Bought the game, beat the crap out of my thumbs playing it, and am now telling my tale to anyone who will listen.
(I am also quite pleased that I beat PGC to the review.
)
Before I start the actual review, I would like to tell a small tale. SSX Tricky has long been the one and only sports game that I truly loved. The over the top physics, the cartoony style, and the great characters are what really did it for me. When I began playing the game, I played obsessively, finishing the game with nearly perfect scores in everything.
It was almost heartbreaking to me when I first saw the screenshots and video of SSX 3. Much of the style of Tricky that I had come to love was gone, and all I was seeing was a snowboarding game devoid of all the stuff I had come to love about SSX Tricky. In the video I saw, the color was washed out, and it just looked far too generic and realistic to me, and too much like the "other" sports games. The game dropped off my radar completely. A couple of weeks ago though, I decided to watch the final trailer of SSX 3, more for old time's sake more than anything. When I first started watching it, I wasn't expecting much. The radio announcer didn't impress me, and when I saw an avalanche, I laughed at the blatant ripoff of Nintendo's 1080: Avalanche. By the time I hit the end of the trailer though, I was a believer.
Flash forward to now, and it's a whole different scene altogether. since I live in Canada, I always have to wait for games, and that was one of the longest 3 days I have ever had to wait in my life from the release date of SSX 3 to the time it actually appeared on store shelves. Strangely, it came out a day earlier on PS2 and Xbox, and my esteemed roommate picked up a copy for his PS2 the day it first appeared for PS2. I briefly entertained the idea of simply not getting it for GameCube, and just doing my best parasite impression on the PS2 version. That didn't last long when I actually tried to play the game though. I fell in love with the game almost from the start, but the controller was driving me mad. I bought it when it came out for GameCube the very next day. What I am trying to explain with this story is that the game is VERY VERY good, and I was willing to cough up full price for the game to increase my own enjoyment of the game by a small fraction.
The game does not destroy all that was created in SSX Tricky, as I had previously thought, but merely reinvented it. The game is most certainly a paradigm shift in what SSX was and has now become. The game just feels FAR more polished, refined, and playable than the previous games. It feels evolved... matured... grown up.
The first thing to note about the game is that the SSX circuit is no longer a collection of ski hills worldwide, but takes place on one GIGANTIC mountain. Don't let that fool you though, as the levels and scenery change dramatically, depending on where you are. The mountain has 3 peaks, each of which is a full ski hill in itself, each one a little steeper, a little more treacherous than the last. The game features a GREAT sense of unity and continuity throughout, and allows the player almost complete freedom when going down the mountain.
You start out as a standard contestant in the SSX competition. As a newbie, you are given access to Peak 1, which is only moderately steep. But as you make a name for yourself, and graadually earn prizes and money, you are given access to more and more places on the mountain. As an SSX contender, you have unlimited access to the ski lifts and helicopters that ferry people up and down the mountain, but they will only ferry you to the places that you are authorized to visit, as some of the more exotic locales are reserved for the best of the best.
When you have mastered all the peaks, you gain access to a course that starts at the very top of the highest peak, and ends at the bottom of the lowest. When you start out, it's daytime, when you hit the bottom, it's night. It takes almost 30 minutes to reach the bottom, but the course is VERY fun, and simply amazed me that it was even possible. SSX is a multiplatform game, and each of the 3 consoles are very different. I would have guessed that something like this would have been fairly easy to pull off on the GameCube, but almost impossible on the PS2, given the architectures of the consoles. GameCube is VERY good at streaming data from a disc, and exclusive games often take advantage of that. The PS2 on the other hand is... fairly crappy at it. Levels in PS2 games are often fairly small, and have dramatic load times between levels. To think that you could smoothly ride down a mountain 3X as tall as Mt. Everest at 40 - 60 MPH on any console just blows my mind. Kudos to a job very well done to EA Big.
The trick system is a slightly modified version of the one found in SSX Tricky, but there are different levels of Uber Tricks, and a wider selection of tricks overall to choose from. It feels very natural and requires a fair amount of skill and practice to pull off effectively. Veterans of SSX Tricky should feel right at home after a few practice runs to figure out the new system, as it can be a little shocking at first, but quickly becomes familiar once more. One thing new that's of note is the combo system. You have a short period of time to start a new trick after you have finished your last trick, meaning that you can theoretically string your entire run into one gigantic combo, although doing so could prove to be VERY difficult. Nevertheless, it's my goal to one day turn the 30 minute run from top of the mountain to the bottom into one gigantic combo without running out of time.
I was wondering what they would do to top the audio featured in SSX Tricky, since the game was very audio inclined, featuring very well known voice actors, and the game was actually named after a song by Run DMC. When I heard that the game was the first to feature THX certification, I knew I was in for a treat, but I had no idea the extent to which it went. I have never been a fan of redbook audio or licensed music in games, as I am still an 8 bit gamer at heart, and it therefore slightly pains me to say this. But the game features BOTH of those things, and I think it's the very best example of audio in video games EVER made. Strangely, neither the fact that the music was licensed or the fact that it was redbook seemed to hold the developers back when coding dynamic music effects into the game. Think about the song "It's Tricky" in SSX Tricky, and then enhance that idea, and multiply the number of tracks available in the game by almost 30, and give the player the ability to set their own playlists. Then you have a brief idea of what the music is like in SSX 3. They also have a new DJ in SSX 3, who is a WHOLE LOT better than the guy in SSX Tricky. He is not annoying at all, as he doesn't call out your tricks, and he keeps his mouth shut during your races. He says a brief piece between races though, and he always has something very interesting to say. I have been just cracked up when he tells of events happening in the town. With characters like "Dangerous Dave", and events like "Snowplow Rampages", you can be assured that there's always something of note happening in the town. He also has a piece to say when you arrive on Peak 3 that really earned this game a place in my own history books. I won't repeat it for fear of spoilers, but rest assured that it sums of the sport of SSX pretty nicely.
Given that this game is a Canadian game, and the programmers and artists all snowboard themselves, it should go without saying that the game features some pretty nice snow and physics. The snow sparkles when you plow through it, it behaves like snow, and it just FEELS right. That's not to say that it's not blown way out of the realm of realism, as it should be, but it feels great. I honestly cannot imagine a more perfect representation of a mountain covered in snow with a bunch of crazy snowboarders on it and warped laws of physics.
About the only bad thing of note in the game are a small bit of slowdown whenever I grind over a certain log, and the occasional falling out of the level when I do something really weird. Overall though, I don't think it hurts the experience at all. The GameCube version features a few less moves than its sister games on the Xbox and PS2, but makes up for it with far better controls. Hand cramps are all too common on the PS2, given the close proximity of the D-Pad and the L buttons. Regardless, you will usually find yourself repeating the same set of moves anyway, so that's a moot point.
Pros:
Great snow and effects
HUGE levels
Dynamic music effects
THX certification
Great sense of exploration and freedom
Cons:
A few frame drops
Some tricks missing on GCN because of lack of buttons
A few bugs remain in the game.
Graphics: 10.0The snow looks like snow, powder flies up when jumped on, the trees look reasonably nice, and the levels are MASSIVE. Animations are very pretty, and quite fluid. Levels often feature dynamic effects, such as avalanches or airplane crashes. Honestly, I don't have much to say, as the graphics are simply REALLY good.
Sound: 10.0THX Certification. Varied genres, including some popular bands, such as Finger Eleven. Dynamic Music effects that change themselves depending on what your character is doing. A very interesting DJ that's not annoying for once. Realistic sound effects. All these things go toward the no brainer decision of giving this game a 10 for audio. It just doesn't get much better than this folks.
Control: 10.0Without a question, I find this game easiest to play on GameCube. The controller feels like silk in my hand, and I can manage just about any combo in a split second's notice. New to this game is a combo system that allow you to link tricks for a higher score that works quite well. Feels very tight and finely tuned.
Gameplay: 10.0If you were at all a fan of previous SSX games, you will appreciate the gameplay in the third incarnation. It's fun, stylistic, and just feels right. There's never a shortage of things to do, and it's just fun to ride down the mountain without a goal, which you are very free to do. There are various challenges set up by EA for you to do, and they can prove quite challenging.
Lastability: 9.5There are about a million and one things on this mountain to find, collect, or do. I don't anticipate myself totally finishing this game in the near future, although I have already beaten all the races and freestyle events in the game. I have a good 100 challenges left to do, which can be VERY difficult. But this game is just fun to PLAY, which goes a long way towards adding lastability. I can see it becoming repetitive after the novelty wears off, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. I almost regret taking a work term instead of school right now, as I can't skip work to play this game, while it would be very easy to skip a few days of University.
Final Score (Not an average): 10.0This game gets a perfect score for being best of its kind. Best snowboarding game, best sports game, and best in sound. I just couldn't bring myself to give it anything lower, as this game is quickly becoming my obsession. I got the Silent Hill 3 PC demo and Rogue Squadron III around the same time, and I have barely touched them in favor of this game. HIGHLY recommended.
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Conker's Bad Fur Day. Everyone no doubt remembers the "Saving Private Ryan" stuff that was in all the trailers. I choose more to remember the ending above all. The game was often over the top, and was NEVER serious. That contrast to the ending was a real shock, and will forever be remembered as the last of the Rare greats, and my favorite game from Rare. I think that it was a good way to remember my old friend Rare.
Anyways, I get paid a couple hundred bucks in about 5 days, and I am sure I won't be starving this time, so it's all good. But it does mean that I can't drink for a few days.... O_o
