| Rap-it
friends – “mmmm, I gotta
need-for-speed, mmmmmm, I gotta need-for-speed, wooh, ooh, oooh.”
Swap tarmac for snow, cars for ‘rad’ boards, and umm,
Muffler Magazine for Career Highlights and you’ve got SSX3
in a nutshell: It’s Need For Speed: Overground. Very overground.
And I couldn’t be happier. What sets both games apart is
their immersive quality – they suck you into convincing
worlds—one city for the driving game, one mountain for the
snowboarding analogue—and then they keep you there.
With both games having been developed alongside
each other, the similarity is more than coincidence. I ‘m
sure that Mr EA must have sent out a memo two years back…
Our EA spies “come good”
SSX3 won’t please everyone. If you’re
looking for the simple cartoon-arcade thrills of Tricky you’ll
be disappointed. Adjust your expectations, though, from ‘arcade’
to ‘immersion’ and you'll be ready to enjoy yourself
enormously.
This time out, the SSX action takes place on
a single mountain, spread over three-peaks – each exhibiting
very different weather conditions, and where the level of freedom
to wander around is immense and liberating. If you want to board
over to the lodge, where the shop lives, then turn here, if you
fancy zooming on to a race instead, turn the other way. If you
just want to spend ten minutes enjoying the improved, powdery,
surface-feel of the mountain then feel free.
This sequel is all about progression and character
development – unlockables and collectables are present in
thick, thick wodges. They include such things as new tracks, peaks,
challenges, posters, trading cards, cheats, daft (but funny, and
fun) new Worzel-Gummidge-style character heads, toys, music tracks
and cash.
Oh look, a snowboarder being crazy. Who'd
have expected that?
Cash plays an important role, this time you
have to buy character attribute upgrades, rather than winning
them. This aspect gives you a welcome level of control over character
development: want a crazy speed bullet? You got it. Want a curvy,
stable trickster? You got that instead.
All the tricks we love are still there, and
they’re held together by a more-effective on-the-fly points
meter – you can see what each spin, grab and tuck is doing
to the overall result of each individual trick. There is more
than a nod to the Tony Hawk trick systems on show here too, again
no bad thing at all.
If you haven’t got an SSX in your collection
yet, go pick-up a bargain copy of SSX Tricky, complete that then
shell-out for the grown-up version: SSX3. They’ve both great,
both different and both utterly absorbing. Games as they should
be – addictive, immersive, challenging and fun. I miss DJ
Razell a bit though ‘mmmm call ya momma in the room…’
KOWORLD, January
2004.
RODENT CASH RATING -
£32.50
 "Aviemore
can fook off."
Comment
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Things to 'Make' and 'Do'.
Take a look
at our own Need For Speed: Underground review.
SPRING IS IN THE AIR M'DEARS SO LETS CLEAN OUT
THE BARN WITH...
Discover how god
is in all our games, really.
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