SSX On Tour (Sony PlayStation 2, 2005)

SSX On Tour does boast one change that players have been asking for-
the ability to create your own character.
I just don't think it's worth the backsliding in other areas.

With one voice for a male boarder (or skier) and one voice for a female,
players don't get a real customizing experience. And many items I think should be included in character building were add-ons you have to buy later.

The SSX On Tour menus are fast becoming the laughingstock of the industry with their childish artwork. I didn't think this was as dumb or distracting as most did, but I got pretty tired of them.

Gameplay has some flaws. Boost is still built by doing tricks, but the Ubertrick is gone. What we have now is a special "bullet time" trick that the player uses the right analog stick to access. These mostly realistic tricks slow time, giving you a great look at a really average trick and allowing your race competitors to scorch past you, making you look like an idiot.
As you start playing you get only small bits of the event course to explore, slowly building up until you can free ride them. It's confusing- hard to get to know the courses this way. The sense of speed is very real and exciting,
and it's hard to find shortcuts- or to find them again, since it's hard to keep recall which course is which. Maybe if the playback feature from SSX 2? was included here, it would be easier.

On the course are tons of tourists sliding along randomly, that you can smack down for points. Sure, it's sort of mean fun, but have I ever strapped on a snowboard? No. So to some extent I feel for the poor doomed suckers. Also there are no medals anymore, it's win or nothing.

As you gradually succeed in events, you unlock the main characters to play, but you can only use them in single competitions. For the characters I've heard, the voicework has really dropped off. Maybe you've always wanted Kaori to speak English, but now she sounds like a Hispanic gangsta babe.

The music is heavily loaded with metal, as the head-banger art might suggest.
I got tired of the music. Reallly tired.

My impression was that this is a larger game, with tons of courses and options, but that it's not as much fun. While the charcters backtalk, they are always rude- yeah even Kaori is gonna kick your butt. Everyone is out to get you, from the snow patrol to the stupid tourists. It's a dog-eat-dog game that has no one for a player to connect with. I liked Rozell from the first games, and the DJ from SSX3. Having a familiar voice there giving out the news allowed an emotional connection that On Tour is not interested in.

Okay. Back to gameplay. When you reach Pro level the difficulty shoots up. Both players in my house were playing top-level SSX3 challenges to warm up for this game and we both quit at Pro level and traded the game in. We'd rather keep playing SSX3.

This SSX is a good jump from #3 but in the end can't land that final trick. It has all of the essential elements of the SSX franchise but lacks some things like: UBER TRICKS, MUSIC IS GOOD/MEDIOCRE,D.J.,NO PUNK OUT STUFF. This time around it makes a 4/5 because it develops more speed and trick points a bit more than in #3. The monster stud style tricks sre limitedly cool. A D.J. would be nice like in #3.I was a bit weirded out with all the punk rock things that was in the game. Those are the bad things explained. The good parts are that most of the #3 people do return in their own styles and tastes. Breaking race/slopestyle/points events records nets you with more hype and cash. Sponsors and clothing that they give you when you do break a record is a nice bonus to the game.The customizing of your characters are a good plus when your the created person. The many types of events and freestyles on the mountain net you good hype and cash. The types of preset character types(character creation) are pretty cool.

This is a solid game for SSX but lacks a lot of what SSX 3 brought to the table. This game has the gameplay but the features of the game are pretty weird in that punk like sense.

I thought SSX3 was the best sports game I had ever played. When I heard about them releasing a new one, I was so excited. What a disappointment when I started playing it. Why you ask? I'm not sure if it was the awful camera angels that made it extremely hard to navigate (this coming from an expert platinum medal holder from SSX3), the UNstylish animation of doodle-artists that made it hard to read what was on the screen, the lack of amazingly cool MUSIC, or just the plain old reason of the courses sucking that made me not only not enjoy it but regret ever buying it to begin with.

The only reason this game is not getting a 'POOR' rating is b/c its sliding on SSX3's coattails. If you'd like me to go into more detail: when you start the game you get to design your own person (which is semi cool) and then you get to pick a course and have to do its objective to pass - basically like a tutorial, but there are LOTS of them. Finally when you get to the real courses (freestyle or racing) you're not trying so much to beat yourself like in SSX3, but to get your name ranked amoung the top 100. You watch as your name climbs the charts - and it gets boring real fast. There are no harder mountains to unlock or characters like in SSX3. I would not recommend this game for anyone who has played SSX3 no matter how much you want to like it. So if you're looking for a good snowboarding game for yourself or your kid, just pick up SSX3 - its better in every SINGLE WAY!

I bought this game twice. First time when I played the game it was frustrating to get through. So I gave it to the local Gamestop. Then about two years later, I bought it again. I thought with a lot more patience, playing through, it would be a lot of fun. My instincts were correct the first time.

The game has great graphics, good music selection, great sound effects, great controls, but a very irritating difficulty level! The computer tends to cheat a lot and barely crashes or makes mistakes. When you crash, it takes a while to get back on your feet and continue when your opponents go by you and your yelling at the character your controlling to get going.

The game allows to play as male or female, snow board or ski's, different outfits, and two players. SSX On Tour makes an effort to show a sense of speed when your traveling downhill.

You will enjoy this game on quick play option or with two players, but if you play single player campaign prepare to have a lot of patience!

i'm 54 years old and love the mountains especially in winter i was totally addicted to all the ssx games from the first . i bought them all for my old xbox but since their being discontinued and PlayStation 2 system is still being produced i bought the whole setup and all the ssx games if you just try it once your hooked awesome mountain scenery just like being their and your traveling at break neck speeds competing with characters with plenty of attitude and you don't have to worry about slamming your brains against some rock or frost bite excellent music track works well with it especially the ssx3. these are classic games i can't believe their not going to be produced anymore but i all i got to say is thank god for ebay