As the sky goes dark; the whir of the chopper blades roar in my ears as I hang out the side. My snowboard propped on the skis of the hovering beast. My heart barely leaps as I drop to the hard packed snow below. This is not something new for me; it’s a just another day at the office. An avalanche, an overgrowth of trees, and even a sheer impassable drop are nothing more than mere obstacles in my path down the mountain. Even the impenetrable darkness is nothing but an annoyance as a crouch to hit my first ramp that will send me several feet in the air and over a sheer drop before me. This is not the next feature film or the next crazy Youtube series. No, it’s SSX for 2012 and it is incredible.
SSX is one of the best games I’ve played in a very long time. There are a multitude of things about it that make the title the best sports and the best racing title I’ve played all year. SSX is from the Sports division of EA. It’s meant to be part of their long virtually untouched, EXTREME SPORTS area which last had an installment, with probably NBA Street or NFL Street. Needless to say, it’s been a very long time.
Some people would call SSX Blur, which was a Wii title back in 2007; the last SSX game. I would rather say it was SSX 3 or SSX Tricky. Which was either 2001 or 2003 depending on which one you pick. Either way, that’s around 10 years. Which is a REALLY LONG TIME for a franchise to be on hiatus and have any business being as good as the new game is. SSX for 2012 does everything those old games did, but I dare say it does it MUCH MUCH BETTER.
The graphics in this game are some of the best I’ve seen in a game where you are usually clipping along so fast that you can barely comprehend what is going on around you. I am terrible at estimating framerate; but SSX certainly has it nailed whatever frames it’s pulling. I love the night events and every Deadly Descent event was incredible. In the Deadly Descents you have to just survive and get to the bottom of the mountain in the World Tour mode. This is usually made difficult by avalanches, trees blocking your route, and even sheer drops that you actually have to fly over to cross. Every one of these events was obviously crafted with care and the more you play them in the EXPLORE mode; the more you realize just how technically challenging something like this must have been to design.
In the World Tour Mode(read story/campaign), you go through a series of events with different characters, leveling each one up and acquiring different gear for each. By doing this you also are shown some motion comics that are supposed to be the backstory for each character and move the “Story” of what’s going on along. I guess if they HAD to have a Story mode this was the best way to do it. Take as little time with it as possible and spend as little money as possible on it. So that the player can just skip it and move on to the actual events. Because the story, comic, and backstories are TERRIBLE! If SSX has one fault it’s this area. But it is only a minor fault because the scenes are skippable and the events themselves are top notch.
EXPLORE mode is the meat of this title. The player can pick any character they want and either for a fee of in game credits or perhaps you’ve all ready unlocked the course through the World Tour mode. You can Race, Trick, or Survive your way to the top of the leaderboards. This mode uses a similar mechanic to the Audiolog in Need for Speed Hot Pursuit called Ridernet. This allows everyone who has the game on your Friends list to compete directly with you in events by racing, tricking, or surviving against your ghost. There is no ACTUAL multiplayer here. But that really doesn’t matter considering in most events you don’t see more of your competitors than their game enhanced trail if you are behind them and nothing at all if you are a head of them, anyway. The feature is extremely addictive and I’ve found myself playing for hours just to beat the single person a head of me. For this mode alone the game is endless replayable.
In SSX, you need gear to survive the Deadly Descent events; such as needing an ice axe for very icy mountains or Armor to survive an avalanche. But different boards and suits with different stats will also help out your performance and can certainly make the difference when playing against other players scores and not just the A.I.SSX has lots of gear that you can purchase with in-game credits. You can also buy this currency with real money. While I don’t normally recommend doing this. I do have to admit it’s very tempting when you go into the gear section and there is some incredible piece of gear that was randomly made available this time you went in there and only this time that is only one or two runs away from being yours to just buy the credits and not miss out on the gear. I’m sure this is what EA is counting and it works pretty well. I certainly can’t wait to play even more and see what the really high level gear does for me.
I would be remiss if I finished my review without mentioning the phenomenal audio job that was done for SSX. The soundtrack is very appropriate for the game and you never really get tired of hearing it. The music is meant to pump you up and get you going. That’s exactly what it does; without every leaving you feeling tired or like the same basic track or beat has gone on for too long. The voice work in the game is minimal and over top; but not the greatest. They never go far enough with the humor or cheesiness of the voice work. So you end with just a bunch of boring, repetitive voices that you would just as soon turn as listen to for the hundredth time. This happens often in Sports titles, but here they might have wanted to think a little outside of the box or just not included it at all.
SSX is the best game I’ve played so far this year and will be happy to play probably til the end of the year. SSX makes gameplay king and no matter how much you like story in games. Everyone would rather play the game than watch a cutscene. It’s a game that met and then exceeded my expectations. Even with the horrendous story; the game is a clearly a gold medal winner. 9.8/10…
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