SSX 3

"Stupendous!"

The newest addition to the gaming world’s snowboarding community is SSX3 and it is probably the best one out there. SSX 3 brought to the table a whole new concept. You get to explore a whole mountain of racing, moving from event to event on your snowboard. Of course with any sequel it also improved on the graphics and other minor things from previous games.

The gameplay has essentially remained the same minus the open-ended environment of the game. You race downhill on a snowboard competing against computer-controlled opponents. As you go down the courses you can meander off onto side trails and short cuts while you try and outpace your opponents. Whoever gets to the finish first usually will win the race… actually that’s always the case.

As you complete the races you will earn money to buy new boards, gear, and a few other cosmetic items that will only serve to enhance your characters looks. The cosmetic items do nothing to improve or worsen your racing. The only thing that you can buy with your hard earned cash to level up is stats. You don’t earn them automatically by completing races you have to buy them.

Also, it doesn’t matter which character you choose because they all have rock-bottom stats when you start out with them. They all perform at the same level. The only differences that will come are when you are leveling them up. You may have one with full stats and another with half upgraded stats. Most of the characters are veterans of the old games but there are some that are new to the circuit.

As in the old games there is a “Single Event” option that performs just like the old versions of the games. You select a race/competition and then load it up and race. Go back and load up another on and so on.

The main mode of the game is the open-ended mountain. At first you will start out with one peak of the mountain to explore and then as you complete races and events you will become eligible to compete in the other races. Once you complete most of them or obtain a certain amount of money then you will unlock the next peak. When you complete more races or obtain the specified amount of cash then you will advance to the next and final peak.

Each peak has progressively higher standards of competition and difficulty. Peak 1 is a beginners peak with pretty basic goals and races. No incredibly difficult obstacles or anything like that. Peak 2 is an intermediate peak with more obstacles, jumps, and twists and turns; there are also slightly higher standards so beginning players may have a problem with these but by the time you get here you should have a pretty good idea of how the game is played. Peak 3 is the expert’s peak. It has countless jumps, cliffs, trenches, powder, ice, and more twists and turns than you can count on your hands and feet. This definitely is the best part of the mountain in terms of enjoyment and Replayability because you will have to do most, if not all, of the events over again to beat them.

All of the peaks contain two main types of events, races and free-style competitions. The races are pretty much what I described beforehand. The freestyle events are Big Air, Slopestyle, and Super Pipe. Big Air is pretty much a linear type course with one or two main jumps in it in which you have to get a specified amount of points. Slopestyle is a whole wide-open course of jumps, ramps, rails, and obstacles for you to flip, twist, and grind over to get the highest amount of points possible. Super Pipe is just a standard half pipe competition.

In the races you must finish in the top three (out of six) racers to progress to the next round. But even if you finish dead last you will still get some money. Just… you will not get much of it at all.

If none of that suits your fancy then you can bypass the competition parts of the game and free ride over all the courses in the game. No opponents. Just you, your board, and the mountain… and a couple thousand fans that for some reason hang around to watch you practice.

While you are free riding you will see a scattering of green columns of light here and there. These are Big Challenges in which you will be assigned a certain goal to accomplish in a certain amount of time. They range from, race through all the gates without falling or missing any, hit all the bull’s eyes with your board, grind 3 rails in under 20 seconds, etc… if you complete the challenge successfully you will be awarded a small but handsome sum of cash. But most of these are fairly difficult (even on Peak 1). So you will have to improve your stats and skills before attempting to tackle these.

As you move about the mountain you will see little ski (well… snowboard) lodges scattered here and there. These are the nexuses of all your activities on the mountain. You can usually find transportation to some other part of the mountain and a good resting place while you squander your hard earned cash in the stores. The stores mainly contain boards and clothing/accessories. You will also find this to be the place to upgrade your player’s stats and save your progress.

As you race you will be able to earn boost by completing insane tricks whenever you have the chance to. This is probably one of the most entertaining parts of the game besides the actual racing. You can perform 5 flips in mid-air while spinning another 12 times and doing all sorts of grabs and kicks before you land safely on your feet (or rather… board). The only downfall of this is that on the GameCube controller there are only three shoulder buttons to do these tricks so you will run into a smaller list of tricks that you can do in this version than the PS2 version (I’m not sure what the deal is with the X-Box version of the game).

If you happen to “beef it” (or in regular terms “land on your head”) you can always get right back up by pressing the B button repeatedly. If you do this successfully then you won’t be penalized as much as you would have if you hadn’t gotten up right away.

When you perform tricks you will be awarded with boost (like I said before). Boost will allow you to accelerate your rider faster than normal. The more tricks you land, the more boost you get. If you fall you lose a good chunk of your Boost Meter. But as I said before you can gain some of that back by recovering from the fall quickly by pressing the B button. Once your boost reaches a certain point you will be able to perform “Uber Tricks” that are even more mind-blowingly insane than the ones you can already do. Uber Tricks are pulled off by launching off of a ramp and doing a trick, but when you do the trick your rider will tweak it or completely modify it to land you some huge points. Once you do a certain number of Uber Tricks then you will have a Super Uber, which is eh… completely and totally insane. You will also get more boosts with these higher levels of Uber Tricks.

If you do happen to get off-course during the game you can simply reset your course with the simple push of a button and you will be magically transported to the main course. This comes with a severe penalty though. If you do reset the course then you will lose most of your boost meter, if not all of it. So this has to be used sparingly unless you don’t care about boost or you can get it back in one or two tricks.

The combat system works the same way as in the previous games. You can punch/punch opposing riders off balance and they will crash to the ground while you gleefully push ahead of them with your reward of a full boost meter. But if you do this then they will be more inclined to treat you in the same way. You can counteract this by either moving out of the way, punching them right in the face once more, or by ducking out of the way.

One of my favorite things about this game is the music. The games music fits it perfectly. It contains tacks from Jane’s Addiction, Fatboy Slim, and the Chemical Brothers. It is also choreographed to what you are doing in the game. If you are pulling off a huge air trick it will cut out leaving only the percussion or some minor instrument/rhythm playing while you soar through the air and then once you land it will cut right back in with a bang. I can honestly say that this really does give me a kick whenever this happens, it is carried out perfectly.

Along with the music in the game is a DJ that will provide some commentary about the songs, snowboarding, the SSX circuit, and the events that you are competing in. He does provide some humorous jokes here and there and some mindless banter just like any other radio show host you will find.

The graphics are stupendous! I must say that I definitely gained some confidence in my little GameCube when I first played this game. Snow falls lazily, sunlight glints off of ice, snowboards make contoured corves in the snow, and everything is modeled great! There are only a few clipping problems here and there but it is hardly anything major or noticeable. Also, there is some slowdown but it usually only happens on one or two levels… in the same exact place every time. Otherwise the game runs smoothly with a great framerate.

Despite all of this you will eventually get tired of this game because it is essentially the same thing over and over again. That is the only reason I give this game a 9 instead of a 10.

Pros

- great graphics
- wide variety of things to do
- music fits the game perfectly
- fun gameplay
- lots of room to explore

Cons

- a few clipping problems
- fewer tricks than on other versions
- slowdown here and there

This game is a must buy. If you are an SSX fan, I don’t think that this should even be questioned. If you are an avid gamer then you should definitely consider purchasing this game. If you only a part-time gamer or non-serious gamer then just try out a rental for 5 days or however long it is. This game is a little bit cheaper than new games since it came out in December of last year (2003). You will probably end up buying it even if you do go for the rental first.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/09/04