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This is a fun game as far as a pure snowboarding, single-player experience is concerned, but unfortunately there are a number of things that are lacking in this title that leave the game falling short of my expectations. If you have an affinity for the previous SSX releases you may be disapppointed as a lot of what made the previous releases great is absent here. Also, if you are looking for a solid multiplayer experience you may want to look elsewhere.
EA has taken a more serious approach to this game. Originally the game was going to be called SSX Deadly Decents, and after negative consumer feedback with regards to the new serious direction taken in the revamped IP they decided to remove Deadly Decents from the title and just call it SSX. However, it doesn't appear that they made any attempt to alter the original game they programmed based on this consumer feedback. It is a shame because I feel like EA completely ignored the feedback from their fan base and said we are giving you the game we made whether you like it or not. So the game ends up feeling less like an SSX game and more like a survival snowboarding game. That aside, if you are new to the franchise you may not have the nostalgia associated with previous iterations of the game and find the snowboarding gameplay fun in its own right. They have tried to add a little bit of a story to the game through some comic book pages in between mountains, but it is superficial at best.
The basic premise of the game is that you are traveling around the globe to recruit members to your SSX team. Each member is specialized to handle one of the unique challenges each of the 9 mountain ranges presents. Each mountain range starts with you competing in a few race and tricky events and finishes with you taking on a deadly descent. You can think of each mountain range having one peak that is a boss battle the deadly descent survival final stage. So for one mountain range the deadly descent may be darkness, another avalanches, etc., with specialized gear being required to handle each unique challenge presented. These mountain boss battles or survival runs include whiteouts (use special goggles for terrain mapping), darkness (headlamp), drop offs (requires a wingsuit to glide over crevices), ice (ice picks to improve turning ability), extreme cold (solar panel for heat), thin air (oxygen tank), rocks (armor), avalanches, and trees.
Some of the game highlights and drawbacks are outlined below:
PROS:
-The controls are tight making it easy to carve up the mountain and perform stunts.
-Athough pretty limited, the soundtrack is decent. I do wish there was a little more variety provided in the music included.
-The landscapes are large and beautiful with some pretty long runs down the mountain.
-There are a number of game modes (racing, trick events, survival events) and a larger number of locations/trails to decend than I expected.
-The ability to purchase a number of upgrades to each snowboarder is a plus.
-Several welcome nuances have been added to the gameplay on the various mountains that require specialized gear to survive descents like headlamps, wing suits, armor, ice picks, and solar panels. These subtle changes to gameplay help keep the game interesting.
-A GEOTAG system has been added that basically allows you and other players to hide markers on the various slopes. The player who dropped the GEOTAG collects money at a certain rate until the marker is discovered and other players that find the marker get money for locating the marker. It can be fun trying to find the perfect spot to hide a marker and trying to figure out how to reach those hard to reach GEOTAGS you see glimmering in the distance.
-I do think the survival aspects added to the game are a welcome addition, but I wish more emphasis was placed on the SSX brand and less on the deadly descent aspects.
CONS:
-The over the top personalities of the characters developed in earlier iterations of this game are non-existent so you really don't develop an attachment to any of the characters. Also, even though you can change the color of of your character's snowsuit, there doesn't appear to be any unique alternative character models like in previous SSX games. The base character models have changed for some of the characters making them not really feel like the same character you use to know.
-The lack of real live head to head competition really hurts the game. Beating the ghost of a friend just isn't the same as racing or tricking right next to them. Although the GEOTAG system is a fun little add-on, multiplayer feels very underdeveloped and tacked on.
-Although there are unique aspects to the mountains in terms of terrain (ice versus rock versus forrest), the differences are subtle. There was a real distinction in various locations in the previous SSX games that is lacking here.
In the past few days a problem has risen in my ability to connect to Ridernet ( the online aspect of the game). This is an issue other gamers are also having. While it isn't affecting every user, it is affecting both 360 and PS3 versions of the game. I have contacted EA about the problem, but they have yet to get back to me. Given this latest turn of events I cannot recommend that anyone buy this game until the issue is resolved. Also, given the lackluster multiplayer I would also wait until the price drops before picking this title up. I was enjoying the game for what it was worth up to the point where my technical issue developed but I admit that I am left partially disappointed by the neutering of the personality associated with SSX tricky.
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What a let down. A return to form? I think not... SSX 3 and SSX Tricky were two great snowboarding games for many reasons. The customization allowed you to give your character a little style. The music was fun and upbeat. The courses were optimized for gameplay and were lit up like an amusement park. There were all sorts of shortcuts to find and little surprises along the way that kept the game interesting. No two runs were the same. The game had a "flow" to it that felt great once you got into a cool trick string. Grab some friends, because there was co-op, and not just online play either... SSX has none of these things. NONE of them.
Gone is the co-op. If you want to "compete" against friends, they need their own copy of the game, game console, and internet connection. There's no racing each other, just the illusion of co-op, and definitely none of the shared couch kind which is what makes these competitive games so much fun. Customization? You can buy different boards, which are not all that different really. Forget about cutesy backpacks and other cool accessories. The suits are all the same patterns too, although you can buy color swap versions, and some that have a slight glow effect.... big deal.
The courses are patterned after various scans of real mountains around the world. This adds realism but takes away the fun. There's plenty of places where you can literally just fall to your dooming death, and sometimes are forced into it if you don't have prior knowledge of a run. There is a rewind option but it's useless as it only rewinds you (everyone else keeps going forward, making you hopelessly behind in a race) or else detracts from your score (which is harmful when you are tricking). Courses designed to be FUN (such as SSX Tricky or SSX 3) would have been welcome... they could have done a few of those and given both the ho-hum drab realism and the flashy joyful runs, but they didn't. The neon lights and extravagance of past games helped brighten up the monotony of snow, trees and rocks, which is all SSX has in abundance.
The game also never settles into that comfortable flow. The courses are too broken up and uneven to get that feeling, with jumps coming too close together or too far apart. Not to mention the giant chasms you can trick yourself right down into. There are a few secret little hideaways but nothing as we have seen in the past. The trick runs also seem to be way harder in comparision to races on the same mountain, making the difficulty curve spike and plummet insanely.
SSX is a decently built title... you can tell a lot of time went into it, and some thought was put in to figure out how to update this to modern consoles. However, the formula didn't really need updating, and that's the biggest mistake they made. Trading realism for fun, has made this a boring, monotonous disappointment. Which should not have been a surprise considering the past two installments SSX On Tour and SSX Blur neither which managed to get the franchise "feel" right. They were misteps, and this is yet another one. Definitely try before you buy.
Best Deals for SSX - Xbox 360
(NOTE: I'm actually giving this game 4.5 out of 5 stars, not just 4)
PLUS:
-RiderNet is a godsend, even if it has already been done before
-Great soundtrack as usual
-Spectacular tricks and combo based gameplay
-Control schemes are well implemented, even offering a "classic" control scheme
MINUS:
-The spirit of the characters seems to have been lost from previous installments
-Campaign mode isn't really engaging
-Some mountains are a little TOO treacherous resulting in what feels like repeated cheap deaths
If you generally get a kick out of targeting your buddies best scores in any leaderboard based games or you lose sleep when someone has knocked you off of your high score perch and taking them down becomes the order of the day, then you will absolutely adore SSX.
The RiderNet setup is the absolute draw here, make no bones about it. I cannot praise this new feature enough. I've never played "Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit" but it's my understanding that the Autolog setup in that game works just like the RiderNet system does in SSX, by providing you with real time updates on who's doing what in the SSX world. In short, RiderNet makes this game feel alive. I guarantee that SSX will help create plenty of intense rivalries for those who immerse themselves deep enough in the game, thanks to RiderNet's absolutely awesome interface. I'm aware that I'm gushing maybe a little too rabidly about it but believe me, the recently released demo barely skims the surface of what RiderNet entails. There are a lot of races and trick runs to get to the top of here and RiderNet does a phenomenal job of keeping you up to speed in regards to not only how you're holding up but also how your friends are faring on those very same courses. I found it very easy to plot what it was that I wanted to involve myself in and which course records to shoot for next. Ghosts are automatically uploaded and downloaded and while there's no real time multiplayer involved, you're still getting the best of the experience by racing directly against the ghosts of other players doing their best runs. I'm loving what I'm seeing here in terms of early community interaction and judging from the scores and times already posted, it looks like I've got my work cut out for me on my way to the top of the boards. I really want to see more involved leaderboard systems like this in other games and genres, it's absolutely great and the best thing about the game, hands down.
I love the soundtrack and while it's a bit different from what I was expecting, there are a lot of great songs here that I'm sure anyone will enjoy. I found myself using Shazam a couple of times when I missed the artist and track title info, so that should count for something regarding the quality of the song selection. You can listen to your own music as well and the best part about that is that the game messes with the audio of the tracks just like it does with the in-game music, providing a seamless listening experience similar to what the game already gives you.
Using the right analog stick to perform tricks takes some getting used to and I'm not going to lie when I say that it's a lot to take in. The trick lies in getting used to the rhythm of the game. The game practically uses several different control schemes depending on whether you're on the ice or in the air and when you're careening down a mountain side and you're in the thick of a crazed trick busting, combo racking run, don't be surprised if you can't mentally process what your hands are doing of their own accord. I'm not knocking this because ever since the first game, this has been par for the course. It's all part of what makes SSX what it is. Like I mentioned above, you can play with a "classic" control scheme but I like the revamped style enough to stick with it.
On the negative side, I really didn't care for the campaign or story mode, if you even want to call it that. It's an admittedly thin plot that uses varying styles to push the story forward. I loved how the characters were bigger than life in the previous games but here, they've basically been whittled down to selectable characters. Most of them are still here but I miss the outrageousness and trash talk from SSX 3 and SSX Tricky. They've lost their mojo but they still bust out some of the most insane snowboarding tricks you'll ever see, so it's not so painful of a loss. Another slight issue I had with the game was that on several of these mountains, I was dying simply way too much. This was never really an issue in the other games but here, it happens a little more frequently than I would've liked and it kind of stops the momentum of the game every time you go flying off of a mountain and have to start all over. I found the Deadly Descent runs great on some sides and uninteresting on others.
I think the wingsuit feature leaves a bit to be desired also but hey, you can't fault the developers for trying something new. Thankfully, you don't use it all that much. Same goes for the rewind feature, which is really only useful for placing `geotags' throughout the world. The geotags themselves are a great and really cool idea (think of them as easter eggs that you leave behind for anyone else to pick up and the longer it takes for anyone to find them, the more in-game currency you receive; it's another great form of trash talking that the game provides) but since the clock keeps running while you're rewinding, there's really no use for it if you're on a serious run.
Is this the game SSX fans have been waiting for, for so long? Well, I suspect a lot of fans are going to have gripes with a lot of what I've mentioned and more but you can color this fan impressed. It's not perfect and could use a little more tinkering but this will definitely be my go-to game for when I'm not in the mood to sink a whole day into Skyrim or something else equally as time consuming. Truth be told, the hours melted away on me yesterday when I was posting up as many trick runs as I could before I went to sleep. Regardless of what you may think of the campaign mode, RiderNet will keep you coming back for more and is in my opinion, worth the cost of admission to the mountains of SSX alone.
Honest reviews on SSX - Xbox 360
I'm not going to give this the full blown soup to nuts review, but lets start with some shopping advice
1. Rent don't own
2. Its colorful and a few of the runs are quite fun (e.g. wing suit), but much of it is played 'in the dark' with no clue regarding the 'line'. Do you ski in the dark often? No. Why. Because its deadly. Maybe when I complete them all, I can play the different runs with a wing suit or a flash light and my review will improve
3. Does anyone at EA Sports actually talk to gamers ABOUT WHAT THEY'VE LIKED IN THE PAST, WANT TO SEE
4. Seriously, they could just remake 'Tricky' for the 360 and I'd buy it, probably like it more
5. I like the concept, six peaks, deadly challenges, and I like the mix of tricks and races, but the game has to many easy ways to die that the rider is simply 'forced' into
6. What made tricky great was (1) the ability to knock opposing riders down, (2) the ability to race someone else in the same room, (3) the happy music when you kicked into tricky mode, and (4) the interesting and often unexpected short-cuts, tunnels, suprizes.
This game has a few of these items but its not all that special.
Rent it for a weekend
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for SSX - Xbox 360
The latest edition of SSX comes at a great time. The XBox 360 really hasn't had a good snowboarding title since it's inception.
The maps are fantastic, and are actually created based off of real runs. EA used NASA satellite images and digitally recreated them for this game. To the actual mountainscapes, EA added tons of unique jumps, drops, rails, and a myriad of other objects as you try to rack up the combo points or race to the bottom. The tricks are over the top ridiculous, which to me, is what makes this game so incredibly fun. Make no mistake, if you're looking for a realistic snowboarding experience, you're not going to find it here. Heck, if you screw up landing a jump, you can rewind the game in real time to perform the jump and/or landing the way you intended.
The multiplayer is unique from most games, in that you can buy into events that you can win by playing and finishing the event within a set amount of time. This means you're not going to compete with them in real time. You can also have soft competitions with your XBox Live friends whom also have SSX. If you put down 11,000,000 points on a run, your friend will have the opportunity to best that score. This can go on back and forth. For long term appeal, this will be a great incentive to keep playing for some gamers.
The story line is pretty thin and the character development so far has been rather weak. I didn't buy this game for a story line, so for me it takes nothing away from the experience, even in the main campaign. Speaking of which, you'll need to finish the World Tour before you can move on to the Global Events, which offer up 153 courses on release day.
Upgrades for your snowboarder are abundant and varied. You can continue to make your character even better and construct their load out to your unique style of play, be it speed or tricks, for example.
Another cool feature is Geo Tagging. You can drop Geo Tags for other players across the SSX world to try and obtain. The longer they go unclaimed, the better for you in terms of points earned.
In closing, SSX is an awesome arcade style snowboarding game. I can't really find anything to complain about after the time I've had with it. This is a game that's definitely worthy of your collection if what's been described above is appealing to you.
