SSX Blur

You're racing down a snow-packed mountain on your snowboard, and see a huge jump coming up. A few seconds later you find yourself in midair. You detach your snowboard, spin it around a couple of times, and, catching a glimpse of the distant ground below, finish off the trick just in time to nail the trick in a perfect landing. Welcome to the world of SSX.

SSX Blur is the newest game in the SSX series, which is best summarized as 'extreme snowboarding'. In each game, riders plummet down a mountain (or a series of courses) and compete for first place in various events, all while performing impossible airborne tricks. In SSX Blur, a number of characters, both new and returning, are available. They all have their own specific attributes that make them better in one area or another, such as speed, tricks and edging. More snowboards and skis can be unlocked for each character as events are won, which can strengthen their stats even further.

Put your skiis on tight 'cause it's a long way down.

The game is broken up into three separate peaks of one whole mountain. Access to higher peaks is granted as players progress through the game and win in different tournaments and competitions. SSX Blur isn't entirely linear, as all the areas players unlock can be traversed in a "free ride" mode, and entering into different competitions is triggered by approaching the starting gates or glowing challenge markers scattered along different parts of the mountain. It's easy to miss them, however, if you aren't watching where you're going. It's quite possible to go down the entire mountain just exploring at your leisure, and there is good incentive to do so because tokens that unlock additional rider abilities can be found this way.

Compared to previous entries in the SSX series, SSX Blur stands out for its radically different control scheme. Not only is it unique for the franchise, but also for Wii itself. The Nunchuk is used almost exclusively when the rider is on the ground. Tilting the Nunchuk left and right controls your rider's carving, while using the control stick allows for added turning precision, and utilizing both at once opens up a powerful and innovative way to control the rider. The Wii Remote, on the other hand, is primarily used when in the air. Waving the Wii Remote up or down will cause the rider to do a forward flip or backflip, while flicking it to the left or right will make the rider spin in that respective direction. The Wii Remote, in a sense, becomes a miniature snowboard that players manipulate while in midair to pull of tricks, and it really works well.

This is not to say, however, that the controls are easy. In fact, they are quite difficult and may scare away casual gamers. Even after a few hours of play time, manipulating the controller combination to make the rider perform desired actions can still be challenging, if not downright frustrating. This is especially true where "Ubertricks" are concerned. Ubertricks are stunning midair maneuvers that every character can pull off, and are worth a lot of points due to their complexity. They can only be performed after filling up the "Groove Meter", which is accomplished by doing spins, flips, grabs, and other tricks along the course. The meter, which slowly depletes over time when doing nothing but riding, goes down even faster if your character uses speed boosts, falls down or runs into something. Keeping the Groove Meter up is integral to winning the various events, and is something the player must be mindful of while traversing the mountain.

This is where matters get technical. And maybe frustrating.

To pull off an Ubertrick, players must draw a shape in the air with one or both controllers. On the surface, this is similar to the star that players had to trace to use Dr. Stiles' "Healing Touch" ability in Trauma Center: Second Opinion. However, the shapes players have to draw in SSX Blur are much more difficult than a single star, and the game's recognition of certain shapes is often unforgiving. Not only must players memorize the patterns for a variety of shapes (like a loop, a 'Z,' a spiral, or something that looks like a coat hanger), but they must also complete these gestures while zooming down a mountain at top speed.

Even with the dexterity to pull off Ubertricks, it often feels like the game simply doesn't recognize the shape drawn, while at other times the game will accept it even if you're sure you goofed it up. This inconsistency is quite frustrating at first, but with practice it becomes easier to understand what the game is looking for. As a general rule, larger, looser drawings seem to register better than small, fast ones - a secret the game does not unfortunately outline. The mechanic is not broken, but it does require a lot of practice to become familiar with. Luckily, EA has included a tutorial mode, so gamers will get to practice these shapes over and over again - something they'll need to do in order to place well on the leaderboard.

Apart from the new game controls, SSX Blur also features a highly stylized graphics engine, which runs in both widescreen and progressive scan modes. The interface is heavy on solid, vibrant colors and giant geometrical shapes. While the game world is mostly white (due to the snow), it relies on a slew of special effects and fancy lighting to maintain interest. Characters are an interesting departure from the previous games, exuding an urban, laid-back design. The entire mountain is littered with trees, rails, jumps, hidden pathways, and more. Fans of SSX 3 will notice that the mountain and accompanying courses in Blur are almost identical to the ones found in that game - rather disappointing, but not truly bad given those tracks were well designed. The game is also heavy on blurring effects, hence its title. They look spectacular when rocketing down a mountain or doing a slow-motion Ubertrick off a gigantic jump.

Now that is a view. Don't get too distracted unless you like eating snow.

Audio in the game continues SSX tradition through use of a "layered" music system - this time mixed by electronica artist Junkie XL. The nonvocal tracks start with a simple upbeat rhythm, and as the Groove Meter fills up more drums and instruments are added into the mix, enhancing the audio experience as more points are earned. The music does stop abruptly during wipe outs, which is sometimes jarring. While in free ride mode, a radio DJ will occasionally make amusing comments about one thing or another, but they thankfully do not interrupt the main game modes.

So far, SSX Blur appears quite promising despite its apparent high learning curve. The game also includes a four-player multiplayer mode and other features, which will be covered in Stage 2 of this review.