Each character (there are several, with distinct looks and moves) begins the game with a couple of friends on the circuit, a couple of enemies, and a neutral relationship with other riders. Race mode also gets some new kinks in the form of the aggression system, which builds on the distinctive personalities of the characters. Showoff throws all kinds of extra elements into the courses, more rails and kicker ramps to increase trick potential, and the resulting rail lines demand serious skill to take advantage of the best trick potential. Run through Tokyo, Hawaii, or Alaska several times and you'll still wind up in sections of the course you haven't seen, especially in the Showoff mode. The scale of the courses at this point is such that it's entirely possible to get lost, or as lost as you can be when you're just supposed to go downhill. The track design in every level has been heavily modified, and of course Garibaldi and Alaska are completely new.
For the extremely astute, five uber-tricks in one run will let you perform a super-trick - apparently "super" is even cooler than "uber." Characters spin, flip, and pirouette on their boards, performing tricks quite beyond the realm of possibility. Grab plenty of air, hit a shoulder button, tweak it with the square button, and get ready for some extremely impressive animations. As you build up your boost meter, you also occasionally activate the "Tricky" meter, which gives you a short window in which to pull off an uber-trick. The shoulder buttons still combine together for a wide variety of grab tricks, but now there are also "uber" tricks, signature moves for each character. The pre-wind system (where you hold a direction while preparing for a jump to prep a flip and spin) still works very well, and now it's easy to use the analog stick to finish off an errant flip. Luckily even for the non-trick-inclined, the controls are friendly, responsive, and tuned for more precision in comparison to the first game. Thus, you have to pay attention to your trick ability as you develop your character and hone your reflexes for performing tricks, even if you don't necessarily get a kick out of doing stunts (although you should). When you race, tricks add to the boost meter you use to gain speed and pull ahead, and boost is most certainly required to win races. Realistic no, entertaining very much so.Īs I say, SSX blends stunts and racing into a single, playable unit. The tracks are big, the air is big, the tricks are big. SSX was the first EA Sports BIG game, and fittingly so - everything in the game is very, very big. Add to that a touch of the Wipeout action-racing concept, with just a few small combat elements to spice things up, and inflate the scale of the game beyond any expectations. In theory, this is a snowboarding game, but it's a much more effective blend of racing and tricks than ever managed in such a game before. Gameplay Go into the DVD extras section and you can get a brief primer on "What Is SSX," but since I'm presumably trying to convince you to buy the game here, I'll explain as well. Don't say "nah, I don't like snowboarding games." This is not a snowboarding game. If you played the first SSX, Tricky is still worth your money, and if this would be your first exposure to the concept, run out and buy it as soon as you can. If that's not a sequel, what is? And this is a very, very good sequel, one that builds and improves on a game that was already brilliant. On top of that, you have better graphics, better framerate, new characters, new tricks, ridiculous new "uber" tricks, tweaked control, more and better music and sound, and a boatload of DVD extras showing how the whole package came together. Only two of the courses are "new" in name, but every single track has been vastly reworked. When Tricky finally shaped up into playable form by late in the summer, it was an official sequel, if one with a similar name - or at least that was EA's line.Īfter finishing Tricky, though, if they want to call this a sequel, that's A-okay with me. Then, as the content started balooning, it was about SSX one-and-three-quarters a bit after E3. SSX: DVD was apparently a special edition, or SSX 1.5. It didn't help that EA changed its mind a couple of times during the game's development over the course of this year. We got in a lot of confused arguments for a while over whether this is " SSX 2" or not.