SSX 3

"The snowboarding bar is raised once again"

When the PS2 launched way back, it had a fairly laughable set of release titles to go with it. It took a little while for ''system selling'' software to release. One of the first (and most surprising) of these releases was SSX, an over-the-top snowboarding game featuring massive environments, a unique trick system and memorable characters. SSX Tricky followed, but was never really considered a full blown sequel by the public (though there were enough changes to warrant another purchase for owners of the original). Now, with the release of SSX 3, EA BIG has proven once again that nobody can do snowboarding quite like the canucks.

After spending hours pasted to this game, I can honestly say that SSX 3 is a triumph in every way. As a successful sequel, it not only raises the bar on every aspect of its predecessor, but adds brand new bars that have never been challenged before. At its core, SSX 3 still maintains the race/trick balance that made its forefathers so successful, but EA has subtley tweaked the system to not only make the game more intuitive for newcomers, but to allow greater rewards for masters.

Graphics: 9

The graphics in SSX 3 are truly a sight to behold both technically and stylistically. Simply by observation, SSX 3 is a much more epic undertaking than any snowboard to come before it.

The core of the game is a single, massive mountain with 3 peaks where backcountry, courses, and everything in-between can be boarded. Courses are decorated with stands, man made hills, ballons and firework effects while the backcountry looks comparatively vast and mysterious. The mountain is so beautiful and intricate you can literally become enthralled for hours just exploring it, negating to run any of the actual ''courses.''

All 3 peaks sport a unique look and feel as well. Peak 1 features open terrain, cavernous openings, and a city / snowboard park at its base. Beware as avalanche conditions are often in the ''extreme.'' Peak 2 is much more organic as it is covered mostly by forest with beautiful waterfalls and natural rock formations. This peak often finds itself the victim of frequent lightning storms causing trees to fall across the track. Peak 3 is a murderous looking ''hill'' with sharp rocks, high winds, and steep drops. The area is at the mercy of a constant storm. Effects such as birds, planes, and snowmobilers litter each of these courses as well, so there is always a great deal of movement going on. It also seems as though EA has been working on their virtual snow, as there are around 30 different kinds, with different weight and viscosity, which makes for much more convincing snow.

As amazing as these environments are (and they are amazing), the characters can really steal the show. EA has added a whole plethora of new trick animations (some more over-the-top than others) as well as general boarding animations. You simply must see ''rail Ubers,'' one of which allows your character to flip his/her board sideways and grind the rail balanced on top.

While these animations are all beautifully animated and fantastic, I actually find the more subtle improvements have had a bigger impact on me (especially as a snowboarder myself). The boarders' legs are now much more realistic reacting to bumps and jumps and boards now flex on terrain or pipes (as opposed to the completely solid boards used in past games).

Despite all these wonderful improvements, there are a couple of dents in SSX 3's otherwise flawless finish. First off, the graphical engine EA has been using for the past few years is definitely starting to look dated. Although the developers have certainly pushed its abilities to the edge, it just seems as though the engine itself has become somewhat obsolete. Snowboard close to a few trees, or take a good look at your shadow at certain times, and both become horribly pixelatted visages. The avalanche effect that was used is also pretty ugly and involves little more than a few rocks rolling down the hill followed by an unconvincing ''cloud.'' However, more often than not you will be viewing these things from afar, and moving too quickly to really notice them too much.

Additionally, SSX 3 suffers from some of the slowdown that plagued its predecessor, SSX Tricky. This is especially noticeable in the ''Meltdown City'' course of Peak 1, where the speed and framerate drop dramatically in the first minute or so of the course. Granted it doesn't happen often, but it is enough to affect gameplay for certain short stints.

As a small personal preference, SSX 3 seems to ditch some of the more ''fantastic'' courses from previous SSX games in favour of more grounded and realistic courses. While I do understand the need for more realistic courses to backup the ''real mountain'' experience, I still miss Tokyo Megaplex (SSX's virtual pinball gallery) greatly and am still hoping to stumble across it in some form or another.

My final gripe is that the default camera makes the player's character look too small. Players will have a hard time enjoying the animation of the characters when they can't really see them. Additionally, it downplays the characters and environments a bit, making everything seem less spectacular. Luckily, this is easily remedied by switching the default camera to ''near,'' which is still situated far enough to play effectively, but close enough to make the game more dramatic.

Sound: 10

It is honestly very hard to fault SSX 3 in this category. The game offers a varied soundtrack including various styles and talents such as Fat Boy Slim and the Chemical Brothers. I personally found a great deal fo the tracks catchy and perfect for the ''feeling'' of the game, but even those who don't agree with me will find at least 1 or 2 songs that will really catch their attention. These songs are all subject to the infamous ''SSX drowning'' technique in which the songs are scaled down after a huge jump, and then subsequently returned to normal upon landing (for those who have never experienced it, it's a wonderful effect), which has been extended to caves. The music is also fully announced by a convincing DJ who banters, jokes and introduces music. All these effects lend a little part to making the overall experience more realistic. Oh, and for those who tend not to agree with me, everything from the DJ, to playlists, to ''mountain ambience'' is completely optional, and can be tweaked in-game.

SSX 3 also features much of the same ''banter'' from characters that it has in the past, though it would appear that all the ''licensed'' voice actors are gone now. Although character banter can often be excessive and annoying, EA has always been good at finding the line between ''fun'' and ''annoying.'' All the characters also have unique personalities and react differently to eachother depending on the situation. Thankfully the irritating ''TRICKY'' voice that plagued SSX Tricky is gone and replaced by a much less brash woman announcer that identifies your ''Uber level'' instead.

Despite the 10, I do have one minor complaint about the sound. While the DJ is great, he doesn't really have enough to say. From what I can gather, he always announces events going on in a certain area (which is useful) but other than that he seems to have a cycle (a very small cycle) of things to say outside of that. However I will digress as I have never found his repetition of subjects annoying (probably because he doesn't banter for very long between songs), but still. If EA went to the ''extreme'' for everything else, why not the DJ?

Gameplay: 10

While SSX Tricky garnered much criticism for adding little to the SSX formula, SSX 3 more than makes up for its predecessor's failing by making huge leaps over them, and every other snowboarding game out there.

The most influential of these changes would have to be the ''board flex.'' By pushing the right analog stick up or down, players can cause their character to tilt forward or backward on his/her board. While this seems like a fairly miniscule change (and perhaps nothing more than copying the Tony Hawk games), this introduces an unfound longevity in the gameplay, because now EA can claim that the entire mountain can be boarded in a single, massive trick chain (a feat which EA professionals have actually shown off in various review sessions, or so I'm told). This presents a challenge not found in any of the previous incarnations, and adds even more to an already deep game.

Not far from Board Presses, the new 3 level Uber bar also changes the gameplay immensely. Like SSX Tricky, players will still be performing tricks to fill their adrenaline bar, which they can then use for a temporary boost in speed or to perform Uber tricks when filled. However this is where the similarity ends. Filling the bar for the first time allows you access to Uber level 1. These Ubers are fairly ''tame'' and few are more than quick, unpersonalized skateboard tricks. Each time you perform an Uber, you earn 1 letter towards spelling UBER. Spell out the entire word, and you reach Uber level 2. Uber level 2 allows you access to some of the more fantastic Ubers (such as flairs, Superman, etc.) but this comes with a price. Uber 2's are generally lengthier than Uber 1's which means you are going to need bigger setups unless you want to end up face first in the snow. Each time you perform an Uber 2, you earn a letter towards spelling SUPER. Spell out the entire word and you reach Uber level 3. Uber 3 doesn't offer any new Uber tricks, but allow you an unlimited Adrenaline bar for a limited time.

On a small note, Ubers can now be done on rails and are really quite spectacular. Ubers in the air can also be ''held'' like grabs which can REALLY rack up your score.

Additionally, it looks as though EA has tweaked the trick system so that tricks flow more easily into eachother. Trying to figure out how many Uber tricks you can perform off a jump is now much less calculated (will both animations be able to finish in time?) and much more intuitive. In essence, it just makes the game ''feel better.''

In order to accomplish all this, EA has adopted a new control scheme which both works, and doesn't. While SSX Tricky was scaled down for the XBOX due to its lack of 2 sets of shoulder buttons (Y was substituted for one, but the other was axed completely), EA decided to remap the buttons so that XBOX owners would have all the functionality of the other versions of the game. What we end up with now is a strange button combination involving L being a tweak and the face buttons and R being grabs. This is definitely awkward to begin with, but becomes second nature in a short while of playing. Luckily the XBOX controller's inferiority is only noticeable with default controls. Once players begin to master the game, they will definitely want to switch to ''Pro'' controls (which I assume are similar on the PS2 and Gamecube versions) whose remapped buttons are practically a necessity for doing long combos involving board flexes.

Although I mentioned much about the ''1 mountain'' concept from a graphical standpoint, it serves even more from a gameplay standpoint. The ''go anywhere'' concept (which was begging to be used ever since SSX's original courses explorability became apparent) really lets players be their own boss. They can go anywhere, ride on anything, and really do whatever they want. Players can explore the back country searching for ''BIG challenges'' for money and completion percent, practice race courses without entering events, and explore the various lodges for purchasables to customize their character. In case players just want to quickly race or do events, the main menu allows players to ''quick start'' at courses or lodges. All current ''events'' are relayed to you via a nifty GPS gadget every character has. Most of these events boil down to ''rival challenges'' which are essentially events in the backcountry. Indeed, EA really has carefully thought out this concept and brought it out successfully on their first attempt. Really the only problem is that its hard to tell where the boundaries of the mountain are, and you will often find yourself being ''teleported'' back to the course if you explore too far off track. Some signs or something would have been nice.

Of course all these things are based upon a solid foundation set by the previous SSX games which involves balancing speed and tricks to fill the Adrenaline bar, excellent responsive controls, and plenty of challenges and unlockables. In fact, SSX 3 features far more unlockables than the other two SSX games combined. Everything from attributes to upgrade characters, to clothing to dress them up, to all the characters from previous SSX games, are available for unlocking either through buying or other means. The time it would take even an experienced player to unlock all the extras in this game is comparable with today's longest RPGs!

SSX 3's positives are so eclipsing, that one really needs to reach to come up with ''negatives.'' Many have complained that characters can get stuck in certain crevases from time to time, but as simple push of the back button can remedy this. Others have said that the rails can be too hard to get on, but if anything, I personally find that the rails are far easier to mount than any of the previous games in the series. If I were to make ANY suggestions at all, I would have liked to have some other riders on their own ''back country'' excursions from time to time. It's hard to believe on the SSX circuit that I'm the ONLY one who boards the peak just for enjoyment. Some randomized weather would have been nice too. However these are all just nitpicky suggestions, and are in no way failings of the game itself.

It's hard to believe that the SSX formula hasn't become tired yet. After looking like they were going in a bit of the wrong direction with Tricky, SSX 3 offers up a heaping helping of improvements in every category possible. It is a wonderful game which has been styled with great care and attention to detail. It offers a level of exploration and freedom inherent to the snowboarding sport, which has not been successfully implemented in any snowboarding game to date. SSX 3 really is a meaty game, deep in every sense of the word and will last players a long, long time. Hats (or touques I guess) off to EA BIG, you've delivered a game well worth the hype.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/23/03