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SSX 3 - First Look Preview
Mark Simons
25/07/2003
Some big changes in store for this EA Big title, find out what they are inside...
'SSX' has done well for itself, we could make the point that there aren?t actually that many great snowboarding games out there right now; 'Amped', but that's Xbox only, and '1080' on the N64, and whilst ours may be hooked up for 'WaveRace', 'GoldenEye' and the occasional run down Golden Forest, we don't know about the rest of you.
The first game in the series had good timing, being a quality launch game for the PlayStation2, 'SSX Tricky' was a great follow up, offering more refined but at the same time, more over the top experience, and it gave us an excuse to sing along to some Run DMC, which is always good. As good as the games were and as much as we enjoyed them, there was no getting away from the rather arcade nature of proceedings, courses, as opposed to mountains, were what it felt like you were going down, especially compared to 'Amped'.
It seems that EA have thought long and hard about what it is they want 'SSX' to be in the future, not just a good fun arcade game that people like, but to try and push forward in a few areas, but keeping the core of what makes the game what it is. A hard path to go down, but from what we have seen so far the task is going rather well.
The biggest change to the game is the structure; there is only one mountain in the game. It is however, mountain sized, meaning there are three different peaks, a wild guess leads us to assume the higher the peak the harder the routes down from it are. As you get higher up the mountain weather will also become a factor, visibility, wind and snow types all affecting things. There will also be all manner of environmental hazards to keep you on your toes, as well as things like cloud layers to fall through.
It's worth noting also that it takes apparently takes about half an hour to go from the very top to the very bottom of the mountain.
Half an hour snowboarding down a mountain? Yes Please EA.
There will be various events that take place all over the mountain including; races, big air, slope style and super pipe. You will get cash for your performance and this can be used to buy things for your character such as clothes, hair and attributes, on top of this there are things like extra tracks for your playlist, boards and cheats to be buying.
There will be over a hundred big challenges to take on, quite what these challenges are, we don?t know, but we guess little things to teach you the nuances of the game, gradually introducing you the new multi-level uber tricks, and some of the brand new moves like the rail handplant.
In between the events and challenges you will be able to ride around the mountain at your leisure and there will, as in any overworld, be hidden things lying around, and other funky things that reward exploration and risk taking. Free riding down the mountain will also get you used the sections before you head out against your rivals. Once you've unlocked the whole thing will be fun just to ride around tricking off whatever and generally messing around on a huge mountain, a liberating experience we're sure it will be.
So it seems EA have made some pretty major changes to the way the game works, now coming a bit more in line with 'Amped', well it's only natural to want to use entire mountains for this sort of thing, and the other more standard extreme sports games that follow the trail blazed by the 'Tony Hawk' series.
Manualing will be introduced in 'SSX 3', as it will be in 'Amped 2', this will allow for silly scores to be racked up as you keep those combos flowing.
'SSX Tricky' introduced uber tricks, stunts which no human could possibly pull off on a real snowboard, but they looked good. There are now three levels of uber tricks here, to get to be able to perform the next level of uber trick you must pull off the one before. When playing this means that you nail one uber trick, fill up your meter, then nail another then next time you fill up the meter you're all set for the super-duper oh so special triple uber trick - trying saying that in a German accent; it's fun. For some reason this makes us think of Street Fighter and the super special move system employed there.
Other new moves are the rail handplant, stop yourself dead on a rail, just to mix things up a little bit, should look really cool, especially if you time it with the music. Then there is the wipeout recovery feature, press the jump button if you land badly and you can get up a bit quicker, vital for those close faught races. Fighting also gets a bit of an overhaul, in addition to punching and kicking you can now block, proper fighting game style, this should add some depth to this aspect of the game. Don't know if you can pull of special moves, uber style, against the other characters though...
Graphically things are being improved as well, thirty different types of snow not only adding to the look of the game, all kinds of different reflection values you see, but how you play it. Many different types of snow mean many ways the board can react, and you better know how it reacts or you'll end up having to use that wipeout recovery feature. Draw distance will be increased to make you appreciate the size of the mountain, and lighting is going to be improved, as are the very fancy showing off effects. There will be a host of new characters, familiar faces and more animation for all.
Sound as ever will be strong, with music from the likes of X-Ecutioners, Felix Da Housecat, Queens of the Stone Age, and N.E.R.D. A different approach to the independent artists featured in 'Amped', but works equally as well for us. Many genres will be straddled to give you a wide choice of music, as that little selection shows.
As with a few other EA titles this year the PlayStation2 version of this game will feature an online mode. Lots of people milling around a huge mountain challenging each other and messing around, ooh yeah, we like the prospect of that.
