Imagine plummeting down a mountain, 125 miles per hour, 2750 kilometers long, racing three other people, with an avalanche barreling down behind you and pitfalls all around.
That's just a small taste of the new SSX game by EA Sports. I've been waiting for a new SSX game since SSX 3 came out in 2003, I never got to play SSX Tour after number three. In this latest installment of SSX, there are three different ways to play: World Tour: Deadly Descents, Explore, and Global.
In World Tour: Deadly Descents, you travel to nine different regions doing trick-it, survive-it, and race-it runs, starting off as Zoe in the Rockies. After beating every obstacle in the region, you move onto the next region. In the first obstacle of every region, you will race against a new person, as Zoe. As soon as you beat the person, you run the rest of the obstacles in that region as the person you just beat.
In Explore, you can run race-it, trick-it, and survive-it in every region to win medals and credits.
In Global, you play online against other competitors. Some runs have buy in costs while others don't. You can compete doing trick-it mode, race-it mode, or survive-it mode on every mountain. After you race, you'll either be placed in the Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver, or Bronze status, or not at all depending on your score. Where you place will determine how many credits you win, each race varies with the amount of credits.
There were some cool things added to this game that help add fun to it. You can buy:
Pulse Goggles: They help you see in white-outs.
Wingsuits: They allow you to glide over short canyons and short distances.
Oxygen Tanks: Allow you to breathe and stay alive where there is a lack of oxygen.
Ice Picks: Allow you to turn better and carve on it.
Geo Tags: These are things you rewind to place. After you place them, someone else can capture them and you receive credits as well as they do. You can buy or earn the geo-tags.
Armor: The armor just helps you on rough courses so you don't lose lives as quickly.
Mods: You buy these before your race. They can help boost your equipment or skills, but you can only use them once.
So if you're ready for a new extreme sports game, this one is for you.
-Also, for anyone with any device running iOS, there is an app called RiderNet. It keeps you informed with all the things going on in SSX while you are away; things like how you're friends are doing, if they've beat your score, if they've set new scores, etc.
Bottom line: 8.5 out of 10.
