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> Results: SSX 3
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Scroll down for our Kid Factor. 
Our favorite hardcore snowboarding game is back in a big way. It pushes the edge of just about every dimension on the previous two installments. It's bigger to look at, with bigger and more intricate tricking and a whole new world to romp through.The concept of "levels" has been given a 90 degree McTwist. Instead of having a bunch of different venues that you progress and open up, the game is configured like the world's largest, coolest ski resort area. There are three peaks to The Mountain, with Metro City cradled at their feet between them. You start off to thrash through Peak 1 to gain the skills and rider cred to get a lift ticket to the other two. The various runs on each peak are strung down the mountain in such a way you can literally start at the top and ride all the way through them to the bottom if you want to. Each run has a stretch of open area between them that you can explore on your own, with it's own secret spots and lines. To close out each type of competition on the peak, you have to win a race for either time or trick points with your character's rival from the top to the bottom. All three peaks end with their last run snaking through the city. Speaking of rivals, the Rivalry system came along for the ride but has been muted in some ways. The personality conflicts between the characters from the last game have been brought back, along with adding four new ones to the mix. For anyone who was annoyed with Mack, there's Griff to make you realize that there actually are more annoying people out there. It isn't in your face and quantified like it was in Tricky. You don't start out each race with a percentage total of how much everyone out there hates you. You get an exclaimation point over the head of your rival, but other than some dismayed comments during the run the rest of the gang lets you sort yourself out based on how you actually play the game. If you smack people around they'll still get after you, though, so if you don't want to deal with it you better keep your hands to yourself. The characters have gone back to their anonymous voices, and the writers toned down the smack talking from Tricky. Most of the posturing and posing takes place as text messages over your magical little PDA called an "M-com". This was a huge relief to me. All the verbiage has taken on a more real tone - even Psymon's usual disjointed screeds have developed a really strange sort of sense (or I'm even more tired than I thought). You get a lot more out of each character - there is a lot more different comments they make during the course of the run and on the transits on the plane or on the lift you get to see them even more. Each one handles the waiting in their own way. The game just drips with collectibles and things to unlock. Anyone whose played Tony Hawk with all those secret characters and boards and clothes and stuff is going to be in hog heaven. I've heard rumors there are as many as 30 secret characters to unlock, including the rest of the cast of Tricky and SSX (we've only got four so far). You don't just gain a few outfits like you did last time. Each character can buy any number of improvements to make them just the way you like them. You can get normal accessories like hats, glasses, backpacks and gloves, or you can go over the top with stuff like crowns and devil horns or turning your character's head into a skull or a balloon. The music has taken it up a notch in a lot of cool ways. They have structured it like a radio station, with Radio BIG smoothing the way with news of conditions and competitions during the transition screens and loading times and bringing on the tunes as you hit the top of each run. Each song is announced by the DJ, and they also display a little title-card on the screen to give you title and artist - a great addition that gave us some new bands to go try to find. Mostly mid-range electronica from Finger Eleven, Fischerspooner, and the Basement Jaxx, to name a few. It is a two-edged sword, though. For those who loved Rahzell and his human beatbox style on the mic, I'm sorry to say he's gone and so are some of our favorite numbers (we loved "Shake What Your Mama Gave Ya"). And so is that flashback-inducing bit of Run-DMC that signaled you had achieved Uber status on your adrenaline meter. The Uber system has gotten a whole lot more to it. You now have added Uber Rail tricks, and you have three levels of Uber. Do five Ubers in a run and you have infinite boost as long as you don't fall and keep tricking periodically. Do that again and get Super Uber status. It makes a whole lot more sense when you're playing, believe me. There are only a couple spots of tarnish on an otherwise sterling experience. There are quite a few spots where you can get stuck in the terrain. Most of the time the game figures it out and smacks you back out into the course proper with little fuss. But every so often you run into one that just won't let you go, and you have to manually cut and run. And whoever designed their stats buying system added an odd quirk - you can only up a stat one box before you have to pay for it and exit that module. You can turn right around and just go back and buy some more, though. I'm not sure why they did it, but it was a real pain if you just won a good payoff and you want to go drop serious cash on your stats. But that's all I can find. The rest of it is just pure, beautiful shredding, on some of the most beautiful tracks they've come up with yet. So drop in and hit the slopes! Kid Factor: No blood, no muss, hardly any fuss. Just some smack talk and smacking around. People who are smacked just stumble or fall, depending on how they are hit. Due to the over-the-top jumps and falls, this one needs a big "Do Not Try This At Home" stencilled on the screen. After they've played the game you might want to keep an eye on them for a while. That's where the age reccommendation came from. If you don't want the game's music going for whatever reason, there is the option to turn it off and just play with ambient mountain noise. Ding Dong, the old save system's dead! One of the most annoying problems with the first two installments of this game was the fact that there was only one saved game at a time. For anyone with more than one person in the house it was a nightmare to let everyone play. We worked it out by having everyone choose a specific character and play through with just that person, but it was a logistical mess. Now everyone in the house can have a real run at this game, on their own. Reviewer's Recommended Ages: 6+ (immitation is dangerous) ESRB: E for Everyone Genre: Extreme Sports Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: Electronic Arts Canada Reviewer: Colleen Hannon Score: 5 out of 5 Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: SSX 3 |
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