« Monster of Frankenstein: Marvel's Sequel To A Classic | Main | Erica Durance Is Exposed and I'm Feelin' The Heat! »
October 24, 2005
SSX On Tour: Paula Abdul would love it
SSX may be my favorite game series for the consoles. Ever since it appeared alongside the Playstation 2, it’s always had a special status in my collection. The series has evolved over time: SSX Tricky had a whacked-out course like pinball machine; SSX 3 had avalanches, Uber tricks, and streaming technology that allowed a 30-minute ride down an entire mountain. With the fourth iteration, SSX: On Tour, I was slightly alarmed by the news that Larry LaPierre (the executive producer at EA) wasn’t behind this one. LaPierre is working on Need For Speed: Most Wanted and SSX in the hands of younger producers. So have the young guns ruined the franchise or saved it? After playing SSX On Tour (Xbox version) for a little over 5 hours, I’d say this edition is two steps forward and one step back (but opposites attract, according to Paula Abdul).
Here’s the good news: SSXOT has tracks that are bigger, bolder, and longer than ever. The streaming technology is used all over the place, not just in the final race, but in some of the beginning stages. The weather/environment effects are nicer this time around, with blizzards, falling trees, and races taking place at different times of the day. For the first time, you have to race around other skiers and boarders that are on the slopes. The tracks are incredibly well designed. One track features a plethora of fallen logs, rails, and wooden planks for you to grind on. All of the tracks make it easier to get air-time and perform complicated tricks to boost your meter. The amount of content in the game in incredible: medal races, slopestyle trick events, and new variations like racing the ski patrol or trying to attain as much cumulative air time as possible. There are tons of little collectible do-dads scattered everywhere: boost, money, and photo-ops. The other day I jumped upward, grinded on a helicopter rail, and received a special photo. I haven’t even tried the Skiing mode yet (have to do it with a separate character) because there’s so much for my snowboarding hot-chick to do. Compare all of this to the 8 tracks in the original SSX, and you see how far we’ve come in this generation of consoles.
So what’s not so good? A few things I need to nit-pick. Performing the Monster (aka Uber) tricks is just a matter of flicking the right joystick in any direction. This just feels dumbed down compared to learning the button moves. The producers wanted to depart from the techno and hip-hop soundtracks of past SSX titles. SSX 3 had such a great soundtrack that I actually bought the CD and still listen to it today. We get a list of rock songs, some of which are classics, others are so-so. I think the producers should have given us two or three song styles. In SSX 3, the music made me feel like I was boardin’ with a multicultural crowd from California or New York; SSXOT makes me feel like I’m hangin’ with a bunch of white Mormons from Utah. The producers of this new title also selected graphics for the menus and items that look like Beavis and Butt-Head sketching in their Pee-Chee at high school. I kind of like them all right, but they did some weird stuff with the Career menus. Instead of choosing different mountain regions, you get one big mountain with lots of venues. Each venue may contain different race styles. If you just want to race, it’s not quite clear how to progress. Still, I have to give them credit for not making me wait in the tram to travel to another site.
These are minor nits. On the whole, this is a good title. At a $40 price point, if you like SSX you will have to get it. Nuff said.
