Another vote for Centy being great.
Its got tons of wild ideas, weird characters, great graphics and interesting gameplay mechanics. I really need to play it again.
1 Like
SSX3 is just as compelling today as it was 16 (!) years ago.
5 Likes
gonna expand on this a bit
I think my favorite thing about SSX3 is that it requires constant input from the player, and yet thereās always that downhill momentum to carry the player closer to the goal. So even when you fuck up big time and smash your face into a pole at 45 MPH, you fall onto the ground and slide further towards the end of the course before you get up. This is, of course, a disaster, but the game doesnāt ever stop.
With rare exception, of course - sometimes you can end up getting stuck between two rails or something, but the game is remarkably clever about detecting this and justā¦immediately resets your rider to the main track with very little delay.
Also: most of the tracks branch so many times that I often have no idea where I am, which is great. As far as I am concerned, I will never see all of this game because there are so many options to take going down the mountain.
Okay last thing. The whole game is completely connected from top to bottom, meaning that I can go from the top of Peak 3 all the way to the bottom of Peak 1 in a single run, and it lasts something like 25 minutes. This definitely adds to the feeling of ānever stopā because I justā¦never have to stop.
Unless I want to pop in to the lodge and buy some new shit, of course, which I have to physically do by either riding down to the next lodge or taking the ski lift up to a previous one.
Really, I feel like the ethos to this game is ānever stop boardingā and it works really well. Itās 100% engrossing, partically because second to second thereās always decisions to be made, and partially because I never have to stop boarding!!! I love it.
14 Likes
Seemingly small decisions about āimmersionā (Ubisoft is calling it āpresenceā these days and have toplined it in their singleplayer games) are the sorts can build up into something really great. And a mountain of careful work towards this aesthetic can be destroyed by a few mistakes or, more likely, a set of preconceptions from the popular narrative driving expectations.
this + SSX3 in general informed my personal aesthetic in so many fucking ways I love that game so much
itās the first game that did like, sound design AT me in a way that really brought out the ānever stopā-ness of the game
the first time I launched into the air and heard my shitty pop punk amazing music high-pass filter itself with a phaser while I stayed up there for fifteen literal seconds and then WHAM-ed back down with the full EQ in and the boost gain SFX up and the deep voiced announcer telling me about what I just did
thatās probably when music and games became a thing for me
4 Likes
Well shit I want to play SSX3 now.
1 Like
and its attitude toward not stopping you if you fuck up is something I wish more extreme sports games thought about? itās telling that my two favorite boarding games of all time (SSX3 + the skate. series) treat falling over as sometimes more interesting than successfully performing the task! like, skateboarding and snowboarding irl is you eating shit way way more than you ever successfully land things so for those games to integrate that in a way that doesnāt make you feel like you were WRONG for doing so is why I love them so much
the closest thing that Iāve been lightly playing is descenders and everything is pretty great EXCEPT for the punishment when you fall off your bike
I know the system is there to structure the rest of the game but I just want to ride as fast as I can down a dynamically generated mountain and if I fall over I just want to keep going
2 Likes
you could maybe say most of my life has been me chasing the ssx3 full mountain run feeling
5 Likes
yeah this
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ssx tricky probably has the softer spot in my heart for the same reasons i prefer tony hawk 3 to 4 but my only real glaring issue with ssx 3 is that it doesnt have fucking tokyo megaplex, the greatest level in snowboarding game history
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yeah ssx3 rules. i played it on Gamecube. magic mountain music. how they havenāt made a snowboarding game as good in the intervening 15 years i donāt know. just do that again!!
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At this point this is basically like yelling freebird at the stage but yeah, do another one! I donāt remember what I played more, I think it was Tricky. That sound effect/music magic was what really drew me in and kept me going. I would have never guessed a snowboarding game would get me hooked but thatās the power of videogames. You can make anything work
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A reminder that you can get SSX3 on Xbox One BC with One enhancements for less than 10 bucks
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I finally did a 6-chain in Panel. Iām so smart!
4 Likes
Panel 1 Drake: PCP
Panel 2 Drake: PdP
3 Likes
Or you can be like me and hack your Wii U to play Gamecube games on the gamepad. Best experience obviously
3 Likes
I canāt decide whether the combat in Supraland is redundant or not but I donāt really resent it
Nice vidcon
just saw what you did there
1 Like
Downhill Domination is pretty darn good
