SSX was a big surprise when it came out on the PS2 in 2000. It blended
great graphics, from the then brand new PS2, a ton of style, and a fun
factor that was jacked up as high as it could go. SSX Tricky didn't
mess with success; it was a true sequal in every way. It played the
same, but added enough new stuff to justify spending another $50. SSX
3, however, takes the series in a new direction and introduces the idea
of taking on the slopes in a more realistic manner.
The first games involved a set of really cool and totally unbelievable
levels. You would work through a giant pinball slope, an urban area,
etc. SSX3, in contrast, works more like a real ski resort. There are
three mountains, each with a set of lifts that take you to different
parts of the hill. You'll ski down the mountain, looking for
challengers and events. As you progress, you can ride higher and higher
lifts, and compete in more events. This works very well, as you can
take any pace that you want. If you want to race, you can. If you want
to run around doing tricks for awhile, you can. This free-form style
works very well. While moving down the hill, you won't run into any
load times either. Load times are taken care of when you're on the lift
heading up, or at the starting gate of an event.
The rest of the game works very similar to the other SSX games. Once
you get into an event, you'll speed, grind, bump, and do crazy tricks
down the hill. SSX's gameplay has always been stellar, and SSX 3 is no
different. You have a whole host of insane tricks at your disposal.
Once you fill your turbo meter, you'll be able to do the ultra-crazy
"uber tricks." The biggest addition to your arsenal of moves is the
handplant. When running along a grind area, you can plant on it for
some trick points. This is also handy for getting up on the grind rail
when you want to go a different way on the track.
SSX 3 looks as great as the other entries in the series as well. It's
quite impressive that there isn't any loading time when running down
the hill. This allows you to play for a long time in one session. The
characters still look like your set of misfit snowboarders, and each
has their own look. The snow looks great and surprisingly realistic.
My biggest complaint with SSX 3 is Xbox-specific. You can clearly tell
that SSX's controls were built with the PS2 Dual-Shock controller in
mind. The button mapping for mid-air tricks is unintuitive on the Xbox
controller, and there are times where I've blown jumps because the
buttons weren't obvious. Also, the PS2 version has online support,
making this a rare case where the PS2 version of a game is better than
the Xbox.
