SSX Blur for Nintendo Wii
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- Publisher: EA - Electronic Arts
- Genre: Sports
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Taking the Controls to the next level
Pros
Controls, Controls, and more Controls
Cons
Very steep learning curve
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
This type of gaming experience can only be on the Nintendo Wii. Bright future for the Wii if more games follow this type of control setup.
Blurring the lines between being one of the most difficult games to control to being one of the most satisfying is SSX Blur. SSX Blur comes on strong on the Nintendo Wii to bring on an experience like no other.
Background
I have only briefly played the first SSX on the PS2 ages ago. At the time it was a very fun game as it had good speed and plenty tricks. I remember playing this and Tony Hawk back in the day thinking the controls were ground breaking. Being able to do different moves in the air and chaining them was so cool.
The Controls
The controls for this game are the most important reason one would play this game. After having so many iterations on older consoles, the main draw to pick up and play this game is for the Wii controls. SSX uses both the wiimote and the nunchuk controller. Speed and breaking is handled by the analog stick which also is used for fine turning. For larger turns, you just tilt the nunchuck left of right. Let's just start by saying the actual skiing controls work just fine. Braking and accelerating while turning should not be a problem. There are times when fine increments of control are necessary and you will really need to be familiar to the momentum in the game to get a good grasp on turning. Skiing involves a lot of momentum shifting and this game picks that up very nicely. You will not be able to stop on a dime if you just jumped from a cliff and just landed.
After taking a fall in the game, one only needs to shake both controls to get back on your skis. This can be done in the air or while your tumbling down a large mountain. The recovery time can be fast enough in that you can recover while in the air and not waste too much time tumbling. I did like the graphical touch when you eat some snow your body will come up all white cause it's covered with soft snow.
Ubertricks - The next step up to dominating the field. This meter fills up when you score some points from doing jumps or grinding on some rail. Once you fill this meter up you can then perform these tricks when you do a jump. For the first straight solid hour I was cursing the day I picked this game up to do these move. Why would the developers torture people into teasing them with these ubertricks when they were not working. After about 1 to 2 hours, the mechanics started to click. To pull off the trick you hold down the A button and draw a simple figure. One figure is to just draw a Z which is pretty easy but I was so frustrated because I couldn't do it. A sense of euphoria came over me when I was able to pull this move off. Your character sometimes goes into a Matrix slow motion speed and you start to sparkle and glow. The move is performed and you rack up some serious points from this. The first couple ubertricks are pretty simple except for the 2 looping circles that could be hard for a novice. You get to add more by picking up these ubertrick icons when you're moving around in the map. What is just plain silly is that you have to collect multiple icons to unlock another ubertrick. The unlockable tricks look outrageous. One of the tricks is to draw a heart using both controllers. The heart motion isn't hard to do but I was so used to doing the tricks by only using the remote.
The key to pulling off the ubertrick is to not rotate at the wrist solely. By pointing at the screen and moving your entire hand will greatly increase the success rate in pulling off the move. There is a menu you can access and it allows you to practice just drawing the ubertricks you have unlocked and it tells you if you did it correct or not. This feature would have been very handy instead of trying to learn the move in the tutorial. By practicing the move in the menu, you can repeat the move over and over quickly versus trying to learn the move in the tutorial which requires restarting the level. Time is money and learning to do the ubertrick as soon as possible is very important. The greatest draw into playing this version of the game or even playing it specifically for the Wii I believe is the ubertricks. The Wii has taken simple directional based gameplay to a whole new level. I've gotten to a point where I can pull of the standard ubertricks 95% of the time and the harder one probably 80% of the time. This is a feat in itself considering the first hour of play I wanted to strangle myself because of the difficulty level and now after 10 hours I can do them while sitting down on the couch.
To put it in a way hard core gamer can relate please think back to the good old arcade days. When Street Fighter II, Samurai Shodown, and the Tekken Series hit the market with combo moves, elaborate joystick maneuvering, and chaining multiple hit combos was a new to the scene you could feel the shift from button smashing to skilled gameplay. No longer could one just mash the buttons on their way to victory. Ken/Ryu uppercut and the Zangief 360 pile driver had to be the most difficult move on the face of the earth. That was until the Tekken 10 hit combo with King was introduced and hard core gamers rejoiced around the world. So why do hardcore games like this type of torture in having to learn all these different moves and they still come back for more? It's the different way of kicking butt and taking names. Your soccer mom will not enjoy these tight controls as a general gamer and this is where SSX comes into play. SSX is fun on it's own right without doing the super moves but the longevity of the game is severely damaged without them. You can play Street Fighter II just by doing to directional moves but the real fun is doing the flying kick that combos into a reverse uppercut. What I'm getting at is that SSX needs more time to be giving a chance to learn the ubertricks to fully appreciate what the Wii is actually capable of accomplishing, gaming bliss. Maybe the snow boarding type games don't really appeal to gamers but this game is so ground breaking in that these difficult 3D moves actually work. The applications of this type of tight control work can be applied to fighting games which could take the Nintendo Wii to the next level if there was one. Imagine playing Grand Theft Auto with being able to do Street Fighter type moves.
The Game
No online multi-player so just chew on that and move on. Standard 4 players on the same screen is available. I haven't played much multi-player as novice players would have an extremely hard time understanding how to do moves. Steering and skiing isn't so hard but to get points and building the meter is the point of the game. New users will not be able to do the ubertricks and that pretty much makes the game unplayable.
There are multiple unlock-able characters and also different skis and boards you can upgrade to. There is a bit of role playing elements as you can upgrade your character in a couple categories but I generally just try and max out my trick attribute. You can only upgrade your character after complete some competitions and getting more points. Career mode is broken into 3 mountains and you only have access to the first one in the beginning. You start out at the top of the mountain and you can free ski to the events or you can even have the option of bypassing the entrance of that event and just ski the even without time or ranking restrictions. This is pretty handy if you just want to practice the course and not worry about ranking. I was able to perfect the ubertrick spending a huge amount of time on the half pipe.
There are multiple types of matches and courses available to the character in career mode. The slalom is the most annoying event you can participate in. I haven't been able to control the turning and speed as much as I would like to be able to weave in and out of the slalom flags. There is a standard race against the other CPU characters and usually only requires getting to the finish line faster. You can gain additional speed if you have filled up your meter. There are a couple of one on one challenges which isn't too much different from the general races. Some of the challenges are not selectable from a menu as you have to search them out on the mountain side in free ski mode to be able to complete them. The menu system is your friend as you can select the evens straight from the map screen versus having to find the event entrance physically on the mountain. Some entrances are tucked away and you won't even know there is an event there.
The speed of the game can be at times so slow you can't believe your actually on a mountain side with a incline. Then there will be times you will be clearing so much ground it just seems impossible. The difference in speed could have been a bit tighter but at least you can separate how you want to play. If you like to move at a snails pace play the slalom. If you like to fly down a track then the race events are where you need to be at. If you just like to get big air then the half pipe or the tracks with giant ramps will be to more your liking. The mixture of gameplay should keep the majority of gamers happy as long as you can control your character.
I have encountered a couple places where at the start of a race where the game will slow down for 1 to 2 seconds. I'm not sure if that is due to the Wii trying to load all of the memory of the course initially or if it's just choking on trying to render everything. It is a bit disappointing to find out that this super gamecube processor can't run this game without any slowdowns. The SSX game engine has been around long enough that the Nintendo Wii should not have any slow downs whatsoever. To the defense of the slow downs, at least they are at the very beginning of some races where fireworks are going off and it doesn't affect any of the jumps or critical control maneuvers. If there were slow downs in the actual race, the ubertricks would be rendered unusable but thankfully this is not the case.
The Graphics
The graphics of the game are pretty good for a Nintendo Wii running off a progressive signal. I can't really complain as it does look prettier then any PS2 SSX game I've ever seen. I would say they are better then the gamecube but of course can't touch the xbox360 or ps3. The lighting effects and soft colors make it pretty easy on the eyes. The overall style of the game matches the X Games type look. Of course all the character animations are on the cartoon side but SSX never was really going for the ultra realistic looking character models in the first place. Taking into context the type of games the SSX franchise has put out, the graphics in this game match very well and Nintendo Wii users will be very happy. The main draw isn't to the graphics but they are serviceable.
In Closing
The game isn't for everyone. Most games that appeal to the mass market are very easy to control and are usually either a shooting game or a sports game. Both of those genres have been around long enough to gamers to get a feel for first person shooter controls and being able to read a blitz package in football. Extreme sports games have been around and have gotten a lot of attention ever since the introduction of the Tony Hawk series. SSX Blur takes the basic formula of Tony Hawk but then adds the ubertricks and 3D motion from the Nintendo Wii to deliver a gaming experience that can only be appreciated after mastering how to play it. There is a learning curve and it's a steep one. I consider myself a natural in games as I can generally pick up a game and get a good feel to how to play and master it. This is only because so many games play the same. SSX bucks that trend in making gamers open up their minds to different ways of playing and brings a whole new level of enjoyment. I can truly relate to the first time I pulled off the uppercut in Street Fighter II to consistently pulling off the more difficult ubertricks in SSX Blur. The controls are not broken.
Pros
Graphics = Nice for Wii. Looks very similar to the soft graphics of Timesplitters
Controls = Revolutionary way to do moves and opens up a whole new type of gameplay.
Depth = Plenty of characters and equipment to unlock
Navigation = Very easy to get around once you find out that a lot of the information can be accessed through the menu screen.
Cons
Online Component = There is none. Not even a high scores leader board or even a high trick pulled off.
Learning Curve = If you get easily frustrated and tend to not enjoy learning new ways to play games these controls will push you farther away from this game.
Slalom = Wow I hate this course and the fact it's the 2nd tournament you enter makes it even worse.
Background
I have only briefly played the first SSX on the PS2 ages ago. At the time it was a very fun game as it had good speed and plenty tricks. I remember playing this and Tony Hawk back in the day thinking the controls were ground breaking. Being able to do different moves in the air and chaining them was so cool.
The Controls
The controls for this game are the most important reason one would play this game. After having so many iterations on older consoles, the main draw to pick up and play this game is for the Wii controls. SSX uses both the wiimote and the nunchuk controller. Speed and breaking is handled by the analog stick which also is used for fine turning. For larger turns, you just tilt the nunchuck left of right. Let's just start by saying the actual skiing controls work just fine. Braking and accelerating while turning should not be a problem. There are times when fine increments of control are necessary and you will really need to be familiar to the momentum in the game to get a good grasp on turning. Skiing involves a lot of momentum shifting and this game picks that up very nicely. You will not be able to stop on a dime if you just jumped from a cliff and just landed.
After taking a fall in the game, one only needs to shake both controls to get back on your skis. This can be done in the air or while your tumbling down a large mountain. The recovery time can be fast enough in that you can recover while in the air and not waste too much time tumbling. I did like the graphical touch when you eat some snow your body will come up all white cause it's covered with soft snow.
Ubertricks - The next step up to dominating the field. This meter fills up when you score some points from doing jumps or grinding on some rail. Once you fill this meter up you can then perform these tricks when you do a jump. For the first straight solid hour I was cursing the day I picked this game up to do these move. Why would the developers torture people into teasing them with these ubertricks when they were not working. After about 1 to 2 hours, the mechanics started to click. To pull off the trick you hold down the A button and draw a simple figure. One figure is to just draw a Z which is pretty easy but I was so frustrated because I couldn't do it. A sense of euphoria came over me when I was able to pull this move off. Your character sometimes goes into a Matrix slow motion speed and you start to sparkle and glow. The move is performed and you rack up some serious points from this. The first couple ubertricks are pretty simple except for the 2 looping circles that could be hard for a novice. You get to add more by picking up these ubertrick icons when you're moving around in the map. What is just plain silly is that you have to collect multiple icons to unlock another ubertrick. The unlockable tricks look outrageous. One of the tricks is to draw a heart using both controllers. The heart motion isn't hard to do but I was so used to doing the tricks by only using the remote.
The key to pulling off the ubertrick is to not rotate at the wrist solely. By pointing at the screen and moving your entire hand will greatly increase the success rate in pulling off the move. There is a menu you can access and it allows you to practice just drawing the ubertricks you have unlocked and it tells you if you did it correct or not. This feature would have been very handy instead of trying to learn the move in the tutorial. By practicing the move in the menu, you can repeat the move over and over quickly versus trying to learn the move in the tutorial which requires restarting the level. Time is money and learning to do the ubertrick as soon as possible is very important. The greatest draw into playing this version of the game or even playing it specifically for the Wii I believe is the ubertricks. The Wii has taken simple directional based gameplay to a whole new level. I've gotten to a point where I can pull of the standard ubertricks 95% of the time and the harder one probably 80% of the time. This is a feat in itself considering the first hour of play I wanted to strangle myself because of the difficulty level and now after 10 hours I can do them while sitting down on the couch.
To put it in a way hard core gamer can relate please think back to the good old arcade days. When Street Fighter II, Samurai Shodown, and the Tekken Series hit the market with combo moves, elaborate joystick maneuvering, and chaining multiple hit combos was a new to the scene you could feel the shift from button smashing to skilled gameplay. No longer could one just mash the buttons on their way to victory. Ken/Ryu uppercut and the Zangief 360 pile driver had to be the most difficult move on the face of the earth. That was until the Tekken 10 hit combo with King was introduced and hard core gamers rejoiced around the world. So why do hardcore games like this type of torture in having to learn all these different moves and they still come back for more? It's the different way of kicking butt and taking names. Your soccer mom will not enjoy these tight controls as a general gamer and this is where SSX comes into play. SSX is fun on it's own right without doing the super moves but the longevity of the game is severely damaged without them. You can play Street Fighter II just by doing to directional moves but the real fun is doing the flying kick that combos into a reverse uppercut. What I'm getting at is that SSX needs more time to be giving a chance to learn the ubertricks to fully appreciate what the Wii is actually capable of accomplishing, gaming bliss. Maybe the snow boarding type games don't really appeal to gamers but this game is so ground breaking in that these difficult 3D moves actually work. The applications of this type of tight control work can be applied to fighting games which could take the Nintendo Wii to the next level if there was one. Imagine playing Grand Theft Auto with being able to do Street Fighter type moves.
The Game
No online multi-player so just chew on that and move on. Standard 4 players on the same screen is available. I haven't played much multi-player as novice players would have an extremely hard time understanding how to do moves. Steering and skiing isn't so hard but to get points and building the meter is the point of the game. New users will not be able to do the ubertricks and that pretty much makes the game unplayable.
There are multiple unlock-able characters and also different skis and boards you can upgrade to. There is a bit of role playing elements as you can upgrade your character in a couple categories but I generally just try and max out my trick attribute. You can only upgrade your character after complete some competitions and getting more points. Career mode is broken into 3 mountains and you only have access to the first one in the beginning. You start out at the top of the mountain and you can free ski to the events or you can even have the option of bypassing the entrance of that event and just ski the even without time or ranking restrictions. This is pretty handy if you just want to practice the course and not worry about ranking. I was able to perfect the ubertrick spending a huge amount of time on the half pipe.
There are multiple types of matches and courses available to the character in career mode. The slalom is the most annoying event you can participate in. I haven't been able to control the turning and speed as much as I would like to be able to weave in and out of the slalom flags. There is a standard race against the other CPU characters and usually only requires getting to the finish line faster. You can gain additional speed if you have filled up your meter. There are a couple of one on one challenges which isn't too much different from the general races. Some of the challenges are not selectable from a menu as you have to search them out on the mountain side in free ski mode to be able to complete them. The menu system is your friend as you can select the evens straight from the map screen versus having to find the event entrance physically on the mountain. Some entrances are tucked away and you won't even know there is an event there.
The speed of the game can be at times so slow you can't believe your actually on a mountain side with a incline. Then there will be times you will be clearing so much ground it just seems impossible. The difference in speed could have been a bit tighter but at least you can separate how you want to play. If you like to move at a snails pace play the slalom. If you like to fly down a track then the race events are where you need to be at. If you just like to get big air then the half pipe or the tracks with giant ramps will be to more your liking. The mixture of gameplay should keep the majority of gamers happy as long as you can control your character.
I have encountered a couple places where at the start of a race where the game will slow down for 1 to 2 seconds. I'm not sure if that is due to the Wii trying to load all of the memory of the course initially or if it's just choking on trying to render everything. It is a bit disappointing to find out that this super gamecube processor can't run this game without any slowdowns. The SSX game engine has been around long enough that the Nintendo Wii should not have any slow downs whatsoever. To the defense of the slow downs, at least they are at the very beginning of some races where fireworks are going off and it doesn't affect any of the jumps or critical control maneuvers. If there were slow downs in the actual race, the ubertricks would be rendered unusable but thankfully this is not the case.
The Graphics
The graphics of the game are pretty good for a Nintendo Wii running off a progressive signal. I can't really complain as it does look prettier then any PS2 SSX game I've ever seen. I would say they are better then the gamecube but of course can't touch the xbox360 or ps3. The lighting effects and soft colors make it pretty easy on the eyes. The overall style of the game matches the X Games type look. Of course all the character animations are on the cartoon side but SSX never was really going for the ultra realistic looking character models in the first place. Taking into context the type of games the SSX franchise has put out, the graphics in this game match very well and Nintendo Wii users will be very happy. The main draw isn't to the graphics but they are serviceable.
In Closing
The game isn't for everyone. Most games that appeal to the mass market are very easy to control and are usually either a shooting game or a sports game. Both of those genres have been around long enough to gamers to get a feel for first person shooter controls and being able to read a blitz package in football. Extreme sports games have been around and have gotten a lot of attention ever since the introduction of the Tony Hawk series. SSX Blur takes the basic formula of Tony Hawk but then adds the ubertricks and 3D motion from the Nintendo Wii to deliver a gaming experience that can only be appreciated after mastering how to play it. There is a learning curve and it's a steep one. I consider myself a natural in games as I can generally pick up a game and get a good feel to how to play and master it. This is only because so many games play the same. SSX bucks that trend in making gamers open up their minds to different ways of playing and brings a whole new level of enjoyment. I can truly relate to the first time I pulled off the uppercut in Street Fighter II to consistently pulling off the more difficult ubertricks in SSX Blur. The controls are not broken.
Pros
Graphics = Nice for Wii. Looks very similar to the soft graphics of Timesplitters
Controls = Revolutionary way to do moves and opens up a whole new type of gameplay.
Depth = Plenty of characters and equipment to unlock
Navigation = Very easy to get around once you find out that a lot of the information can be accessed through the menu screen.
Cons
Online Component = There is none. Not even a high scores leader board or even a high trick pulled off.
Learning Curve = If you get easily frustrated and tend to not enjoy learning new ways to play games these controls will push you farther away from this game.
Slalom = Wow I hate this course and the fact it's the 2nd tournament you enter makes it even worse.
