In this review, we perform some monster tricks in the GameCube game, SSX On Tour. We find out how well this racing/snowboard game plays.
This game was released in 2005 and is another entry into the SSX franchise. Previously, we played the game SSX Tricky and found it to be a very solid worthwhile game. So, it makes we tackle another game in the series.
There isn’t much background story to this game. However, you are able to fully customize your character in the creator. Everything from clothes to makeup, body type, and facial hair is possible to customize.
You start at the rank of Amateur and no hype. You also start with an extremely basic board and no sponsorships. As you can imagine, you need to build your hype in order to climb the ranks. This can be done by beating various events or touching the camera icon (this will net you a “boast” which gives you a nice hype bonus). As you beat different events, you’ll be able to unlock the next difficulty.
In all, there are 6 difficulties: Amateur, Rookie, Semi-Pro, Pro, Pro-Master, and Master. As you can imagine, as you climb up through the difficulties, you’ll encounter increasingly difficult challenges. So, it’s ideal to start figuring things out in the early ranks such as tricks, boost bars, and how the track layouts work.
There are multiple types of events, however, they can ultimately be broken down into three categories: race, trick, and challenge.
Racing challenges either pit you against one or multiple opponents. There are variations to this. Some are simple race to the finish line type races. Others require you to get a certain distance ahead of your rival. Regardless, you need to beat your opponent.
Stunt races focus on the various tricks you are able to pull. The more stunts you are able to perform, the better. Even better is if you can perform combo’s in your stunts. These generally net you bonus points. If you’ve managed to snag them at the store, this is where “Monster” tricks come in real handy. Like the races, there are variations to these kinds of events. Some require you to get a certain amount of points ahead of your opponent before you win. Other times, you simply need to have a higher score then your opponent or opponents. In some instances, you are simply trying to get the straight up beat the high score.
Finally, there are challenge type races. These races require you to perform a specific type of goal. Sometimes, you are knocking down other skier’s on the hill. Other times, you are evading the ski patrol. You might even be asked to collect special items scattered on the course or ride specifically marked rails. There are a lot of variations in this more or less miscellaneous type of course and the variety will likely keep you on your toes throughout the main playthrough.
To add another dimension to the variety of races you’ll encounter, there are two categories of race events: shred and events. Shred’s allow you to add to your hype, but generally speaking, you won’t earn much in the way of extra cash. While the rewards have a tendency to be a bit more limited, they’ll be much more plentiful and are needed to help you advance smoothly.
Event’s, meanwhile, can net you a decent amount of hype. They also tend to have much higher cash rewards. The downside is that there are limited numbers of them. Still, if you want to build your cash, these events are generally ideal.
While shred’s are generally one event and done races, event’s tend to be more complicated. Sometimes, you simply get two chances to qualify for a final race. Other events get you to race twice with the best time dictating the winner. In some cases, you may even be required to play several races with the best total time crowning the winner (sometimes, it’s the same race, other times, it’s across different courses).
Generally, you chart your own course throughout the game, but one thing is consistent: the store. Use the store to buy various pieces of equipment and attributes.
The equipment includes various boards you can buy. There are three types of boards: race boards, trick boards, and combo boards. Race boards emphasize your ability to get to the bottom quickly. The most important attribute is speed. Trick boards, however, sacrifice your capabilities of getting down to the bottom of the hill quickly and emphasizes attributes to help you perform bigger tricks. Combo boards provides a balanced board that gives you the best of both worlds.
Meanwhile, you can purchase “monster” tricks at the store. While you can perform big tricks, they will only carry you so far in a race. The “monster” tricks allow you to get bigger scores and better bonuses added to your boost bar. While you can easily ignore this at the beginning, eventually, you’ll need to start buying these tricks to keep up with the competition.
Finally, there are attributes. This tends to be some of the most expensive things you can buy in the whole store. These attributes improve different aspects of your character. This can help you get that extra bit of edge to extend your capabilities of winning some of the hardest races in the game.
Everything can be found on the map which is half useful. Trying to find races you haven’t completed may gradually become a challenge as you get deeper in the game. While you can replay anything you want, the game only shows you the most difficult races you haven’t completed as races you haven’t beaten yet. There is only a handful of these races shown at a time. If you beat almost all of them and haven’t been able to advance to the next difficulty, only then will the game show you races you haven’t beaten in previous difficulties.
As for the races themselves, there are a number of things to keep in mind. First, the horn rocker hand signal icons indicate routs that you can generally take. They basically prevent the players from getting lost. The thing is, if you know the course well enough, you can simply flaunt these indicators and chart your own course. As a special way point indicator, the game also have small yeti signs. These indicate alternate routs that you can take. While harder, they can reveal anything from hidden half pipes to nice shortcuts along the way. Just note that not all alternate routs are shorter routs.
Then, there is the weird mind blown shooting star logo. This tells the player that a jump is forthcoming. So, you generally don’t have to guess at the major jumps because the game does tell you where they are. The thing is, these icons definitely do not indicate where all the jumps are. In fact, you can easily make your own jumps along the way to keep that boost bar fueled.
In addition to this, there are various rails along the way. Some rails are obvious and indicated in red. Others, however, aren’t that obvious at all. Rails can include sides of buildings, parts of helicopters, sponsorship boards, chunks of ice, logs, tree branches, and a whole pile of other objects along the way. These rails count as tricks, so this can be a nice cheeky way to add fuel to your boost bar. Note that you can perform additional stunts on these and even use these as gaining added turning capabilities.
As you race, you’ll likely see numerous icons floating around. These items can help your overall game or help your race. The icons that help your overall game are dollar signs. Collect these and you’ll be able to get a cash bonus. Alternatively, there are speed boost icons. Collecting these will give you an additional boost to your overall boost bar.
As hinted multiple times now, you can perform numerous tricks. What tricks you can perform depends on how much boost you have in your boost bar. There are three levels you can get in your boost bar: nothing/green, yellow, and purple.
Nothing/green allows you to perform basic tricks. This includes simple board grabs, flips, and twists. A number of these tricks can be performed at the same time. Successful trick combinations can fill your boost bar more quickly.
If you manage to fill your boost bar, you’ll get the second level: yellow. Getting your boost bar up to this level allows you to perform the bigger tricks. The bigger tricks are reserved for the C stick. Simple directions will allow you to perform bigger tricks. However, if you bought the trick in question, adding a second direction right after will allow you to perform a monster trick. An easy way to remember monster tricks is that the next direction will always be right next to the first direction. For instance, if the first part is “C” up, then the next direction will either be “C” left or “C” right. Alternatively, if the first direction is “C” left, then the next direction is going to be either “C” up or “C” down.
If you successfully fill your boost bar again, the final level is purple. In a race, this is as good as boost power can gets. Full purple means unlimited boost to the end of the race. Be warned, however, that if you wipe out, you’ll lose the unlimited boost status. You’ll have to re-earn whatever you are penalized (and time can also reduce your purple boost as well).
Boost bar allows you to gain extra speed. Think of the boost bar as the nitro in this game. You can use it at any time and use it as much or as little as you like. As long as you have some boost in your bar, you can unleash that added speed any time you want while you are on the snow or rail. Note that if you have yellow boost and you use up all of that level of boost, you lose all of it. You can’t demote yourself down to green.
For me, this is one of those games that has loads to offer. Perhaps the most critical thing this game offers, however, is the difficulty curve. The game starts off so extremely easy, you can know next to nothing about the game and still easily breeze through the races. This really allows players to find the rhythm of the game and start learning things from scratch. Along the way, players will be greeted by various tips to help them get better. It may take a few rounds, but it is more than possible to learn a vast majority of the games features before the difficulty starts setting in.
Because of these two features, the learning curve is actually stunted by quite a bit. It also makes this game become highly approachable. There is still that sense of this game being overwhelming at first with so much knowledge being thrown at you all at once, but large chunks can easily sink in before these basic skills are needed to keep ahead of the competition.
Probably the only really annoying part about this game is, as mentioned, the menu system and the way events and progress is displayed. It’s next to impossible to really determine what has or hasn’t been completed in the “past events” menu. You just get a series of lists and are expected to figure things out on your own. In addition to this, the game does a surprisingly poor job at indicating what you need to advance to the next difficulty. All you know is that you advance when you advance and that hype has something to do with it. The hype rankings is interesting, but it’s unclear just how useful it is outside of maybe giving players an added boost in ego.
Otherwise, this game is actually very playable. The controls are well realized and everything flows nicely. There is a great sense of variety throughout, so the game never really gets boring. The only real limitation is how far up the difficulty you can go before you finally reach your maximum skill capabilities. By the time you get there, you’ll have easily sunk a good number of hours into this game.
Generally speaking, there is a lot going for this game. The controls are great and the difficulty curve is very well realized. The menu’s do leave quite a bit to be desired and things can be a bit overwhelming at the beginning. Still, there is a lot to enjoy in this game.
The graphics in this game are quite interesting. They have that animated cartoon style throughout the menu’s. This does give this game a nice personality. In addition, the courses are also nicely realized. You can find yourself blasting through construction zones, forests, snow villages, and plenty of other things in between. There are also nice special effects with boosts. Probably the only thing really holding this game back is the few, if any, variations in weather patterns. The only variations are day and night that I could tell. Still, I think it is a great effort here.
Audio is also nicely done. The game features a huge variety of licensed music. Some tracks are simply instrumental variations of the tracks. Still, they are generally a nice variation of punk rock, rock, metal, and hip hop and rap music. It’s really hard to be bored with the music. Meanwhile, the sound effects and voice samples are reasonably well done.
Overall, this is a great game. It’s got nicely done gameplay, controls, and very well realized difficulty curve. Things can feel a bit overwhelming at first, but the game definitely gives you a solid chance to learn the games nuances. The menu system does leave a bit to be desired, though. Graphics are great and the audio is solid. An overall great game that gets a thumbs up from me.
Overall
Furthest point in game: Rank 25, beat a number of races on Pro-Legend difficulty.
General gameplay: 21/25
Replay value: 8/10
Graphics: 8/10
Audio: 3/5
Overall rating: 80%
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
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