A Nice Enough Try You Mays As Well Give It The Cigar
Although it may not have come back as strong as SFIV, SSX does a solid job of walking the line between updating the franchise and retaining what fans love. That being said, there's still enough missteps to make me periodically sigh in the middle of all this arcadey bliss.
SSX manages to nail the biggest parts that make the series fun; blinding speed, impossible tricks, and a relationship so casual with gravity you'd think the Earth was trying to shove these characters into orbit. From there the game collects a best of cast from previous titles and introduces a few new ones. And here were some of my first sighs. EA might say Zoe, Elise, and Psymon return but everyone has been stripped almost entirely of their individuality. There's only so much you can do with bulky winter-wear and in the end everyone tends to blend together.
Although the game doesn't seem to offer true multiplayer what it does have is RiderNet, a stat-tracking system that updates you as to what your friends are accomplishing. And that's really the meat of the game. The story mode is fairly bare bones. It serves more as a sampler of what to come in the online multiplayer. You go to the nine sections of the world competing in races and trick events building up to a survival event to serve as a boss.
There's an RPG aspect in leveling up your character and shopping for better gear but it doesn't make much of an impact.Unless you're dead set on using a particular character each is suited for specific challenges and has unique items that are far better than any store bought item. Why buy armor for Kaori when Zoe and Psymon already have better sets that are free?
If it sounds like don't like this game let me make it clear, this was totally worth the 60 bucks. It's just easier to say what's wrong, and honestly how entertaining is it to read sugary ass-kissing praise? I wrote this for the people on the fence. If you're not the kind of person that's fueled by competition and clawing your way to the top of the leader-boards you probably won't get much out of this. And for everyone else grab your board and head to the mountain; then promptly unbuckle it and swing it around your head while 300 ft in the air.
