Friday, March 2, 2012

Played Lately: SSX

  • As mentioned in my last post, I dove in with both feet for the new SSX. My first night with the game was odd. I didn't have a chance to try it until after midnight (I had many chores that evening) so I could not play very long. But no matter how late it was, I was not going to miss my chance to try it out.

  • The tutorial starts you in freefall which is an amazing way to learn the new controls. I tried out the new the right thumbstick option for grabs and it is unbelievably intuitive to make grabs. Pushing left on the stick starts a left hand grab, right for right hand, and up for both hands. That's fine for basic tricks, but you can then add a quarter circle or flick across to grab a different part of the board. Add in some flips, spins, and tweaks and there is a hug collection of tricks you can doing very easily.

  • At least, they were easy in the air. Once I got onto the ground and had to deal with steering, prewinding, and jumping, I completely lost my cool. My thumb completely fell back on its SSX 3 memory and started jamming buttons. It was a very frustrating experience.

  • On the positive side, I really like the new music in the game. I looked over the track list and did not recognize any of the songs. And the only musician I knew was Skrillex, but only because that name comes up a lot. I've never heard any of his music. So like in SSX 3, I'm hoping to discover some music that it completely new to me.

  • The game really is beautiful and it sounds great. The courses are a mad blur as you speed through them. I understand why all of the reviewers say the old games feel sluggish in comparison. I just hope my old hands and mind can keep up.

  • At the end of the night, I was left feeling disappointed. I know that some of that was because I was tired. And I know some is that learning the controls will take some time. But I will be back to try again.

© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.

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