SSX Snowboarding Review

For PlayStation 2

Rating: Awesome
   If you had told me a year ago that the best PlayStation 2 launch game 
would be a snowboarding game, I wouldn't have believed you.  But alas, 
it's true.  SSX Snowboarding is the only PS2 launch game that's truly 
revolutionary, and it's more than enough to make up for the system's 
numerous disappointments.
   The boldest example of this game's brilliance is the track design, which 
results in some of the most creative and innovative tracks ever seen.  The 
tracks perfectly balance twisting turns with straight-aways, huge jumps with
flat surfaces, and multiple routes with points where all the racers converge
into one path.  The tracks are about as non-linear as they come, with 
literally dozens of ways to get from the starting point to the finish line.
   Some of these paths are a simple choice of going left or right at certain
points, while others are ingenious shortcuts that present big risks and 
similarly big rewards.  As prominent as the sense of discovery is throughout
the tracks, SSX is a far cry from games that are glorified vehicular 
action/adventures like Diddy Kong Racing.  If you ever feel lost on a 
particular track, all you have to do is keep moving forward and you'll 
eventually get to the finish line.
   The World Circuit Mode is a lot like the Olympics in that you have to 
place in the top three in the quarter-finals to advance to the semis, then 
place in the top three again to make it to the finals, and finally place in 
the top three for a third time to win a medal.  This is a refreshing break 
from the usual Cup and Season modes, which typically involve participating 
in a certain number of races and adding up the points at the end.  Still, 
it's a shame that you can't go through the World Circuit Mode with a friend 
(the multi-player modes are limited to single races).
   Most games that feature action this intense don't involve a lot of 
strategy, but SSX is the exception to this rule.  You're granted turbo 
boosts for successfully pulling off tricks, but of course, trying to do 
tricks will increase the amount of times you fall on your ass in a given 
race.  Like the shortcuts, the option of attempting tricks is another 
wonderfully balanced risk-reward scenario.
   You can choose any strategy you want and still be competitive, whether 
it's never doing a single trick or doing dozens per race.  It would be very 
easy for a game to lose its focus when players are given these kinds of 
choices, but that's never the case with SSX.  Success is based on what place
you come in at the end of each race, not a combination of place and tricks.
This allows the game to retain its sense of focus and ensures that the 
tricks a means to an end (earning turbo boosts so you can win the race).  
I only wish that you got turbo boosts for landing big jumps in addition to 
doing tricks.
   Another thing that creates plenty of long-term depth is the fact that the
game always keeps track of your best performances for each particular track.
Most racing games only keep track of your fastest times in a specialized 
time trial mode, while SSX keeps track whether you're doing a single race, 
a multi-player game, or a World Circuit competition. 
   Your fastest times eventually replace a set of five that are in the game
when you start, which gives you a feeling of how good your times really are.
My only complaint with the record-keeping is that when you're in a race 
against computer-controlled racers and one of them achives one of the top 
five times ever recorded, it doesn't replace one of the top five times in 
the records.  Instead, you're limited to the pre-existing five times and 
your own records.
   The game does feature combat, but the developers at Electronic Arts made 
the smart decision of limiting it to punches and shoves rather than 
including weapons and combat-oriented power-ups.  Why is that a smart 
decision, you ask?  Well, by not including weapons or offensive special 
moves, EA has ensured that the focus of the game remains on the actual 
racing, not the combat.  It also ensures that winning and losing is based on
pure skill, not which power-ups you get.
   Like the rest of the game, the difficulty level has been skillfully 
balanced.  It ramps up nicely in the World Circuit mode from easy in the 
quarter-finals to moderately hard in the semi-finals and very hard in the 
finals.  Even when the game is at its most difficult, it's never in an 
unforgiving, unbalanced sort of way.  You'll never lose a race just because 
you somehow ended up facing the wrong direction and had to spend 10 seconds 
getting back on track.  Instead, if you're ever so disoriented that you have
no idea where to go in your current position, you can simply press select 
and the game will make sure that you're facing the right direction.
   The graphics are exactly what I expect from a first-generation PS2 game. 
They're noticeably better than Dreamcast-level graphics, but not amazingly 
so.  The character designs are clearly tongue-in-cheek rather than 
desperately trying to be cool and failing, which is often the case with 
games that have the word "boarding" in their title.
   All of this could be for nothing if the control was horrible, but 
fortunately, it's absolutely flawless.  The game reacts to your controller 
inputs instantly, while never being overly sensitive or twitchy.  Likewise, 
the Artificial Intelligence never seems artificial, as the computer-
controlled racers make mistakes just as you inevitably will.
   SSX Snowboarding is one of those rare games that is greater than the sum 
of its parts, and in this case, the sum of its parts is pretty damn big.  
The tracks, graphics, shortcuts, modes, tricks, and incredible intensity all
come together to create the best racing game of all time, bar none.

Send your thoughts on this review to ivan@mastergamer.com

    
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