SSX is a snowboarding game in the SSX series. A few characters from previous titles and some new ones have banded together to descend the nine deadliest mountains. Unfortunately, one of the team members decides he wants all the fame for himself and leaves the group to go solo.
The gameplay is similar to that of previous games in the series. You play as a snowboarder attempting to get fast times and high trick scores as you navigate your way down a mountain. You earn points that add to your “Tricky” meter as you accomplish tricks. You can spend your Tricky issues accelerating or let the meter fill up completely to enter Tricky mode. When you perform tricks in a Tricky manner, you earn additional points. You have an unlimited boost and other issues as long as you stay in Tricky Mode.
In addition to the regular Race and Trick modes, Survival mode is a new challenge type introduced. In general, survival mode aims to reach the end of the run without dying or, in some instances, to complete numerous track runs without dying. Survival modes include trees, rocks, whiteouts, avalanches, low oxygen, darkness, ice, cold, and gravity. These nine survival mode variations are similar in that they rely on either visibility or health to create a challenge.
Like previous titles, more expensive gear provides more advantages to stats such as speed, boost, or tricks. What distinguishes the equipment from other titles is that some stuff is more or less required for finishing Survival mode tracks. Headlamp for darkness, goggles for whiteout, thermal pack for cold, armor for avalanches/trees/rocks, oxygen tank for low oxygen, ice axes for ice, and gravity suit.
World Tour, Explore, and Global Events are the three game modes. World Tour is a campaign mode that recounts the tale of team SSX as they attempt to conquer the nine deadly descents. Explore is essentially a “free roam” or “play now” option in which the player can travel to any run and play it as long as they have unlocked it through the world tour or spent in-game cash to open it. Explore also allows you to compete with your friends’ scores or times. Global Events are asynchronous online competitions in real time, where players post scores and are ranked against everyone else on the same track. Instead of competing against live players in a head-to-head race, they compete against replays of other player runs. When a player completes a run, their path and actions are saved as “Ghosts.” When a player begins a new run, up to three Ghosts are loaded onto the track. Their performance against those Ghosts can gauge the player’s performance.
