The Decline of SSX ~ Design Doc

What happened to SSX? It's a snowboarding game series ready for a refresh. Let's talk about the history and the highs and lows of SSX Tricky, SSX 3, SSX On Tour, and SSX 2012.

[GlitchCrunch]

One of the biggest reasons I think Tricky is really loved and well remembered is because of the color pallet. Its bright, all of the colors of the racers stand out and its easy to distinguish them from the background. there was barely any white in the UI and it made excellent uses of the yellow/orange/red colors. All of the other SSX games seemed to really focus on a more muted and white centered pallet that just felt generic.

[AmewTheFox]

Man, I miss EA Sports BIG. It felt like the one part of the Sports dev block that remembered they were making games, not just simulations.

[extragarb]

SSX3 is my nostalgia cryptonite, and I'm so happy to hear it holds up rather well. I hold many fond memories of playing it

[Camkitsune]

From the looks of it, the answer to 'what happened?' is 'EA happened'; the gradual sanding down of the things that made the series unique and the attempt to replace them with things that are appealing on a more 'generic' level - design elements that don't really take anything away, but add very little in terms of direct appeal - are both signature elements of EA's corporate process.

It's so 'textbook EA' that I'm pretty sure the SSX team being in-house was the only thing that kept them from shuttering the studio after 2012.

[derheat]

This shows the importance of Personality in Games, I remember playing Tricky over and over again and lost interest with on Tour after a few days, also I loved that the Characters in Tricky would speak their native language like in Punch-Out wii^^

[TheShadowscale]

Rival shout-outs were a nice touch in Tricky as well. Elise's "Hey Kaori!" is forever ingrained into my memory.

[GundamGokuTV]

Game Company: "Our last game didn't sell well? Why?"

Players: "The game isn't very good, nor was the game prior to that."

Game Company: "Nonsense, we can do no wrong. There simply must be no interest in the series anymore"

Players: "No, we like the series. You just aren't giving us a good experience."

Game Company: "Guess we'll stop making this series cause no one likes it anymore"

Players: "What the fuck?"

[EpicMacaroni]

I remember there was a gamecube at the hair salon I used to go when I was a kid and there was only a snowboarding game. I was pretty young so I never knew the title of it and it always bothered me because I remember having a lot of fun with the game. But the second you showed footage of SSX Tricky I went : " That's it, that's the game." And as you said, I think it speaks a lot about its personality and uniqueness, just the fact that I can recall it by view almost 15 years later. Now excuse me while i download a gamecube emulator and thank you for granting this gift of knowledge, kid me would be happy.

[kevingriffith]

I think at the moment I'd rather see a different developer try to recapture what made SSX great, rather than EA taking another shot at the series. We don't need microtransactions in SSX, and the game just has so many opportunities to have them crammed into it that I know EA wouldn't be able to control itself. Tracks, costume pieces, boards and characters crammed into loot boxes or locked behind hours and hours of grinding if you don't want to pay. It wouldn't matter how good the game was at that point, I just wouldn't be into it.

[xStizzy]

SSX On Tour is THE reason I got interested in music, which has been a huge part of my life since then. It's so sad to see something that has had a direct impact on my life just fade away like this. Thanks for the video, I really hope SSX comes back sometime.

[Freashplayer]

Can't wait for the next game:
SSX - Microtransaction paradise

[Ninetails]

I think doing away with the varied and larger than life locales of Tricky was the first and greatest mis-step that SSX took.

SSX at it's best always had this big celebratory, globe trotting aura and atmosphere to it. Going to stunning and colorful locations with EDM and funk blaring out the speakers and fireworks rigged up everywhere. It was only when you discovered the backwoods shortcuts that you'd find long stretches of just plain old powder to ride down. They were a special treat that you got for being adventurous and unlocking Untracked-the only 100% pure mountain riding track in the game-was treated as being an incredibly special occasion and completely out of character for SSX as a whole. You partied hard and made it to the end so here's something real and unique and away from prying eyes that you can enjoy by yourself.

Setting SSX3 in a gigantic interconnected mountain was a novel idea but it should have been a feature exclusive to that game. There's only so much you can do with a big mountain and SSX3 was already grasping at straws by the end. Without unique locations to go through, the vibe of the game suffered immensely and with them also taking away focus from the individual characters, that only made the games feel more generic.

[bassplayertaylor]

I never owned these games but I absolutely LOVED playing SSX Tricky at my friend's house. It still gives me a lot of nostalgia

[Stephen-Fox]

"More punk aesthetic." "Less personality of cast." - Well, that's an obvious screw up. More punk aesthetic should have been an opportunity to go back to the OTT cast of Tricky.

I'd be interested in a quick comparison between the way racers are handled in Tricky and the F-Zero franchise since I'm fairly unfamiliar with both franchises but I've heard a lot of praise for the complicated, almost to the point of soap-opera, relationships of characters in F-Zero and you just mentioned about scripted rivalries with a dynamic system to influence those for Tricky with some clear fondness.

[TheWolvesDen]

I loved SSX 3, thats up there for me in terms of the best feeling movement in a video game

[Jenohart]

Yes, thank your for this. It reminded me that there was a time where I absolutely loved these kinds of snowboarding games. I remember liking the aesthetic and controls of On Tour, but also that I preferred SSX3 as the better game overall. What happened to this genre? For me, after On Tour flopped it was around the time I got an iPod Touch and in the early mobile gaming days before free2play existed, there were a lot of decent mobile arcade-ish snowboarding games that were on the iOS app store (including a port of the DS SBK Snowboard Kids game) that were generally pretty fun. Sadly, almost all of them have been delisted. I guess there isn't much to fill the void nowadays huh?

Guess I'll just go emulate Snowboard Kids 2, the greatest video game ever made in human history, yet again.

[komiburne]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves Snowboard Kids!

[jumnyum]

I have literally every single one of these 4 main games you talked about, and it’s definitely one of my favorite series of all times. Awesome video!

[LogicalMarcochip]

This video hit me in my nostalgia nuts so hard...
I used to play the first 3 games with my brother and my dad so much when I was like 4... Tricky in particular...

I hope I'll be able to relive those moments with them somehow sometime, now that I'm away from home to study...

[CrokeyHigati]

Im really enjoying these full series dives. As well as all the snowboard kids music sprinkled it... Very good.