SSX 3

"Better in almost every possible way"

Introduction - As many of you already know, last year EA produced SSX Tricky, a follow-up to the monster success of the Playstation2 launch title SSX. However, where SSX met with great reviews, SSX Tricky was, well, less than stellar. Determined to bring the SSX series to a higher level, EA got to work on what is now known as SSX3. They wanted the game to feel new, and have the same mind-boggling feel that SSX had. Were they successful in doing so? You’re damn right they were.

From the very first moment you pick up your controller, you’ll be able to see how much work was put into this game. From the trees to the dozens of rails that litter the landscape, no detail is overlooked. Even the control aspect of the game was tweaked (no pun intended) just right, leaving SSX veterans to go collect on the big rewards straight away, while still allowing those who are new to the series to progress through the game.

Graphics: 9/10 - As stated in the introduction, EA has made BIG mountain flawless down to the smallest detail. To begin, let’s start off by giving the basic picture of BIG mountain.

Sporting three grand peaks, BIG mountain certainly lives up to it’s name. You start off, of course, on Peak One, where the game introduces you to the challenges that you’ll have to face on your journey to the top of the mountain, and ultimately, the longest race/trick contest you’ve ever been in, ever. As you progress you move up each of the three peaks, seeing everything the game has to offer, from daytime tracks in the back-country, to a nighttime track in a snowed over city (can anybody say Mercury City?). Some of the most obvious things, such as the way the snow flies from your board has been fine tuned to give you a realistic snowboarding feel, in an otherwise completely ridiculous game (quadruple-rodeo-stalefish-indy? Yeah right!). The trees are TREES this time around! No more cones with snow on them! I could probably go on and on about the trees and other “Seinfeldian” little things that I enjoyed, but let’s move onto the tracks.

Gorgeous is the only way I can accurately describe these beauties. Simply gorgeous. Easily my favorite part of all the tracks are the fireworks. As seen in many of the SSX games, as you go over the hugest-of-the-huge jumps, fireworks shoot up, the music gets near muted, and you’re left controlling yourself to the greatest trick ever...or in my case, the biggest wipe-out of all time. The fireworks always add to the ambiance of the track that you’re currently racing or stylin’ on, such as the lighter colored fireworks on the lighter tracks, and the darker colored fireworks on the darker tracks. Other than fireworks, the back country probably steals the show as far as graphics are concerned. What you might first think of is “Untracked” in the other SSX games, the back country of BIG mountain (or should I say, back countries of BIG mountain) each have unique characteristics. Whether it’s the heavily forested areas, the powdered downhill slops, or the humongous jumps, you, the gamer, will be in awe of these spectacular landscapes. Especially when you’re taking a huge jump and looking down upon it! The uber tricks, as usual, are animated perfectly, and leave you with your jaw hanging down to the floor wondering “How the heck did I do that?!!!”.

The freestyle tracks belong in a league all their own, which they do. Just by looking at the superpipes from a distance you can see how intimidating they really are. The Big air competitions are just that. You get a RIDICULOUS amount of air and do tricks within the, oh, about 10 seconds of hangtime that you get. Slopestyle parks are usually a combination of everything else, rails, big jumps, and the occasional quarter pipe. All three of these styles of freestyle terrain are made perfect by the EA staff, great job!

My only dispute with the graphics in SSX3 is the slowdown in the frame rate that occurs in Metro City. It usually only lasts for 5 seconds, but it does get a little annoying, especially when trying to gain that little bit of edge against competitors. Little graphics glitches are also a little weird, such as seeing your racers head or hand pass completely through a boulder or a tree. These minor things are easily overlooked however, with all the other spectacular visuals.

Controls: 10/10 - From the moment you pick up your Xbox controller, this game will have you hooked! The controls are simple, one button is boost, another is to jump, and the rest? Well, you use them to do tricks. As you can probably tell, the learning curve of this game is very short. It should only takes about five minutes for the SSX veteran to become comfortably acquainted with the game, and only around a half hour to an hour for anyone new to the series to adapt to the controls.

The trick system of the game is what allows it to flow so smoothly. By pressing the A button, you perform your ollies, or jumps. By holding A for a longer time, you can pre-wind spins and flips, this allows for faster spins and faster flips. On default, the B, X, Y, and Right trigger are used to perform your basic tricks, and the more advanced ones by pressing combinations of the four. By using the L trigger, you tweak your tricks, as well as perform the spectacular uber tricks. The white and black buttons are used for handplants. Possibly my favorite part of the controls is the use of the right analog stick. Another function is the “recover” feature, which allows you to right yourself if you’ve fallen and “recover”, or get up faster. The only main use of this is when you’re falling in mid air and you recover just in time to go down the mountain as if nothing happened. The X button is used for this feature. The right analog stick allows you to control your boarder when you’re riding on the snow in a new way, manually (pun intended). Also called a butter, manual..ing, in SSX3 is a way to keep up your combos, and to do some pretty sweet looking rail maneuvers.

The only problems that the controls have is that you have to use the D-pad (on default) to pre-wind your tricks and do spins and flips. The left analog stick is used to balance yourself on rails and turn, though you can turn with the D-pad, making the left analog stick kinda only useful for when you’re on rails.

Gameplay: 9/10 - Each and every moment you play SSX3 is like you’re painting a beautiful picture. You don’t just ride down the mountain, you flow down the mountain. Each turn, each trick, each jump, it all just combines to form the perfect feeling of snowboarding bliss.

Each track has a certain flow to it, some of them seem like you’re snowboarding uphill with all the obstacles in the way. Other tracks are pure fun, where you can ride rails almost all the way down the hill. The only similarity between any of the tracks is the amount of energy you always have to put fourth. Yes, this game WILL drain you, from the dizzying heights of the uber tricks, to the perilous lows of falling down after a huge combo. Even the freestyle terrain is made to have it’s own unique flow. No two big air tracks are the same, and no two superpipes (and I mean SUPER pipes) are the same either.

SSX3 also introduces a 3 level uber trick system, level one is mainly one-foot-out tricks, and level two gives us the really crazy uber tricks, the ones you’ve come to know and love. Level three is simply the level two uber tricks, but with an infinite boost, and having an infinite boost gives you a big edge over competition. See? Doing tricks DOES pay off!

Problems with the gameplay? Just little glitches that the controls cause that slightly throw the game off, like when you’re trying to go downhill but you hit a small bump and do a front-flip without ever realizing you pushed the button. However, after you adapt to those little glitches, you’ll be able to do almost anything within the game.

Sound: 10/10 - Well, Rahzell (I spell it as I say it), is gone! In his stead, we now have a semi-cool radio DJ who keeps you up to date on the happenings on BIG mountain as well as giving some hilarious little blips along the way. No longer are your tricks called out as you do them, since...well...I think that would be insane! Another hostess of this fine game is the woman who lets you know when you have you can do uber tricks, and at which level (one, two and three).

Other than your hosts, the game has their voice actors giving out their trash talk and crazy gab. While racing down mountains, you can hear your rider having mini-conversations with some of the other characters on the hill, as well as a fair share of trash talk (don’t worry, they keep it G rated). EA manages once again to keep the amount of talking at a minimum, so that though the sound gets annoying...you don’t get mad at it! All around, the voice acting is superb, hilarious, and adds to the depth of the game. The sound effects of the mountain are too made absolutely perfect. From the sounds of powder flowing from your board, to the sound of scraping across the ice, the game makes it really feel like you are actually a part of the mountain. Great job by EA on that bit.

Music! The music, as per usual, is perfect! The subtle beats when you’re just heading down the hill to the all out blasts when you land a huge trick, it’s all blended in perfectly. The mix of fast beats with some pretty insane tunes gives the game another component to it’s unique feel. The game also allows you to customize your own soundtrack and keep out all of those tracks that you don’t like.

Rent or Buy- Buy, definitely. The amount of replay value in this game is unbelievable. With characters to unlock, crazy tricks to unlock, gear to unlock, and a plethora of other stuff to unlock...well, I think you know where I’m going with this. Not only can you unlock things by winning races, but by earning cash you can buy songs, and some other little collectibles that give you an idea of how hard the EA crew worked to make this game. With all of these things and more, guaranteed you’ll be sitting at your Xbox playing this game until the wee hours of the morning just trying to get all the money you can! With all the unlockables and just the overall coolness of the game, it’s most definitely a buy!

The Final Word - Overall, this game is damn near perfect. With the exception of a few minor glitches, a lack of online play for the Xbox, and minor twitches here and there, this game provides constant fun. The diversity of characters, the awesome soundtrack, the unlockables, and the visuals all give this game it’s unique feel. Unlike SSX Tricky, where it just felt like the same old SSX with some bells and whistles, SSX3 bring the series to a whole new level, and leaves you wanting MORE.

SSX3 does what EA set out to do, get the series back on top. It is easily the extreme sports game of the year, and has to be the best SSX game made to date. Each and every second you put into this game you will not regret in the least. The game is mind-boggling, the uber tricks are even MORE insane than in SSX Tricky, the music is wilder than ever, and the characters have more depth to them. The game is made almost flawless down to the minor details, no shadow is overlooked. EA put their all into this game and it shows. They’ve kept the SSX series alive, and more than that, they’ve made it better than ever.

Now go out and play!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/17/04