SSX

It seems that lately, most of my posts are coming on Tuesday nights, so I may just make that the new post day for 2012. We cool with that? Awesome.
So a little bit of unrelated news before I get started, my girlfriend has recently started up a gaming related Tumblr, called The Gaming Bucket List. It would mean a lot to me if any of you with Tumblr accounts followed and submitted entries to her. And don't just say "Finish "game x"". Try and make it interesting, like "Free my people from Rupture Farms" or "Cleanse the Holy Land of Templars". Something along those lines.
Public service announcement complete, on to the review!

STORY
As with most games of this variety (sports/racing), the story is a barely there wrapping to hold all the events together. Not that we really need one. I don't need a reason to fling a virtual avatar down a mountain on a piece of wood, but what the hell.
You play as all the members of team SSX as they tackle the 9 deadliest mountain descents on Earth. Keeping them on their toes is ex member Griff, who's trying to beat them across these runs. This isn't the most coherent or interesting story out there, but as a means of giving you an excuse to tackle these runs, it works well enough.

The characters are barely elaborated upon past their little comic style intro cinematics, and are little more than a skin choice for your snowboarding adventures.

PRESENTATION
The first thing you'll probably notice about SSX is that it looks gorgeous. The slopes that you tackle have nice, welcoming curves, as well as a nice variety in obstacles to trick across.
The backdrops give a nice sense of scale to the environments, and the environmental effects used in the deadly descents give a powerful sense of realism.

The soundtrack is appropriately groovy, with tracks like "Young Blood" by Naked and Famous, and "Tricky" by RUN DMC giving the game a fun feel, while the effects on the "Tricky" track give an adrenaline surge as you fly down the mountain.

The voices are really quite forgettable, though the game must be commended for having one of the least offensive Australian accent I've heard in a game.

GAMEPLAY
When the game first debuted ages ago, it was under the title of SSX: Deadly Descent. This initially garnered some serious aggro from the old school fan base. Having heard the outrage, the developers seem to have switched the "hardcore, serious, gritty" game that we all expected, for something with the light tone and exaggerated moves that we all were used to. That's not to say that there have been no changes at all, however.

For instance, tricks can be pulled off in one of two ways. Either you can use the face buttons like an old school player, or use the analog control scheme, where tricks are managed via the right analogue stick (ala Skate 2). The face buttons work as well as ever, though I found that the stick controls were surprisingly smooth and tight when executing moves.
The slopes, as I said before, are nicely curved for optimal jumps, and the various obstacles are well placed for epic grinds and tricks.

The tricky and super tricky meters are filled by mastering and combining tricks, and when they become full, uber and super uber tricks become available, gaining you massive points.

The events are split into three categories: Trick it, Race it, and survive it. Trick it and race it are SSX standards, where players gain the most points, or race to the base of the run respectively. Each run has a fairly difficult top goal to reach, though they are certainly not impossible.
The third category, Survive It, is new to the series, and has you using special equipment to tackle descents with various natural occurrences that threaten to end your life and your run. This could range from using a wingsuit to glide across wide gaps, or a breathing mask to tackle the heights of Mt Everest.
These runs help keep the game nice and interesting.

REPLAYABILITY
Taking a cue from EA's other recent games (NFS in particular), SSX has it's own version of the autolog, called Ridernet. Ridernet allows players to keep track of their friends' runs, as well as global events that they're currently on the scoreboard for. It's a useful little addition, and allows easier management of the tracks that you may want to check out. Overall though, you'll basically be playing the tracks over and over again, which is nothing less than what we expect from an SSX game.

OVERVIEW
SSX is a great looking game that plays well and has a fun soundtrack to keep players on it for extended periods of time. It falls short in the story and voice acting departments, but this is a game where nobody should really care about these things. There's a nice variety of game types and tracks, and it just plays really well. If you're looking for a game to just pick up and play, this is one to try.

Next week, perhaps a review of the downloadable title "I Am Alive". See you then!