meandering creativity, symbols and emotion

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

SSX: Deadly Descents Has To Be A Joke, Right?

I am a huge fan of the SSX snowboarding franchise. SSX 3 was on my top 10 list of everything for the 2000s and will probably be in the top half of my top 10 favorite video games list. When I finally get around to making it.

SSX 3 created a great snowboarding experience that focused on a mountain with three individual peaks. It had a free riding format on the mountain and as your character improved their skills and won events it would unlock new areas on different peaks. And of course there were also crazy costumes and music to unlock.

The game felt like the developers fine tuned everything fun about snowboarding that didn't require you to leave your couch. It was not a simulation game insisting you translate real-life balance and coordination into arcane thumb movements. This was purely an arcade afair - point yourself downhill and hold on!

Instead of unweildy menus for navigation the game encouraged you to ride freely, maybe looking for collectables or maybe just enjoying the scenery and music.

There is a reason I've not mentioned the events or races. Sure they were huge, and a lot of fun but honestly, they weren't the main reason I played SSX 3. It was all about the mountain.

When SSX On Tour and SSX Blur were released they were nice. On Tour let you actually ski, which was kind of neat. Blur used the Wii controls which was interesting (and difficult). But where was my mountain?

Maybe someone found it?



Helocopters? Parachutes? Walkie-talkies?

How about an AK-47? I mean, snowboaring is an eXtreme sport. What's more eXtreme than shooting someone riding next to you?

Don't get me wrong, I am excited SSX is joining the current generation. And yes that did look like a mountain. But why do I have a feeling the current developers might not know where SSX found it's magic?

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