SSX 3

"Surprisingly original, inconceivably fun."

When you have a game series that's been very successful, it gets very difficult to remain original with each new iteration; with sports games, it's near impossible. Extreme sports is even more difficult than that, as the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game series, as the pioneer and original king of extreme sports games, has cast an enormous shadow over the entire genre. Luckily, however, EA Sports BIG has pulled itself out of this area with SSX 3, a game that radiates brilliance, perfection, and shine from start to finish, due to the simplicity of the classic innovation that makes this game stand out.

So what exactly makes this game so innovative, TSD? you ask. Simply: you're on a mountain. There is no preliminary "course select" and then you start the event. You snowboard on a huge mountain, moving from spacious, snow-white, uncharted terrain to large racing courses, funky slopestyle terrain or the giant, daunting superpipes. Everything about the game pulls you further into the beautiful mystique of the mountain. This may not seem very interesting, or new, but it allows for some wonderful possibilities, as we shall see.

Controls: 9/10
The only real problem with the controls is that they're difficult to adjust to from essentially ANY other game. Tricks are handled with L, R, Z and B, and you actually have to spend time alternating between the Control Stick and the Control Pad, and if you don't time spins just right you're in trouble. Once you've got it down, though, it is very simple to do 182648 degree spins with dodecatuple backflips and a tailgrab, or any of the other mystifyingly ludicrous tricks this game offers you.

Environment: 10/10
The scenery in this game is, simply put, beautiful. The mountain itself is very well done, and the background, while not eye-dropping, blends right in. The weather effects are also impressive, varying in intensity from peak to peak very smoothly (at least I couldn't notice when it actually happened).

The Mountain: 10/10
This is definitely where the game shines. An SSX game really can't change the core gameplay very much, but everything else has received a very welcome working-over.

Courses: 9/10
Occasionally a bit repetitive, but each type of course is right on the money.

When you're racing, you've got huge rounding curves, massive jumps for air speed, and of course, when it picks up, you MOVE. Move move move move move. The pace can be quite exciting when it needs to be, and of course let's not forget about how much it pwns to knock your opponent down as he's catching up.

Slopestyle offers a nice variety of courses. You have your basic downhill madness, filled with more jumps, rails, and powerups than a Sonic the Hedgehog game, and you can cut loose like a madman if need be. Don't forget the impressiveness of the Big Air courses, with their massive jumps that allow you to pull off ridiculous stunts and chains. And, of course, the Super Pipe is wonderful, with incredible speed and height to let you show off your mad skills and put everyone else to shame (for a real fun time, get second-level uber with Viggo and super-spin an Acrobat).

The Mountain Itself: 11/10
It makes no sense. A concept so simple should not be so brilliant and fun. Nevertheless, the freestyle pure-mountain courses are breathtaking; much more fun than the normal race or slopestyle. The design is just amazing, zooming from random jump to random jump, crossing trees and jumping giant chasms as enormous blocks of ice fall from underneath you.

It's not only the mountain courses that create this feeling. Snowboarding from course to course, pulling into the lodge and the helicopter station for your basic needs, helps pull you into the mountain itself. And everything is connected. There is nowhere you cannot reach from the top of the mountain, and if you like, you can go directly from the very top to the very bottom.

Even the race/slopestyle courses mold you into the mountain. Almost every course has a section that is Out Of Bounds, and you can lose yourself in the uncharted backroads of the SSX mountain. The mountain could not be designed any better.

Music: 9/10
You don't listen to music. You listen to Radio BIG. Once again, simple and brilliant. The DJ is quick to offer advice or humorous news anecdotes as you move from course to course, and of course he introduces every song he plays as you begin your races or trick competitions with some brief side info on your goals, or the course, or your opponents. Everything runs together seamlessly to bring you even further into the mountain. And the music's not too bad, either. Cool tracks from MxPx, the Executioners, and the like are quite entertaining and well suited for snowboarding music.

Replay Value: 8/10
There are plenty of reasons to play this game through many times, disregarding that the sheer fun of it brings you back many a time. The Free Ride offers you numerous money packets to obtain to max out your character's stats and net him some awesome gear (pumpkin head, anyone?), and the challenges are just difficult enough to not be frustrating and bring out the gameplay hours at the same time. The multiplayer allows for race and slopestyle competition, and though it doesn't give a ton of options, it's fun to play with your friends nonetheless.

Everything about this game is fabulous, and the basic concept is brilliant; SSX 3 takes the mountain and runs with it. The DJ may tell you that you own the mountain, but the mountain owns you. The incredible gameplay, environment, ambience and excitement net this game a 10 out of 10. This is a must-buy even for non-snowboarding fans (like me).

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/04/05