SSX Out of Bounds

"Cell phone snowboarding...at it's best???"

Here we are with another review of what should probably be a terrible game. As a collector I give every game I purchase thorough playtime, I've played many a terrible game as well as many a great game, and since this is an N-gage game, I guess you'd expect this to be terrible. Well it is and it isn't. I happen to be a fan of the N-gage and use it faithfully as my phone of choice, so I will be fanboyish at times, but the review from here on out will be strictly unbiast, any biast opinions I will call out so that you, the reader, are not given any wrong impressions, since you may or may not be using this review to decide on a purchase of the game.

Story : 0 out of 10 There's no story. It's snowboarding, you race, you race your rival, you score points, you score points against your rival. That's it, and this is called Conquer the Mountain.

Graphics: 7 out of 10 For the small screen, the graphics are quite good. Though each level, other than city levels, look the same, they are still done well. Pretty much on par with Playstation 1 graphics, which for a cell phone, isn't half bad. The character designs are nice, though each person is pretty much the same with just different clothes and hair. The animations of the tricks are also done pretty damn good, which is a shame when we get further into the review, but all and all, decent graphics for a cell game.

Sound: 7 out of 10 The N-gage's speaker sucks to begin with, so I am not factoring that into any part of this review. The sound effects are avarege at best, with all the usual sounds you'd have from hitting rocks to the sound of the board on snow. What makes, or breaks the sound, is the song selection. There's rap to rock, depending on what you like, the sound track is not bad, and there are a ton of songs to listen to. But there are a couple songs that are absolutely atrocious. But you do have the option to remove those songs from the games playlist, if you can figure out what the name of the song is, because most of the songs are from people I've never heard of.

Gameplay: 5 out of 10 *WARNING* This will be the most biased part of the review. *WARNING* I had to warn you despite the 5 rating. Any normal gamer is not going to give this game much of a chance right off the bat, but I look at the N-gage differently than most people. IT'S A PHONE!!! And for a phone, the gameplay is not that bad, but it does take some getting used to.

First of all. The game is some what choppy at times, making it very hard to tell where you are going, especially in the later parts of the game. There's really no slow down in the game, but the frame rate is low, so other than the character animations, everything else can be choppy. Is the game playable, absolutely, but you will need to get used to it. I've finished the game with 1st places on every race, I did not accomplish this over night though, it will take time, but once you get used to how the game scrolls, I think you will enjoy the game.

Second of all. The controls are actually very easy to learn. One button to jump, one button for turbo, other buttons used for tricks. They are all easy to find and you can map them to your own liking, but the default scheme works very well.

Overall: 5 out of 10 I'm going to assume the majority of gamers will not like this game because of the controls and the choppy gameplay. *WARNING BIAST OPINION* I like the N-gage, and I like most of the games despite other peoples opinions. It's a cell phone, that can play almost PS1 calibur games. Yes the game can be hard and frustrating, but it's also very enjoyable with enough practice. It's a very easy game for me to just whip out anywhere, play for 5 minutes, and then put back in my pocket. Over all 5 out of 10, because the general public will not enjoy this, but as an N-gage fan, and one that has put the time into this game to appreciate it for what it is, my overall opinion is 7 out of 10.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/29/07