SSX 3

"It's not tricky but it's pretty darn good."

One of the titles that snuck under the radar at E3 was SSX 3: Out of Bounds, follow up title to the successful SSX Tricky. Looking back on it one finds it hard to believe how this game was not one of the hits of the show with it’s unique snowboarding style returning for another slip down cool, icy slopes. In the series so far we have already seen how great the SSX snowboarding flavour is, the first release was for Playstation 2 offered some brilliant snowboard action and was packed full of neat tracks, tricks and character's. Soon after SSX Tricky was released and it was more an upgrade than a completely new game with track upgrades, new character's and so on. For that reason purists would argue that SSX 3 is really SSX 2 but whatever your opinion on what the title should be called, you can’t deny the amazing amount of fun that this title will bring to the gaming world.

SSX did to snowboarding what Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (THPS) did to skateboarding games - revolutionised it. Before SSX there was only 1080 Snowboarding (N64) and the Coolboarders series (PS1) that really stood the snowboarding test. While these games were great SSX bought plenty of fresh and fun ideas to the table offering reasonably realistic snowboard physics with the exaggerated ‘far out’ effects you’d expect from an EA Big Game. EA Canada are again at the helm for SSX 3 and with the same developer behind the title you’d expect only minor upgrades here and there but it seems that the team have gone right back to the drawing board to bring a completely revamped snowboarding experience to the fore.

One of the most noticeable differences is the freedom SSX 3 lets you have. If you want to you don’t have to race at all and can just snowboard around the various peaks included in the game. You decide when you want to race in a style something like THPS 4 whereas players can just muck round on the levels before taking up challenges. In fact SSX 3 looks to be borrowing many aspects from that famous skateboarding title with new manual tricks, handstands and grabs that will make THPS fans feel right at home. With all these new tricks available gamers can now string together huge combos going from air trick to manual to grind without breaking up their combo run making for some big scoring opportunities all the way down the mountain.

On top of the new standard tricks the uber-trick setup will be making a return. Uber-tricks are just like special tricks in the THPS series and enable players to pull of unreal tricks at the flick of the wrist. These tricks are, quite frankly, absolutely wonderful and they make the experience of SSX that much more remarkable. I just can’t wait to see what EA Canada cook up this time round.

On top of the usual race and trick modes EA Canada are throwing 100 unique challenges into the mix. Each challenge tests a unique the players skill in a certain location or pushes the player to perfect a certain snowboarding skill. This new mode will surely add a lot more length to the game instead of the typical ‘beat the game with all eight character's setup.

Like many extreme sports titles these days have the game revolves around style. THPS has it, Aggressive Inline managed to find it and SSX Tricky definitely had style. SSX Tricky got it’s style through character's, music and outstanding visuals and while the latter is likely to remain fairly unchanged (minor tweaks here and there) the other two aspects are definitely getting workovers.

Character's in the original SSX titles were great, packed full of personality that made you either love or hate them and SSX 3 looks to carry on that tradition with four new character's added to the mix. Each character will feature their own unique outfits, attributes, sayings and boarding style. All these factors make the personalities of each character stand out a country mile and it helps build wonderful relationship between the play and their chosen boarder. An all new upgrade system is also being employed instead of the usual attribute system but as of yet I have been unable to dig up exactly what EA Canada are intending to do, more surprises come release day I suppose!

Music is an integral part of any extreme sports title and it looks like SSX 3 tricky is pulling out all the stops to have one of the more memorable track lists. Featuring bands like N.E.R.D, Queens of the Stone Age, X-Ecutioners (personal favourite) and Felix Da Housecat this is one game you’ll need to turn your speakers up for.

Expectations are high for this release and everyone will be happy to know that SSX 3 is coming to all three next-gen systems, not just the Playstation 2. With a strong challenge from 1080: Avalanche (GameCube) and Amped 2 (Xbox), EA Canada will be working hard to release this title as quickly as possible, tweaking it for maximum enjoyment. Personally I can’t wait - 1080, Amped and SSX are all great snowboarding games and all of these sequels are looking incredible. Those with a passion for snowboarding will really be excited about these big releases as should casual gamers as all three titles offer amazing pick up and play fun.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/12/03