Anjin Unleashed: Played Lately: SSX

As mentioned in my last post, I dove in with both feet for the new SSX. My first night with the game was odd. I didn't have a chance to try it until after midnight (I had many chores that evening) so I could not play very long. But no matter how late it was, I was not going to miss my chance to try it out.

The tutorial starts you in freefall which is an amazing way to learn the new controls. I tried out the new the right thumbstick option for grabs and it is unbelievably intuitive to make grabs. Pushing left on the stick starts a left hand grab, right for right hand, and up for both hands. That's fine for basic tricks, but you can then add a quarter circle or flick across to grab a different part of the board. Add in some flips, spins, and tweaks and there is a hug collection of tricks you can doing very easily.

At least, they were easy in the air. Once I got onto the ground and had to deal with steering, prewinding, and jumping, I completely lost my cool. My thumb completely fell back on its SSX 3 memory and started jamming buttons. It was a very frustrating experience.

On the positive side, I really like the new music in the game. I looked over the track list and did not recognize any of the songs. And the only musician I knew was Skrillex, but only because that name comes up a lot. I've never heard any of his music. So like in SSX 3, I'm hoping to discover some music that it completely new to me.

The game really is beautiful and it sounds great. The courses are a mad blur as you speed through them. I understand why all of the reviewers say the old games feel sluggish in comparison. I just hope my old hands and mind can keep up.

At the end of the night, I was left feeling disappointed. I know that some of that was because I was tired. And I know some is that learning the controls will take some time. But I will be back to try again.

Anjin Unleashed