Big it up for EA (Snowboard Supercross SSX (PS2))

Member Name: jd99

Product:	Snowboard Supercross SSX (PS2)
Date:	06/05/01 (254 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sublime Graphics, Excellent Gameplay

Disadvantages: None

SSX for those of you who don't know, stands for snowboard supercross, I think. Anyway this is not very important except that I have just told you it is a snowboarding game-no don't go away. This game is unlike any snowboarding game before in that it is actually truly entertaining and stunningly beautiful. The game is made by EA Big, a new division of EA Sports and they have truly excelled themselves on this their first outing on the PS2. Now I was a bit sceptical of this game as it was made by EA and I have never really liked any of EA Sports other games such as the long running Fifa series, yawn. As mentioned before EA Big have done tremendously well in making this game in a totally different way to their previous attempts at sports games. Maybe this is due to the adrenaline pumping nature of snowboarding or just immense skill on EA Big's part.

As you lovingly flick the switch on your beloved PS2 the first impressions are good. The game uses the most of the PS2's extremely good Dolby digital sound to scream at you EA Big so that you are now in no doubt that this label might as well be a totally different one to EA Sports as the differences in style are already evident. EA Big emphasize this in the manual which states "EA Sports Big is not for the weak. Do not play this game if you suffer from weakness in the knees, nerves, bladder or any other part of your anatomy when faced with super-fast, high-octane, ultra-aggressive, high-flying, hard-hitting, adrenaline pumping, arcade style action." Ok it’s a bit over the top I know but it is genuinely true.

The introduction is really superb and it is quite amazing from a launch title that they have been able to get so much from the supposedly hard to programme PS2 on their first attempt. The graphics are sublime and smooth and the pumping soundtrack mirrors the image of Snowboarding perfectly. Now you are probably thinking that this could be one of those games th
at lets you down after the lovingly rendered introduction has disappeared, not so my fickle minded friend.

After the beautiful introduction a rather tatty screen appears with the blurred letters SSX plastered across it. This is just a small blip in an otherwise all round great game but you can't help but think that EA rushed this bit as it has no effect at all. Thankfully due to fairly quick loading times the dreaded screen disappears from sight to be replaced with an initial menu screen that slightly disappoints as there seems to be only two options however these conceal many more. These are just the two modes of play;

World circuit- A season based mode that allows you to warm up on a track before competing in the quarterfinals. Their are two separate events, Race which as it suggests is just a high speed rush to finish the course first and show-off which is based on how many trick points you can get in one run of the mainly downhill course. In race mode you have to finish in the top 3 of 6 to progress further in the season to the semis and then the final where you will be rewarded for bronze, silver or gold medals.

Single event- This mode allows you to compete on any track that you have unlocked in world circuit mode. You can have one or two players in this mode and as before can race, show-off or free ride which is a no time limit run which is extremely useful for locating short-cuts.
For each mode you get to select a character of your choice from the ones available. Each character is different in many ways to the last, no they REALLY are. There are 3 main different types of character which relate to style of snowboarding;

Freestyle boarders are those who are experts in tricks and flips rather than being concerned with high speed and good cornering. These are the most fun to begin with and are the easiest on which to learn the majority of the many tricks.

Alpine boarders are faster than the others b
ut not very good at tricks due to the long boards that they use for maximum speed.

BX boarders are a mixture of the two previous types and are a good medium between speed and ability to pull off monster tricks.

For each character you can then kit him/her out in the latest snowboarding clothes for fashion purposes only. You can also select the board to use and unlike all the other snowboarding games this can really make a difference. Each boarder can select either a freestyle, alpine or bx board regardless of what their style is. This decision is vital as you are not going to win the hardest races with a bog standard freestyle board. You can also check out the tricks available for the character before competing in an event.

Right enough of the multiple options available, What about the game itself? Well one word ummmmm, no I just can't do it! This game is superb, entertaining, stunning and lush eye-candy to boot. After waiting a short while for the course to load you are presented with the panning camera around the track much like all the other games before, but don't just ignore this and stab the X button you impatient person. This time for the first time ever in gaming history these things are worth watching at least once to appreciate the work that has gone into to these amazing courses. When compared with any game I have had before this game kicks them out of the field. Every detail is lovingly contoured to near perfection and not one area of the course is spared from a touch of graphical excellence.

Once you have had your fill of the excellent graphics you can get down to the actual game...at last! The controls are a bit tricky to get used to at first especially if you have been used to the controls in other games of this genre such as Tony Hawk's. After a while though everything magically slips into place and you are soon carving up the track like a pro. The boards themselves leave a nice trail in th
e snow and spray up white snow when turning on the banked corners. The course design is really good as there are multiple short cuts hidden in each track usually behind a glass SSX screen that makes a satisfying shatter when you hurtle through it whilst performing a back flip, nice.

To say that the courses are interactive would be an understatement. Every little thing in the course and off it can be used by your boarder. Railings that look to be designed to keep you on the track can be jumped on to for a satisfying grind or cleared completely to escape the track. Stands full of screaming fans can be ridden under and there is virtually no limit to where you can go. There is one slightly annoying exception to this on a street track where there is a jump that unfortunately makes you hit the ceiling of the game which looks to be sky, but isn't.

There are 7 tracks and this may not seem like many but they are totally diverse and different. The first courses available are typical snow coated mountains but these soon progress to frozen streets at night, impressive, and huge Japanese pinball machines, just plain weird. These courses are engrossing and entertaining and each has many shortcuts, some of which are worth it, others are not.

There are many visually impressive and quite difficult tricks for you to complete on each boarder. These range from the easy plain ol' indy's to impressive combos-2 or 3 tricks tied together hopefully with a few spins and a flip. You get points for the length and relative difficulty off the tricks and get points knocked off for repeating tricks, which encourages you to learn bigger better tricks.

The soundtracks on the game are quite good and reflect the image of the game well. The game really shines sound wise on the individual voices of the characters. These are stereotypical voices of the snowboarding people in general and each character has an individual voice that actually sounds
like how you think they would think based on their looks. Amazingly the voices do not get annoying, as they are not there all the time spinning of a mindless repertoire of irritating catchphrases like in some other games.

The character design is very good as the days when snowboarding games could get away with poor blocky characters are well and truly over with the advent of SSX. The characters are intricately designed and shaped. Of course they are not lifelike in appearance but they are admittedly very good. What is lifelike is the characters stance and the way they move on the board. I have watched snowboarding many times before on TV and am a big Xtreme sports fan and I can truthfully say that the way that the characters move is very close to perfection and completely in tune with the style of boarding.

SSX has many nice features that will firmly put it on top of the Xtreme sports genre until SSX 2. The game has superb longetivety due to the many ways it can be played. As each character has a different style the game can be completed many times without getting tedious. Overall this is a very entertaining, stunningly designed game that is well worth buying even if you are not fond of the genre. Remember what Tony Hawk's did for skateboarding games?

Welcome the next King.

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