SSX

This is snow time for me to make you board with lame puns.  With this in mind, let's cut right to the chase - SSX is a snowboarding game where the player will be tasked with racing and pulling tricks that would not look out of place in a totally gnarly commercial for Pepsi Max from the late 90's.  Can SSX show itself to be mad radical, or is this game a huge bummer?

The core conceit of SSX is to conquer nine "deadly descents" in various places across the globe.  Each of these locales is conceptually centred on a specific danger (such as rocks, low visibility and limited oxygen), and quite often there will be a gadget or mechanic unique to the area that players can utilise to survive the ride down the mountain. 

Story wise, the narrative follows Team SSX as they attempt to traverse all nine deadly descents before their rival (and ex co-founder of the group) Griff can beat them to it and snag glory for himself.  As one might expect in a game like this, SSX doesn't rely heavily on its story - what little there is only really serves to move the player from one location to the next.

Objectives of each course are primarily split between straight racing, competing for score via pulling tricks and simple survival on each of the themed mountains.  As someone who hasn't played many similar titles before, the comparison which SSX brought to my mind gameplay wise was PS1 era Tony Hawk games - particularly with regard to the game's trick and combo systems. 

Performing tricks will build up a boost meter, but will generally take more time to traverse the same part of terrain - forcing the player to consistently make moment to moment decisions on whether or not to take a more direct route, particularly in the race oriented levels.  However, successfully stringing together trick combos will allow the player to maintain both a consistent boost of speed as well as access to higher scoring tricks. 

Pulling some fancy moves is relatively easy, with the buttons on the controller roughly corresponding to an area of the snowboard (square = right, triangle = front, etc.), although there is also the option to use the right stick for the same purpose.  A rewind function is also available in the event of a big stuff up, albeit rewinding during a race will have no effect on the other riders, so it will only help if used sparingly. 

Prior to beginning a particular level, players can purchase and equip items to maximise their effectiveness on a specific course.  Different boards and suits will have different properties, and it quickly becomes important if not necessary to ensure the right kind of gear is put to use.  Furthermore, items such as wingsuits (to cross large gaps in terrain), headlamps (to see in darkened areas) and oxygen tanks (do i really need to spell this one out?) can also be applied to your rider here - for most of the deadly descent levels, these are required to mitigate the specific hazard native to the mountain.

"Explore" is the second game mode of SSX.  Here, players will be basically running the same courses as "World Tour" mode in competition for medals.  Whether it be a race or a trick based challenge, players are given targets to achieve for gold, silver and bronze medals.  Money aquired in "World Tour" can also be utilised here to purchase additional gear to tackle the medal challenges.