Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Just plain fun"

In a gaming market primarily fueled with first person shooters and immersive role-playing games, pretty much anything outside those categories often get slept on and forgot about. Some titles try and get their revenue from bringing back a "classic" game or simply using that title. SSX isn't that. The instant people see a classic title it seems like they expect the "same old, same old". But where people get lost at is, they compare too much without actually looking past the past, and appreciate innovation in a new generation.

To start, if you've played previous SSX games, then don't expect an HD rehash. SSX is a new game with better graphics and sound than its predecessors. The controls have been modified to where instead of someone throwing up a ton of tricks out with a bit of a challenge, you're free to a frenzy of flips and spins without the expense of any lost sweat. Now with that being said, this game isn't a cakewalk. With great power comes great responsibility. An 8 million combo can be lost at the blink of an eye (speaking from). EA made it to where tricks and combos are easy to come by but you have to gamble to get it. While this could easily lead to broken discs and a trip or two to your local store for a new controller, this isn't necessarily the difficult part and honestly, it's what makes this game so fun. Stringing 50 plus trick combos, kicking your board in mid-air and spinning it around till about 5 feet from the ground then landing is what gives SSX its own flavor. SSX doesn't brag reality as much as it mocks it. There is a "Rewind" feature given, but should only be used if necessary; it comes with penalties and can make or break a race event for someone. Some people think of the rewind is too much of negative than a positive. They see it as something that should be "crutch" for bad gameplay but (In MY opinion) EA's choice to make it more of a feature only used if absolute needed was a good one.
The game modes as follows are "World Tour", "Explore", and "Global Events". The World Tour mode is basically the story or campaign mode where you play as every character of "Team SSX". The goal is to tackle 9 "Deadly Descents" before SSX rival, Griff Simmons, does. The deadly descents are challenges involving different conditions in which make the game more difficult. To help get thru these challenges you receive special gear, such as armor for an obstacle filled course, or glasses which enable you to see thru bad weather. It's an obvious attempt from EA to change things up but it's probably something that didn't necessarily need to be added. However, the challenges DO give a sense of accomplishment seeing as each one is led up to by 3-4 race/trick events. And if you feel the Deadly Descents were a bit too easy, there is an achievement for about all of them to add a bigger challenge while adding some points to your Gamerscore. Explore is a mode which allows to freely ride any of the multitude of courses available. It also lets you post your times and scores for friends to see. While the game has no split screen or head to head competitive multi-player, Global Events mode still hits home. Global events mode allows you to challenge yourself to anyone in the world. All the tracks are available to be played on(except you must "pay to play" with credits earned from racing and tricking on any of the modes.) EA's reason for doing this was probably to make it like a real completion, where instead of simultaneous gameplay, one posts their highest score on a course and others must beat that score or set a score for the next person to beat, etc. It's a different approach to multi-player and adds a certain suspense, like if your highest score was number 1 out of 500 plus people and while others are trying to top your score you can still be hitting the slopes trying to top your own personal best. People on the leaderboards' "ghost" ride alongside you as you try to outdo their owners.
SSX's low points aren't actually too low. There are some buggy areas where you might fall in a rock to the Earth's core, but they're very few. The AI's difficulty is a little staggering at times, in a way it makes up for the ease of dropping tricks out the wazoo. The controls are a bit too loose at times, and riding on these wild, natural tracks it isn't hard to ride off the edge or hit that rock you told yourself to watch out for. Regardless, SSX is a refreshment from all the FPS and RPG rave and brings back what video games where made for: FUN.