Last Night, around 12:30am, I made another Late WallyWorld run. I needed to pick up a new belt, wallet and of course, SSX: Blur. I have to preface this article by saying that I am NOT a sports fan what so ever. When I bought a PS2 at launch, I had SSX for it and remember having some fun with it. I'm not sure what i was expecting out of SSX: Blur, but i'll tell you what I got.
You have to understand, after midnight at Walmart is a very strange place...especially in Las Vegas, Where I live. After perusing through the store, working my way down to the electronics section, i finally came to the games case. I spotted SSX among, not the Wii games, but shoved into the Gamecube section. The next 20 minutes consisted of me trying to find someone with a key to open the games case. Fast Forward 20 minutes, the employee is finally here with the key. He opens the case and asks which game I want, I point to SSX:Blur and he hands me "Bratz: Diamond rescue" or some crap, so I hand it back. as he rolls his eyes he hands me SSX: Blur and says "Oh, SEX Blur, that's cool." Now he says something that's truly puzzling to me: "You do know that's for Wii, right?" I just nod my head and slowly walk backwards towards the register. I head off to pick up more miscellany, (mainly some hygiene products and an extra large box of magnums) and I'm on my way.
Once I pop the game into my Wii, the first thing I notice is the style. SSX: Blur has a very cool style, the menus are very simple with hard black lines and bright pastels, the character design is cool without trying to hard (although the names are definitely trying to hard, I mean come on PSYMON???). The background music is solid and non-annoying which is always a plus. Gameplay it's self has been pretty interesting so far. I'm only about an hour and a half into the game and I'm really digging the controls. anyone complaining about the controlls by now needs to RTFM, they rock. Tilting the nunchuck to make big turns is awesome, and feels so natural. To jump, you flick the nunchuck upwards, which was tough at first (I was trying to push "A" to jump). Pulling off tricks, on the other hand, can be a pain. SSX: Blur has a penchant for perfection, tricks (epically the Uber kind) need to be pulled off perfectly, which can be extremely frustrating. This is a game that requires patience and lots of practice. Unlike Sonic and the Secret Rings from last week, SSX: Blur is frustrating in a more enjoyable way, I'm more compelled to try and pull of an uber trick after I fail twenty times. The uber trick system is iffy, Sometimes it works, sometimes it dosen't but as I hear from my IGN lobby community, it just takes some time and practice. I have a feeling that SSX: Blur is the kind of game that really gives you a sense of satisfaction. In fact, I'm not sure why I'm typing this, I need to go carve some powder! expect a full review of SSX:Blur in the next episode of The Wiicast.

Posted in: on Friday, March 2, 2007 at at 11:25 AM