SSX Blur (Wii) Review
SSX, oh how I love thee. Your snow powdered slopes, your beautiful scenery, the boarders who tear down you at unbelievable speeds spreading your snow all over their clothes while performing amazing acrobatic feats Whats that? What the hell am I talking about, you say? Why, the latest SSX incarnation of course. Following in the vein of its predecessors, SSX Blur combines unique characters with raw speed, big air and insane tricks. Several of the characters from previous SSX games have returned but if you werent told, you would assume that theyre all new ones considering the physical changes theyve gone through. But enough of that, lets get onto things shall we?
Moby, what happened to your head?!
SSX Blur has some of the nicest graphics I have seen on the Wii so far. EA Montreal realised that the Wii isnt a powerhouse and the graphics reflect this. Instead of going for realism, they have opted towards a more cartoonish look, but in no way is this a bad thing. The visuals are crisp and the colours are nice and bright, quite fitting for a game such as this. There are the mandatory falling snow effects and carving up the mountain sends a spray of powder out from your board. Your boarder or skier, depending on which you pick, also gets a nice covering of snow when you crash which gradually fades away as you start to pick up speed which is a nice effect. In addition to the games makeover, the characters have undergone a face-lift. I was quite shocked for a moment when I first saw Moby and his elongated head, but it has sort of grown on me. Sure hes missing his dreads he had in the previous games, but hes still pretty damn awesome. Other characters have undergone the treatment too, with some being almost unidentifiable from their previous versions, so if it werent for the names you wouldnt know it was them.
Wikki wikki woa! *Scratches turntables*
The music in SSX Blur was created by Junkie XL, the person behind the remix of the Elvis song A Little Less Conversation. But dont worry, there are no Elvis remixes to be seen in SSX Blur. The soundtrack in Blur is reminiscent of the SSX Tricky soundtrack, featuring techno-ish music that suits the game perfectly. The music fades in and out as you fly off ramps and if you stack, the music will come to a stop and restart once your character gets up. One thing that is missing from Blur is the character voices and this is one thing that disappointed me a fair bit. Without a voice, the characters seem a bit bland and generic. Their voices was what gave them a personality in the previous games and it just doesnt feel the same without their shouts of joy when they pull of a trick. There is still an announcer though and he can get a tad annoying with his radio show host jargon after a while, but you hardly notice it and it blends in with the rest of the game fairly well.
Flick the Wiimote to do a back flip!
EA Montreal worked on the control scheme for SSX Blur from the ground up and this shows when you play the game. Carving down a mountain side with Wiimote and nunchuck in hand has never felt so right. There are two methods for boarder control and both are handled by the nunchuck. You can either set the control to the analogue stick or have it set up so twisting the nunchuck left and right moves your character side to side. You can also have a combination of the two. Grabs are also performed with the nunchuck by a combination of the Z button and a twist of the wrist in either the left, right, up or down positions. Z also functions as the boost button. The Wiimote has been used to great effect in SSX Blur. Upward and downward flicks perform front and backflips while flicking side to side will do spins. One of the hardest things in this game is the Ubertricks. Pulling them off requires you to press the A button and draw out a design in the air whether it be a zigzag or a loop, these can be quite challenging to pull off. The game is quite picky at picking up the movements, sometimes you either do it too fast and it doesnt register or you think youre doing the right pattern, but it just isnt picked up right. This can be quite annoying and at times it made me want the old button combos back but after a fair bit of practise, they become second nature to pull off and when youre flying through a half pipe pulling off ubertricks left, right and centre, you get a warm fuzzy feeling in side.
Collectables Galore!
Scattered throughout the mountains of SSX are several challenges which you need to complete to progress in the game. They range from simple half-pipe competitions to throwing snowballs at yeti targets dotted throughout a set area. As you progress through the game, challenges get harder with shorter time limits for races, higher points needed for trick and half pipe challenges and so on. Im quite sure I havent even found half of the challenges available yet, so I still have a fair bit of playing to do. Also placed throughout the mountain are little honeycomb shaped tokens which you need to collect to open up new patterns for ubertricks and with 8 ubertricks which need collecting with 20 tokens each, thats 160 different tokens you need to scour the mountains for if you feel like unlocking all the tricks. There are also 25 different boards and skis to collect so if youre the sort of player that must absolutely have every single thing unlocked this game should give you quite a few hours of play time.
The mountain is your playground
The back cover of SSX Blur couldnt be closer to the truth. Huge mountains, several paths, tons of challenges and collectables, it really is your playground. Newcomers to the SSX series will enjoy this fantastic game if they dont give up after the first two hours because of the controls. Yes, they are hard to get the hang of and there is a fairly big learning curve, but once you get used to them the game is a joy to play. Old school players of SSX will enjoy the familiar game set up, challenges and the return of several of the characters from the previous series. The soundtrack is on par with that of SSX Tricky, which in my opinion was the best soundtrack on an SSX game to date. The graphics are pretty, crisp and are some of the best seen on the Wii so far. So should you rush out and get SSX Blur? Absolutely, the game is a blast to play once you get past the confusing controls and the sheer amount of things to do in it provide tons of playability. SSX Blur is a great addition to the series and is a must for any fan of the SSX games.
