Jarred
02-28-2007, 10:42 PM
Sat down with SSX Blur for about an hour this evening so far, so I thought I'd post some impressions. If you have been following the reviews (http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/wii/ssxblur), you know how people seem to be completely polarized regarding the controls. After playing the game for an hour, I tend to agree with IGN, the controls are hard at first with a steep learning curve, but with some patience and effort you will feel yourself getting better with each competition.
I started off with the tutorial, which went through the different motions and I found myself usually failing to complete each one the first one or two times, and then nailing it on the third. The one that I never completed was the Uber Trick tutorial, I just couldn't get the system to recognize my movements. That frustrated me. Took me awhile to go through them all, about 15-20 minutes total, so right away I knew this was going to be a bit difficult.
So I skipped on over to some quick play with Big Air. I performed like a newbie, scoring about 16-20K, but I still felt a little awkward. Enough messing around, so I jumped on over to career mode and start things off with a race. The result, my ass gets handed to me. I think I was trying to do too many tricks.
Then I trucked on over the the Half-Pipe competitions. Failed to complete a couple times because I was busy fartin' around and I only manage to finish 3rd at my best effort around 150-180K or something. After many attempts I earned enough tries to open up a tournament that featured a race and half-pipe competition. Okay, let's go for it.
I now enter my third racing attempt, after a couple wild performances where I struggled. This time, I ended up #1 in the first heat, and #2 in the next one. Woohoo! Suddenly I was starting to get the hang of when to carve with the nunchuck and when to only use the thumbstick for more touch carving, and when to crouch for more speed as well. Now it's time for the half-pipe. First attempt was pretty good and WHOAH, WHAT WAS THAT, YES AN UBER TRICK! I finally pulled off a couple and they looked great. Only finished in 3rd place though, but I got another heat coming!
My score in the final heat? 450K! I pulled off about 5-6 Uber Tricks, a couple in a row, and aced the victory in the tournament. Suddenly I had a good handle on my flips and grabs as well as the Uber Tricks. And when everything clicked into place, hot damn, it was pretty intense and gorgeous to watch. Great SFX and music as well.
I still think I have a lot to learn with the controls, but I see myself getting better. I love that feeling of accomplishment, and I only got frustrated once with that Uber Trick tutorial. I just kept plugging away and repeating competitions until I felt myself learning and getting better.
So, the lesson is that if you are picking up this game, get ready to put some effort into learning the controls. They are difficult at first, but you will get better with practice. As the IGN review stated, this isn't Wii Sports Snowboarding. It's much more difficult, but also more rewarding than a simple pick up and play game.
I started off with the tutorial, which went through the different motions and I found myself usually failing to complete each one the first one or two times, and then nailing it on the third. The one that I never completed was the Uber Trick tutorial, I just couldn't get the system to recognize my movements. That frustrated me. Took me awhile to go through them all, about 15-20 minutes total, so right away I knew this was going to be a bit difficult.
So I skipped on over to some quick play with Big Air. I performed like a newbie, scoring about 16-20K, but I still felt a little awkward. Enough messing around, so I jumped on over to career mode and start things off with a race. The result, my ass gets handed to me. I think I was trying to do too many tricks.
Then I trucked on over the the Half-Pipe competitions. Failed to complete a couple times because I was busy fartin' around and I only manage to finish 3rd at my best effort around 150-180K or something. After many attempts I earned enough tries to open up a tournament that featured a race and half-pipe competition. Okay, let's go for it.
I now enter my third racing attempt, after a couple wild performances where I struggled. This time, I ended up #1 in the first heat, and #2 in the next one. Woohoo! Suddenly I was starting to get the hang of when to carve with the nunchuck and when to only use the thumbstick for more touch carving, and when to crouch for more speed as well. Now it's time for the half-pipe. First attempt was pretty good and WHOAH, WHAT WAS THAT, YES AN UBER TRICK! I finally pulled off a couple and they looked great. Only finished in 3rd place though, but I got another heat coming!
My score in the final heat? 450K! I pulled off about 5-6 Uber Tricks, a couple in a row, and aced the victory in the tournament. Suddenly I had a good handle on my flips and grabs as well as the Uber Tricks. And when everything clicked into place, hot damn, it was pretty intense and gorgeous to watch. Great SFX and music as well.
I still think I have a lot to learn with the controls, but I see myself getting better. I love that feeling of accomplishment, and I only got frustrated once with that Uber Trick tutorial. I just kept plugging away and repeating competitions until I felt myself learning and getting better.
So, the lesson is that if you are picking up this game, get ready to put some effort into learning the controls. They are difficult at first, but you will get better with practice. As the IGN review stated, this isn't Wii Sports Snowboarding. It's much more difficult, but also more rewarding than a simple pick up and play game.