SSX3 (GameCube) Preview

So how will this new mountain idea work? Well, the mountain is split up of 3 main peaks, the smaller being less hazardous and not as rugged and dangerous, the other two peaks are much more unforgiving and are for the fast and the furious. The wind whistles past, the snow blurs the screen; imagine, you're boarding down the rigorous environmental obstacles such as fallen trees, rocks and more.

The mountain will be vast; we're talking a good 20-30 minutes from the top to the bottom. The addition of the full scope of a mountain has so many possibilities, the combos will be literally limitless, the tricks can be more flowing and if you have favourite specific spots where you can reach enough height to perform a certain trick you can go from one to the other racking up gargantuan amounts of points. There will be a vast helping of shortcuts that are made more visible by the trademark SSX signs we saw in the last version, that being SSX Tricky. SSX 3 will have it all, grinds, spins, grab manoeuvres and more, but EA have taken the liberty of refining the near perfect gameplay even more and have added in a 'board flex' move, to you and me that's a manual.

Like in the Tony Hawk series a sharp, fast switch from up to down on the analogue stick moves your boarder into the board flex stance where a whole range of manoeuvres are on offer. When in balance moves or board flex you sadly wont be treated to a bar of some sort but you will just see arms flying around in the air portraying the character to be unbalanced, the arms do indicate which side you need to push but you don't have that comfort of the metre. This can be used for stringing pipe moves together and performing a very long and amazing combo of moves racking up great amounts of points while you're at it. Also as seen in the highly established Tony Hawk series you can land tricks that you were in the wrong stance to land. E.G. If you passed the end of the half pipe and are unable to land smoothly you can bail out and land on the ground with a bit of a bumpy landing. This keeps momentum of speed with you and prevents you from taking a fall on the cold, wet snow.

Not only have they added a new type of trick stance, updated the moves but they have also added more complexity to the fighting! Now when boarding you could just ride into your opponent and risk falling over yourself or you could do the wise thing and make them pay. Punching, kicking and now to go with that you can even block! While this may sound all good and well we won't know just how much it detracts from the gameplay until we have played it. When we first saw this we all new instantly it would be a hit, we still think it will be but now having seen what's on offer we can only say this has only confirmed what already looks to be an absolutely amazing game.

We've always liked SSX for its arcade, unrealistic, break-the-rules style of gameplay. This thankfully has been retained to the very best of their ability. SSX is unrealistic, its meant to be that way and no one in their right minds would want it any other way, that's entirely because we have a more realistic approach in 1080' Avalanche, even though that still has quite a fair bit of arcade style gameplay. We like SSX for its arrogant, far fetched gameplay. So, in true SSX style EA have added in a mode named Super Pipe. This is a vast half pipe that is a very good spot for busting a lot of tricks. Big airs, spins, grabs, whatever, you can do anything on this free for all no rules pipe. Whether you're beating out your mates, the CPU or just trashing your previous records we can say this will be a great addition to the game.

The graphics aren't too shabby either; in fact they're looking very nice to say the least. EA have always put a lot of effort into the graphics of their games. This is because EA want to keep a cool image; this is why we would never see a Cel Shaded SSX game or Cel Shaded James Bond game. EA are very image conscious, if they use Cel Shading or a different style they use it as a gimmick for a new series, they don't use it on an already established series that they can remake every year. That's the reason why EA are the biggest Games publisher on the planet.

Back to the graphics though, there are many nice little effects such as snow from oncoming blizzards hitting the screen. The slopes look very sleek and very realistic. Nice little touches of detail are included as well such as ski lifts above or flashing neon lights in the snow filled city.