SSX 3

"A HUGE disappointment inclusive of multiple factors."

After EA decided NOT to support Xbox Live, nothing has been the same again. Tricky was a good conversion. SSX3 is another story.
This game is NOT meant for the Xbox. Regardless of any graphical or sound enhancements, it is NOT designed for the Xbox in any way or form. Don't try to fool yourself. I'll tell you this from the offset, if you are a fanboy and can not get it through your thickhead that perhaps SSX 3 is not flawless, you should stop reading right NOW.

Graphics - 7/10
This game is definitely not that impressive compared to the rest of the Xbox library. There are indeed minor updates compared to the PS2 version, however it is not enough of a difference to warrant a suitable excuse to purchase it for the Xbox. This game is in essense the exact same in graphics wise to the 2-3 year old Tricky.
In the initial peak everything is designed very well, and it complete in structure. But if you actually bother to play this game to the 3rd peak you may notice that at certain points the levels actually CUT OFF. When you gain air you can clearly see that segments of the level are just sliced clean off. It seems the level designers over at EA got lazy and took corners in the end. Minus for EA.

Sound/Music - 5/10
The default soundtrack is composed of techno, techno remixes, and euro dance. If you like that stuff than great for you. I found it pretty nice too, until after hearing the same damned song for the 100th time. There are only some 30 odd tracks on the game, and it is unfortunate that this game does NOT make use of the HARDDRIVE feature offered by the Xbox. You can NOT rip your own songs to the Xbox and then use them in the game. How wonderful. Another minus score for EA.
Voice acting is not exactly phenominal either. Remember cute Kaori? Yea she ain't so cute no more with her new voice actress.

Controls - 2/10
By the gods this was one of THE main absolute reasons why NOT to get this title on the Xbox. The Xbox controller just does not have the sufficient buttons to compensate for all the moves required. One of the main problems is that the 'X' button is used for 3 different, COMMON purposes. Grab, Boost and Recover. What makes this extrodinarily bad is that no matter how great your reflexes are, if you are using the boost and happen to hit a small hill, your 'x' will automatically become a grab. Come land time you fall flat on your face, and lose your speed and any gained points. Wonderful.
The other bad thing about the controls is that you can NOT even get the option to remap the buttons! Blasphemy!
Another minus score for EA.

Gameplay value - 4/10
The exact same thing as Tricky. Except there are even more collision problems now. Sometimes you are just shredding along. SUDDENLY you fall into some unseen glitch hole in the ground! Your entire screen is filled with white, and it takes the game a few seconds before it teleports you back with a OUT OF LIMITS warning. This has happened on multiple occasions, and it serves nothing more than to annoy. There are times when you are grinding a rail near a wall/tree or are shredding near a wall. SUDDENLY you collide with the wall/fall and fall over for no apparent reason. Back to the previous note about the lackluster levels. There are times (especially in the 3rd peak) when there are regions you would EXPECT to be able to land in, as that is the general direction the jump ramp sends you. Unfortunately you discover soon after words those are OUT OF LIMITS. In the 3rd peak OUT OF LIMITS will be flashing so much you may experience a seisure. In Tricky there were predefined paths that you were MEANT TO FOLLOW. In SSX 3 they intended to give the player a more freestyle oriented exploration type gameplay. This does not work out when they decide to cut off random parts of the level to 'challenge the player'.

Replay value - 1/10
When I first purchased this game I heard that you could play as brodie, eddie and a whole bunch of old favourites from previous titles. I thought this was great. Come time I unlock them, and guess what? They are nothing more than skins! There is NOT a single unlockable character in this game. Only unlockable skins. What an utter dissapointment that was. For all the 'bonus' skins they don't even have voices! Christ, why don't you try a tad harder EA!
Besides unlockable 'characters' you can also unlock a ton of other stuff. Stuff such as wallpapers, toys, collectable cards..etc. Oh yay! But waitaminute, they are all the SAME THING?! All of those unlockable objects are just pictures! Whats more you can not even ZOOM IN or anything with them! Bah.

The one thing that really disappointed me with this title was the lack of unique character generation. No matter who you play everyone has the SAME set of UBER TRICKS(you can buy the same set for every character.) As well as the SAME MAX ATTRIBUTES! Because of this, basically every character is the exact same as the other. They were no longer their own personas, instead they were just the same character in a different skin. That was how it felt.

Dispite all of this harsh critism, this game is still worth a RENTAL. I would not recommend anyone else to purchase it prior to RENTAL first. This game does get old very fast when you realise that unlocking bonuses, and increasing attributes for another character turn out to be repetitive. I recall in Tricky since every character had different stat strengths and weaknesses, you were obligated to adapt accordingly. In SSX 3 everyone plays the same, which is just redundant in the end.

Again I stress RENT this game first, it is not worth paying full price only to realise this is NOT to the calibre Tricky was!!

Final Score - 3/10

Final notes: just too disappointing on too many levels. I can continue to rant about this, but to be honest I am sick of SSX 3 and everything about it. With all of its collision detection problems and lost of unique character personalities, its just no longer fun.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 11/06/03