Blog - /Tech

I picked up 2 video games for the PS2 on a recent Walmart trip: Lego Star Wars and SSX On Tour. Lego Star Wars was completed within the day. I'm beginning to appreciate the first person hack-and-slash type of game, after completing this and Bard's Tale. It certainly can't hold a candle to the first-person Star Wars game that I saw my friends play back at Bethel, but it was nice and easy, at least. I found it somewhat amusing that they had a "True Jedi" meter that was filled up by collecting Lego studs. So ... the True Jedi is he or she who pillages and loots while on missions? Also, they limited the character speech in cutscenes to grunting noises. I have one friend who would probably say that this would be an improvement on the Episode II dialogue, but I digress.

SSX On Tour is enjoyable so far. It looks like I may even be able to beat the Tour section just by doing Freestyle events, which would make me very happy. Races, scavenger hunts, and mini-challenges usually annoy me — I play for the trick ability only. This is a good regression back to the days of SSX Tricky. Back in my freshman year, I was the first on my floor to complete SSX Tricky with a character. Good memories ... too bad they got rid of the Luther character in later SSX games — not every character can act the rodeo rider with a snowboard.

So far, EA seems to be getting a lot right with SSX On Tour. Instead of starting with a legendary character, you start with one of around 12 no-name basic characters (counting both male and female variants, that number doubles). The new autosave feature is a huge win — having to hit extra buttons to confirm a save was incredibly annoying in SSX 3. "Save" dialog boxes should not default to "Don't save"! Ditto for "Restart race".

The outside-of-play graphics have a pencil-and-paper look to them. This seems to be working so far. It especially helps the Loading screen to be more bearable. I'm a fan of new ways for displaying progress bars, and using a partial spiral graphic for this purpose makes me happy. Additionally, when restarting an event, the load speed is nearly instantaneous. It looks like the game designers finally learned how to implement caching — good for them.

The gameplay has been kicked up a notch or two. The edges of the screen get blurry when activating boost, which makes sense. The designers moved the Monster Trick keybindings to the second analog stick, which seems to be a win. Time slows down a bit while executing a Monster Trick, allowing one to savor the experience and have an increased chance at landing the trick. Some events have other snowboarders and skiers present, and a few points are awarded for having "close calls" with them. How odd that violence would be rewarded in this case (albeit not significantly so, compared to the points obtained from succeeding in the event).

The players are much more customizable. If the character is female, you can even customize their eye shadow. I'd be surprised if a significant percentage of game players appreciate that feature (I prefer the natural look, myself). Clothes are in a much more realistic cost category this time around, so that you don't have to choose between upgrading your character (or board) or having your character try on neat stuff. The attributes of the player (how well they can perform tricks, racing speed, etc.) are determined by the board instead of the player, as in SSX Tricky. Unlike in SSX Tricky, they are purchased instead of earned by completing a trick book, though I did receive one board early on for completing an event.

The music is a bit more subdued that previous titles. It's strictly for the background in SSX On Tour, and is not made much of. One of the biggest draws in SSX 3 was the great soundtrack. When the song changed, they would display artist and track information in a readable way. It is displayed briefly and illegibly in SSX On Tour. This game appears to allow one to have access to some sort of jukebox, which may redeem this part of the experience.