Thanks to the good folks at EA and Red Bull, I got a chance to try the new SSX. Long story short? SSX is back in a big way baby!
At the Red Bull HQ in Sydney, a select gathering of people were allowed to try what seemed to pretty much be the finished product. There was food, drinks, a pool table, a DJ, a rather amusing mechanical snowboard machine (think mechanical bull) and of course the game itself.
As a long time fan of the series, I've been looking forward to this game ever since it was announced. It didn't disappoint. Upon playing it, it was immediately familiar and comfortable, despite me not having touched the series for quite some time. Before long I was careening down mountains at unsafe speeds whilst performing tricks that would cause both Professional Snowboarders and Physicists to quit in horror, having had all their illusions upon what is possible and impossible to do on a snowboard shattered.
The X button (A button on 360) lets you jump, holding it down charges said jump. The other face buttons let you grab the board and perform tricks (you can also use the right thumbstick for this), L2 and R2 (Triggers on 360) let you perform modifiers when doing the holds as well as allowing you to grind on some surfaces and boost. L1 (LB) rewinds, allowing you to save yourself from wiping out or falling into a crevasse, whilst R1 (RB) can be used to deploy special gear such as the wingsuit.
The core gameplay is as you would remember it. Perform tricks to earn boost. Keep doing it to unlock uber tricks, which equal more boost and higher scores. Keep doing those and you unlock the ultimate uber tricks, moves so ridiculous they defy reason. Gymnastics style pommel horse on a board that's corkscrewing through mid-air? To hell with you gravity! All of this happening whilst racing down a mountainside, trying to take the first position or nab the highest score.
So its a comfortable return to what we knew and loved, but what does it do differently? Well apart from being more attractive (obviously) than ever, the courses are more open than ever, allowing more exploration. There are specially themed races/events where special gear is required; such as the wingsuit to glide, or sonar goggles to see in whiteout conditions. These special items tie in to the 9 different mountain ranges you'll encounter in the game.
As you may have seen in Console Domination's recent EA Livestream article, SSX now has 3 major types of event. The standard race, the trick event and the survival challenges. Race and Tricks are simple enough, be first in either position or in terms of score when your cross the finish line. The survival missions are rather unique. As I said, the 9 ranges have specific themes that tie in with these survival missions.
For the Rockies, it was trees. You armoured up and tried to make your way down a forest covered mountain. Smash into things and you deplete your armour. Deplete your armour and you die. For Patagonia, it's crevasses. You don a wingsuit and use it to glide over otherwise impassable divides, trying desperately to get down the mountainside without falling to your death. Siberia had ice-axes for better handling on the mostly slick and dangerously narrow icy courses, Alaska has you outrunning avalanches. You get the idea. The specialised equipment is also available for less dangerous race types as well.
I'd also like to mention that whilst the gameplay remains as over the top as ever, the aesthetic of the series has gone for a somewhat more realistic style. This means that the courses no longer look like something from a deranged Japanese game show. Still, they're not boring by any means. Siberia's courses are built around nuclear reactors. The Himalayas have you grinding and jumping on and off the Great Wall of China. Patagonia is a graveyard filled with crashed aeroplanes and deadly crevasses.
Two modes were on offer today. The World Tour mode, which is the equivalent of story mode and intended to serve as something of a tutorial, and the Explore mode, which is the main hub of both offline and asynchronous online gameplay. World Tour has you going to each of the 9 regions, participating in a number of events, culminating in the ultimate survival challenge; the Deadly Descent. There's something of a storyline here, apparently some new jerk-ass young gun has come about and impugned upon everyone's honour. Clearly the only solution is to challenge him to a snowboard tournament culminating in some potentially lethal races. That's hardcore right there. Jokes aside, World Tour seems to be a nice way to ease into events and sample some of the races from the 9 regions.
Explore mode is where I see most of the gameplay at. Here you're not limited by the selection of events and races. Nor do you have to unlock them. Every track in the game is on offer for you to try. It kind of functions like a quick play sort of thing. Now whilst we didn't get to try the online features of explore mode, the Need For Speed Autolog inspired system does seem promising, allowing you to challenge your friends and yourself for better scores and better times at any given time. For your benefit or ire, the ghost of your frenemy, should he/she have the superior ranking will be there for you to challenge. Likewise for him/her, should you take the new top spot, your ghost will be haunting their slopes. Being able to compete against each other whenever you want rather than having to set up a convenient time for the both of you is a pretty fantastic idea. (I know it's not new, but I don't play Need For Speed so bear with me here)
Of course if you do want to go head to head, Global Events (which wasn't on offer) is there for you. More details on this mode are in the Livestream article.
And whilst you play each of these different modes, you level up and earn credits. Credits which go towards buying new gear, new outfits, new mods to buff your stats and etc.
Overall I was very much impressed. The gameplay is fast paced and smooth. It's rather challenging at times (I could rarely score higher than a silver, and the survival missions killed me quite a bit).
It looks great as well. Unfortunately I wasn't able to hear the soundtrack. The venue had a D.J, so I can't give an impression on what the soundtrack is like.
Ultimately, this is a must have for SSX fans. It's a worthy addition to a much loved series with some great new twists and features. If you've never tried SSX, then I strongly recommend it. It's a high speed, high thrill, over the top game.
For more information on the game's features, refer to the Livestream article. For the review, keep an eye on Console Domination.
SSX is out March 2nd in Australia.