SSX

Developer: EA Sports

Platform: Xbox 360, PS3

4.5 out 5 stars

When the new SSX game was announced last year, long-time fans were hesitant to get excited. Originally titled SSX : Deadly Descents, the title showed off a game less concerned with over-the-top tricks than making players fight for their very survival on each mountain.

Fortunately, the fan response led to an overhaul. The designers returned the focus of the series to crazy races that give the player a sense of speed and power appropriate to extreme sports titles. Though still haunted by the ghosts of Deadly Descents, this franchise re-launch is everything fans could hope for.

The SSX franchise has always been about ridiculous characters and physics-defying stunts, so it makes sense the story doesn’t try and take itself too seriously. The game follows the members of Team SSX as they prepare a world tour to take on the nine deadliest mountain drops across the world.

A wrench is thrown into the proceedings when team member Griff leaves to take on the challenge on his own. SSX must race to complete all nine challenges before Griff , in order to be named the most extreme sports team in the world.

The story is silly, but it provides a logical framework around which to build the campaign. The real meat is of course the gameplay.

The good news is the controls have never been better in a snowboarding game. Tricks are easy to pull off thanks to great board and grind mechanics, all of which allow players to go into tricky mode and achieve even crazier levels of tricks.

The controls would mean nothing, though, if there weren’t plenty of locations to try them out. In this regard, EA Sports has gone all out in providing a huge amount of content for players to explore.

The World Tour showcases the nine different regions in the game, each of which is populated by numerous drops. From the Rockies to Antarctica, there’s no shortage of variety in the challenges riders will face.

Unfortunately, not every drop players will see is going to provide a fun experience. Each area focuses on preparing players to take on the region’s deadly descent, which acts as a sort of boss fight in snowboarding form. For the most part, these challenges aren’t too hard to get into. Trying to outrun an avalanche and using a wingsuit to sail over chasms are fun, unique experiences.

The problem is that many of the events focus on being able to make precise jumps at a split-second’s notice. This isn’t too bad in the actual deadly descent, where players can take it slow and even rewind when they make a mistake.

However, every other drop in a region is set up as either a race or score challenge, removing the option to play carefully. It doesn’t help that the AI opponents in the game rarely mess up. Players will be able to enjoy much of the game at a steady pace before running into a wall, leaving level memorization as the only viable way to proceed.

The good tracks definitely outweigh the bad, though, and players can pick and choose where to play once they start racing in explore mode. Here, even more content is available, with over 150 drops available for players to master.

Thanks to RiderNet , the challenge doesn’t exist only in beating the AI opponents. Every track allows you to race against the ghost of a friend, giving you incentive to beat their best times and highest scores. Add in the different equipment options and mods to help give your racer a boost, and SSX easily offers dozens of hours of playtime.

With all that content to explore, it’s good the soundtrack in SSX delivers as many great tracks as it does. Skrillex , Foster the People and Pretty Lights all offer tracks, including a stellar remix of Run-D.M.C . classic, “It’s Tricky.” For those who aren’t fans of dubstep and electronica , there’s the option to import your own music.

Overall, SSX is a solid return to form for a franchise that has been dormant since last generation. With tight controls, an upbeat soundtrack, and plenty of content to explore, SSX manages to rise above its few problems to be one of the best snowboarding games ever made.