games you’ll know what to expect here, though the additional gameplay elements are vast.

Graphics: 9.1
Dynamic loading prevents unsightly loading screens and the attention to detail in terms of this game’s environments is truly impressive.

Sound: 10
Possibly the best sound presentation in any game this year, everything is just .. perfect.

Difficulty: Medium
You’ll start out with easy to beat challenges and quickly graduate to more difficult objectives, the pace at which this happens may intimidate some but rest assured that any challenge the game throws your way can be overcome, even by newcomers, eventually.

Concept: 8.7
The meeting for the planning stages of development of this game must have went something like this: “Let’s make the best snowboarding game ever” … “OK.”

Multiplayer: 8.1

The split screen multiplayer action is just as fast and frenetic as the single player experience, though the lack of screen real-estate does tend to get in the way.

Overall: 9.0

SSX 3 nails everything it sets out to accomplish, though the lack of Tricky-esque bells and whistles is initially disappointing.