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| game |
| SSX Blur | | genre |
| Racing | | date | | Out now! |
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SSX Blur - Review | |
Written by Joe Hall |
SSX Blur is a good game - there is no denying that EA have done a bloody good job with it. It isn’t entirely new
however: there are some re-used tracks mixed in with the new ones. This doesn’t make the game any less
entertaining - in fact, the regurgitated tracks seem somehow new with the added Wiimote and Nunchuck
combination of steering and tricks, but some of the fans of the series may feel slightly disappointed that EA has not
produced a whole new game for the Wii.
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The most fun you can have
with your
clothes on. |
SSX Blur is very much like SSX 3, in the sense that it contains three peaks which are unlocked throughout the
course of the game, and can be raced down consecutively. The peaks are unlocked in the career mode and
the tracks can then be played in multiplayer mode and quickrace. The game contains twelve save files,
and in each save file you have twelve characters you can use.
The controls for the game are moderately complicated, but steering is relatively simple. To turn, you tilt the Nunchuck
while pushing the analogue stick forwards to accelerate and pushing it back to decelerate. This is fairly
straightforward, but the difficulty ramps right up when it comes to pulling off tricks. This will take an entire
paragraph just to explain.
To jump, you can either flick the Nunchuck up, or press the A button. While
jumping, if you wave the Wiimote from side to side, your boarder / skier will spin. Wave it up and down,
and your boarder / skier will do a flip depending on which way you first moved the Wiimote. To do a grab,
jump in the air, and hold the Z button, while tilting the Nunchuck either up, down, left or right. What
annoys me about that particular setup is that the Z button also happens to be boost button. This means
if you happen to leave the floor while racing, your boarder / skier will pull a grab and ultimately, leave
you lying on the floor in a heap. This doesn’t take place often but is quite irritating when it does. It would seem
that the Wii control system simpy doesn't have enough buttons, and this might prove to be a problem in more and more
games. There's not a great deal Nintendo can do about it, short of releasing a different type of attachment for the
Wii remote, or perhaps even allowing two Wii remotes to be connected together. Thankfully, the problem isn't
too frequent in SSX Blur - it's more of a minor annoyance.
The game features a tutorial mode to help you get used to the controls, but it's just as hard as going
through the game and learning them yourself. Sure, it tells you how to use the controls, but the only
way you can really get to grips with them is to hit the slopes and fall over a lot. It takes about an hour
or so to become comfortable with them, which might annoy those brainless people who don't have the dedication to
put the effort in, but once you do get the hang of it the game becomes significantly more enjoyable.
Multiplayer is a little disappointing, as only two players can race, but it is still highly enjoyable and competitive.
Multiplayer contains all the modes available in the main game, but only slopestyle and race
can be played in a split screen view. This is quite unsatisfactory, but you only need one controller to play,
which proves that every cloud does have a silver lining.
SSX Blur’s career mode is very linear, but it is a racing game, so that would have been expected.
Your overall goal is to be top of the leader board and 100% complete the game. You go about this by
competing in events, which earns points. Points are what determines your overall rank on the leaderboard,
so the more points you have, the higher you rank. Points also unlock tournaments, which are what progresses you
through the game. Each peak is unlocked by winning a certain tournament, and each tournament also gives you a
large quantity of points, allowing you to complete a tournament and almost instantly unlock the next for you to
move onto. This almost makes the game too easy, as you can move through the game without getting a medal in
any of the individual events. One of the bonuses of this easy progression, however, is that peak 3 is opened
up fairly early on in the game, and you then have the whole mountain to explore, and you will end up doing
the individual events simply because the game is so enjoyable.
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