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Wii Game Review: SSX Blur |
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Written by Rancour
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Monday, 30 April 2007 |
The Nintendo Wii has an interesting advantage over every other console and that’s the necessity of designers and publishers to cater their games to fit the Wii’s hardware, no matter how many consoles they plan on releasing their game for. The SSX franchise has long been a major brand with amazing levels and stellar snowboarding game play and now with the release of the Nintendo Wii, EA Big brings us an entirely new way of playing it as well with SSX Blur. Released in February of this year, the game is clearly an early entry in the Wii library, with tweaks to be worked out, but an amazing step forward and a promise of great things to come.
Graphically, the Wii isn’t as powerful as its fellow consoles. SSX Blur looks quite similar to the later outings on the Xbox, without the smoothed textures and crisp frame rates of the next generation. However, sound wise SSX has always been on top of things, as usual bringing EA’s signature ability to license big name tracks and up and coming alternative tracks for its sports games. While the lack of customized soundtracks means eventual tiring of the same old music, you’ll still be more pleased with SSX Blur’s round of music than many other games on the market.
But it’s the game play that makes or breaks a game on the Wii these days and SSX Blur is no different. There has always been a worry that the Wii controls might be too complicated with some games and with Blur they almost are. Cruising the mountain is a blast, operated smoothly with the nunchuck attachment. However, when you start performing tricks, you’ll find that the boarder does not do exactly what you thought you did with the remote. Uber tricks are even worse, with complicated arrays of movements that often don’t work at all.
While, regular tricks can be faked, just randomly moving your remote around, the uber tricks are vital to getting the higher scores and beating the more advanced levels, and the lack of control can be frustrating. Similarly, a lot of the giant level design and obscene sidetracks and shortcuts are missing from this entry, as though the game has been streamlined for the inclusion of Wii remote functionality.
You’re basically replaying a lot of old tracks in a streamlined fashion without much new content and a control scheme that doesn’t make the game any more fun than the PS2’s dual shock. For that reason, the game doesn’t offer any compelling reasons to play it if you already own and have enjoyed the PS2’s SSX Tricky or SSX 3 games, both amazing in their own right.
However, for those looking to check out Wii remote functionality and put yourself to the test with your control of the remote, it’s still good fun. My recommendation is for previous fans of the series to wait for the next fully fledged entry. If you’ve never played SSX before, then pick Blur up. EA still makes the best snowboarding game around. |
