What was once believed to be a Square developed game, is actually property of EA Canada. EA Sports and EA Canada have hopped on the PS2 band-wagon and are waiting to give their snowboarding game, SSX the green light. SSX (Snowboard SuperCross) is EA Canada's first PS2 title, the date for the game is still unknown, but as soon as we find out we will definitely reveal it. After what seems to be six mediocre snowboarding games for the current Playstation, EA may finally hit the mark with their first snowboarding title. Unlike previous snowboarders, SSX has fictional boarders, 8 of them in total. There are many marvelous things about SSX learn about a few of them by reading the rest of this preview.

     The average character in a similar game uses about 200-250 polygons, while SSX will use 5000 polygons (I know, holy sh*t) per character, and that results with one smooth looking character. With six guys and gals racing simultaneously on one screen, the frame rate should remain silky smooth. There is an arsenal of super detailed courses to be raced on. Each course will feature super realistic backgrounds and environments that are very interactive (but I'll fill you in on that later). The trees, the snow, everything you see surrounding you is not flat and grainy looking like the current PS backgrounds are, but instead, the tress look very bushy and perky. While the snow is ultra sleek and smooth looking just like real life. When catching air and pulling off some tricks, you can actually see the air trails coming of the edge of your board and that is one beautiful visual effect to look at. Of course with more power also comes no virtual pop-up, and with the PS2's enormous 32MB RAM, the possibilities are endless.

      The game's biggest feature is its awesome "stop and go songs". When you are launched into air and bustin' out some hardcore tricks, the music pauses and when you land the track hits you with full force and comes back on. Just think of an action flick where you see a car jump from a ramp in a chase, when it is in the air there is no sound at all, then when it lands you hear this big crash. Just like that, except in the game the music completely mutes, all you can hear is the air whistling and then the track jumps back in to play when you land. And that ladies and gentlemen is one of the games coolest aspects, wouldn't you agree.

      The gameplay should be a lot like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater but with more tricks and slightly more variety. There are a total of 8 boarders (with a few secret ones, hopefully) and a total of 11 courses. We can expect about 7-8 modes included in SSX so the game will most likely last you quite awhile. We will keep you posted as soon as more is revealed on SSX.

03/11/00  SolidSnake

Playstation 2

Scheduled release date:
Fall 2000

Publisher:
EA

Developer:
EA Canada

Genre:
Sports

Number of Players:
1-2