Being born and raised in Utah, home of the “greatest snow on earth,” you’d think that I’ve at least tried snowboarding (or skiing for that matter) at least once in my life. You’d think that, but you’d be wrong. While I always wanted to learn how to snowboard, that is a dream that will never become reality thanks to my poor health and disabilities. That doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy video games based on the winter sport, however. And there is no game in the genre that I enjoy more than SSX 3 (SSX3).
Naturally there were games in this series before SSX3, and there have been games in the series after SSX3. But none of them were able to accomplish what SSX3 accomplished. SSX and SSX Tricky were fun, but the movement was often stiff and the controls just weren’t up to par. SSX On Tour was okay, but felt lacking. SSX (2012) relied far too heavily on cheap gimmicks, over-complicating the series. And the less said about SSX Blur, the better… Without a doubt, SSX3 is the superior game of the series.
SSX3 took a unique approach to the genre from the start. While there are options to just select a track and begin a race or event, from the main menu. The bigger draw to SSX3 was its open world concept of “Big Mountain.” If players selected the Conquer the Mountain mode, they would start the game’s campaign (for lack of a better term). Upon selecting this mode, the player would be introduced to the titular mountain (via cutscene), by DJ Atomika (a fictional [and delightful] DJ who plays the game’s soundtrack via EA Radio Big, and “narrator” of the game’s story [and I use that term lightly]).
Big Mountain is a series of three peaks. Each peak contains a number of races and events. These events get progressively more difficult as the player reaches each new peak. Starting on Peak 1, the player must earn medals in enough events to unlock the opportunity to face off against that peak’s “rival” (see: boss). Beating the rival in a one-on-one race will unlock Peak 2, and the whole process starts over again.
What makes Big Mountain unique (at least, for its time, anyway, I’m unsure of whether this concept has been used much since) was the fact that the entire mountain was connected. As I said earlier, it has open world elements to it. Due to being on a snowboard, on a mountain, the player is always going to be heading downhill. So, complete open world exploration isn’t possible. But it is possible for the player to start at the top of Peak 3 (the tallest part of the mountain), and ride all the way down to the very bottom of the mountain (Peak 1’s base), should they feel so inclined. I found this approach to laying out levels pretty fun and definitely different from just selecting a level off a level select screen. Naturally, some players might not want to have to go through the hassle of riding around the mountain and its transition sections just to get to a certain event, so it’s good that the developers included a transport option. At any time, a player only needs to pause the game, and select Transport, from the menu screen, and they can select and teleport to any event course available to them.
Now that I’ve gone into detail on how the mountain is set up, I should probably talk about what you can actually do on the mountain. Events in the game are divided up into three categories: Race, Freestyle, and Freeride.
Race is probably the most straightforward of the three. Races (with the exception of rival races) take place on racetracks (go figure). Players compete against five other competitors, and whoever reaches the finish line first wins the gold medal. Of course, it isn’t always so simple as that. The racetracks in SSX3 are some of the most brilliantly designed tracks I’ve ever encountered (in fact, while I was working on my many levels in 404Sight, I constantly looked to SSX for inspiration). There is rarely (if ever) just one straightforward path. Paths branch all over the course, and yet I never felt lost or confused (probably due to the fact that I knew that I always needed to be heading “down”). The jump ramps are placed strategically in such a way that wise players can perform tricks off of them to fill their boost meter and keep it filled (as the old saying goes, “tricks = boost, boost = speed”). In addition to the standard branching paths, there are plenty of secret “out of bounds” areas to cut time off your run and put a good distance between you and your competitors. Not to mention clever placements of grinding rails, which can add some speed and cut distance on your path as well.
The only problem worth mentioning in standard races is that players are required to finish the race three times in order to actually finish. The first two races are “qualifying heats.” The only way to reach the final round (i.e. the only race that actually matters) and win a medal, is to place in the top three in the first two heats. I found this very frustrating, because there were times where I’d get first in the first two heats, but then somehow screw up on the third heat, missing out on the gold I would have gotten if the last two heats actually mattered. All in all, the qualifiers seemed completely unnecessary, and struck me as a way for the developers to add filler to the game, artificially lengthening it.
Rival races were a bit different, thankfully. As I mentioned, once a player earned enough gold medals in racing, they would unlock the rival race for whatever peak they’re on at the time. Rival races take place in the peak’s back country. This is an area that is untouched by the “SSX circuit.” Meaning that there are no designed pathways or set up ramps, or what have you. It’s nothing more than untamed mountain. Fresh powder, multiple branching routes, environmental hazards, and so on. These sections are obviously tougher than the smoothly laid out race courses, which I think is why the developers decided that this is where the player would face off against their rival in a final one-on-one showdown. But, ultimately, the goal is still the same. It is just a race after all. Reach the end of the back country before the rival and the gold is yours.
In addition to unlocking the next peak, beating a rival also results in unlocking the peak race. This is a race against a set time, as opposed to racing other racers. The player starts at the top of whatever peak they’re on, and race as fast as they can to reach the bottom. Starting at the back country, they must go through all the peak’s transitional areas, and through all the peak’s race courses as well. This can be fun, but after a while, I found it just too time consuming. Especially the “All Peak Race,” which is exactly as it sounds (I did say that all the peaks were connected, after all).
The other competitive mode in Conquer the Mountain is the freestyle events. Freestyle events focus solely on the players ability to perform tricks. Like races, freestyle events have qualifier heats. But unlike races, if one does well enough in the first heat, they can bypass the second, and go right into the all important final round. Freestyle can be divided up into 3 subcategories: Big Air, Slopestyle, and Superpipe.
Big Air is an incredibly short freestyle course. In Big Air the player makes use of only a few very large ramps to get as much airtime as possible to perform as many tricks as they can (getting as high a score as possible) in the short time frame available to them. I’ve never liked this event. Tricks aren’t exactly my forte, and in Big Air, a single mistake can cost you everything. Needless to say, I had to restart many a Big Air event in my time…
Slopestyle is similar to Big Air, but more forgiving as the tracks are much larger, giving more room for error and improvement.
And Superpipe is pretty self explanatory. Just a short series of half pipes, in which the player racks up as many points as possible in a short time frame. Nothing exactly groundbreaking, but fun for a bit.
I will note that there are rival and peak jams (freestyle events) which work similar to rival and peak races.
And finally, there’s Freeride. Freeride is pretty self explanatory, players can ride through any portion of Big Mountain, through any of its courses without competing with anyone. This is useful for players who want to practice certain events without the pressure of the actual event. Freeride also offers various short challenges (such as performing certain tricks, or reaching certain areas within a time limit), should the player wish to engage in them. Freeride is also a good time to collect the game’s many collectibles. Collectibles in SSX3 come in the form of stylized snowflakes, and give the player a small boost in money (money can be used to buy cosmetic gear and clothing, and can also be used to buy stat upgrades [a must for players who want to progress]). Not a huge deal, but it’s fun to grab a snowflake if you see one. Some are incredibly challenging and can be a goal in and of itself for completionists.
EA got it right with SSX3. It is the pinnacle of the series. It baffles me how poorly they’ve screwed up in the last few games in the series, considering they had the formula for success all along (sort of reminds me of the Paper Mario series…). The level design is superb. The controls are perfect and fluid. Gameplay is just plain fun. And the events are varied enough that I never felt bored. If EA ever decides to make another SSX, I sincerely hope that they look to SSX3 (not their latest disaster) for inspiration.
