SSX 3 Preview

By Kristan Reed Published 18 July, 2003

Whatever happened to SSX 2?

When is a sequel not a sequel? When SSX Tricky hit the shelves late in 2001, EA representatives were at pains to explain that it was merely a remix of the original. And, of course, they were right, but now we've got some confusing history rewriting jiggerypokery to contend with, and EA now wants us to forget everything we know and welcome SSX 3 to our bosom.

At last week's salubrious Camp EA event there it was, winking at us, beckoning us over to play it with its tractor beam charms. Problem was, it's been well over a year since I last tackled SSX Tricky, and my fumblings with it were about as successful as a drunken teenage boy having his wicked way for the first time. Attempt trick; crash; repeat to fade, and performed as hilariously badly as I do when confronted with any extreme sports title. In all honesty, Tom's your man when it comes to all things extreme, but luckily there was a man stationed at the demo pod who's spends his whole life dextrously pulling off Super Ubers to make up for my ham fisted proddings.

Seamless

'SSX 3' Screenshot 1

Anyway, extreme waffling aside (come on, it is Friday), SSX 3 is probably the most eagerly anticipated game in its category along with Mr Hawk's next opus, and EA Canada promises, among other things, an "open-ended gameplay structure" where gamers are free to "ride anywhere gravity takes them", "seamlessly boarding from one event to the next". Gone is the old-school level-based structure, gone are the traditional menus and in comes a Jak & Daxter/GTA-style sprawling "no load" world of three peaks to conquer.

10 playable characters were on display including six from the previous SSXs (Mac, Elise, Zoe, Moby, Psymon, and Kaori), while the newcomers are "crazy" Swede Viggo, mountain man Nate, 12 year-old phenom Griff, and the "talented and sexy" Allegra. As before, there will also be a few unlockables in there for those of you with the talent and patience to do so.

At first glance SSX 3 looks pretty similar to the others in the series, but don't be fooled. Firstly the complete absence of menus makes for a slightly more immersive game. After you've selected your character you're left sliding around the mountain hub with a choice of either getting stuck into the various challenges available to you, or simply going for a free ride. In the hub area, players can either head for the info fork which allows for saving and character customisation, while the event branch lets you access Race, Big Air or Slopestyle courses via clearly defined archways.

Beautiful

'SSX 3' Screenshot 2

Graphically, SSX games have never exactly been a slouch, and no-one is likely to come away disappointed here either. The excellent style of previous SSXs has been retained, but tweaked in various areas, with higher poly counts on the riders and the odd noticeable improvements in attention to detail on the snow, which now comes in various types, such as powder and hard packed areas. Arguably, SSX didn't exactly need an overhaul, but the addition of nice touches such as the clouds at high levels, lightning storms, avalanches and gratuitous coloured lighting effects all add to the splendour on show.

Predictably, the PS2 version fares slightly worse than the Xbox version, and the GameCube version is somewhere between the two, but as with most EA games they look pretty uniform whatever platform you play it on, which is good news. Also good news is that it'll debut across all formats for the first time, ending the PS2 bragging rights for once. However, again, PS2 owners can feel smug in that they get the online mode exclusively.

It's fair to say that we didn’t have time to really get the hang of SSX 3, but the chap manning the demo pod patiently explained that while the core gameplay and controls have been retained, the trick system has had an overhaul. For a start, different types of tricks will be available depending on your level of boost, with three levels of Uber attainable, which you can link together if you're particularly smug. We're not going to pretend we even got close to pulling this off in practice, but apparently you'll be able to modify the axis of your flips and spins as well as perform special moves - from handplants to board presses, as well flatland tricks and stalls. Each character will also have signature moves and be able to pull off pretty much endless combos at all times, but don't hold us to that, ok? For the real experts out there, you'll even be able to traverse the full length of the mountain once the game is finished, said to take over 30 minutes to ride.

Look ma, no hands... oooof!

'SSX 3' Screenshot 3

Rather usefully, a new wipeout recovery system has also been introduced, which has you furiously pummelling a button in order to correct yourself just before a fall, although you'll lose all your points as punishment at the expense of maintaining your speed. A nice trade off.

Also new is the currency system, which enables you to upgrade your character's board, outfit and so on, as well as purchasing a ticket that enables you to climb up to the next peak and access a whole new area of challenges. Sounds like the bridge repair programme in GTA 3 doesn't it? The lessons of GTA-style game design also appear to have influenced the decision to include 150 hidden challenges, so that'll keep tips writers in gainful employment for a few more months, then.

Finally, the in game EA Trax selection features an eclectic selection of licensed tunes, with Queens Of The Stone Age, X-Ecutioners, Felix Da Housecat, and N.E.R.D confirmed so far, with players also able to purchase new MP3s with spare cash collected in the game.

Another skint Christmas

So far, the whole 'ride anywhere' gaming mechanic and streaming technology lends itself extremely well to the SSX brand. Ok, it's still another snowboarding game at its core, but is shaping up to become the definitive extreme sports title around. Start saving your pennies. This Christmas is going to be expensive...

Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 9 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • FWB #1 9 years ago

    Cool.

  • krudster #2 9 years ago

    Well it is snowing...

    /gets coat/

  • FWB #3 9 years ago

    Glad you saw that one. :)

  • lost_soul #4 9 years ago

    Was it really just a week ago that I was stood outside EA Canadas office in Vancouver? God I want to leave this country again!

    I still haven't played an SSX game, maybe I should pick up Tricky for the Xbox this weekend?

  • UncleLou #5 9 years ago

    Hm, I rented Tricky, had good fun for three or four hours, and never felt the need to play it again. Same with THPS3, so I guess the genre probably just doesn't do it for me...

  • Monkey Punch #6 9 years ago

    The new 1080 from Nintendo is going to piss over EA's shitty snowboarding game :) ...

  • krudster #7 9 years ago

    sprout, I was saying that EA's games look pretty much identical whether you play on a PS2, Xbox, or Cube.
    Except this year's Need For Speed, which looks miles better on Xbox

  • FWB #8 9 years ago

    I still haven't played an SSX game, maybe I should pick up Tricky for the Xbox this weekend?

    Yes, but don't expect it to play a "snowboarding" game. Even THPS is closer to the real-life than SSX. Its still solid good fun though.

  • otto #9 9 years ago

    UncleLou, Tricky is great fun, I still play it regularly! :) For me, the most fun is in trying to complete the trick book for each rider.

  • savant #10 9 years ago

    I think both this and Amped 2 will piss all over the new 1080 game, Monkey Punch. Amped 2 will have Chris Gunarsson designed slopes and Xbox Live support for a start.

    It stinks that only the PS2 will have online play. This is getting really annoying, as EA refuses to allow Microsoft to deal with the server side of things. It's pure greed. If they cared about the gamers they'd let Microsoft do the hosting, as it's done a sterling job so far.

  • krudster #11 9 years ago

    It's more of a billing and customer database issue for EA.

  • pjmaybe #12 9 years ago

    The other half can't wait for this to come out, she's absolutely in love with Tricky and SSX 1. Odd that quite a lot of women got into this game.

    I guess it's because you don't have them sitting there saying "What do I do? What do I do? " over and over again in a squeaky mantra.

    Peej

  • prettyboytim #13 9 years ago

    It's more of a billing and customer database issue for EA.

    I heard it was more of a 'Microsoft won't let us turn off the network support for FIFA 2003 once FIFA 2004 comes out'...

    Edit: typo
    Edited by 1 at 18/07/03 @ 18:00

  • krudster #14 9 years ago

    Yeah, that as well.

  • MORBO #15 9 years ago

    " The new 1080 from Nintendo is going to piss over EA's shitty snowboarding game :) ..."

    hope so......the old one just rocked so hard, i remember another snopwboarding game called "edge"-something just got cancelled because in comparrison it sucked nearly as much as that horrible cool boarders franchise...

    however, from what i have seen since now, it will have a hard time competing with ssx3.

    oh, and amped2 will suck like the first one did..i promise

  • ssuellid #16 9 years ago

    What happened with the Cool Boarders series? The first one on the PS1 was excellent with some very fast down hill racing. The second one was a bit 'broken' tho - the tracks were nowhere near as good.

  • inpHilltr8r #17 9 years ago

    It's so political, on so many levels, that you're unlikely to get anything resembling a straight answer out of anyone.

  • Zero Beat #18 9 years ago

    A few points:

    SSX Tricky suits the PS2 pad so much better than either Xbox pad even I would probably still buy the PS2 version, before considering online play as well.

    The Sky/edge of world texture's are nowhere near good enough in any versions screens, it totally destroys any feeling of being on a massive slope in the middle of nowhere for me. Closer to the powder things don't seem dramatically improved which is very disappointing seeing how much the bar for graphics has improved on PS2 over the last two years, SSX was way ahead of the other PS2 launch titles but EA Canada haven't kept their lead if the shots are anything to go by.

    Amped 2 lets you skateboard... with sledge track things on the bottom meaning you can pull off some pretty uber tricks, seperating from the board.

    Amped 2 has highly superior graphics and as you join a slope by helicopter you can see other LIVE players riding down, wooo!

    Both have online play and a large collection of stupid licensed music, Amped 2 still has custom soundtracks (yawn!)

    They seem to have made Amped 2 far more forgiving in the landing dept. perhaps too forgiving.

  • Nemesis #19 9 years ago

    Well if you wanna go online

    SSX3 PS2
    Amped2 Xbox.

    Shame really, would like these EA games to be up and working through Live, but you can't have everything.

  • mal #20 9 years ago

    Another lazy port to xbox and cube then? When I first booted up SSX Tricky on xbox I thought it looked terrible. Didn't help that they seem to have got forgotten to swap some of the endianness when they ported the graphics routines over. Well, that's what it looks like in places at least.

  • WoodenSpoon #21 9 years ago

    its tricky-tricky-tricky-tricky-trick- here we go!!

    hehe

  • Khab #22 9 years ago

    while the newcomers are "crazy" Swede Viggo

    Viggo. Is. A. DANISH. Name.

    Nice research.