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 quick timing 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 may spend your Tricky points to accelerate faster or let the meter fill up entirely to enter Tricky mode. When you perform stunts in Tricky mode, you get additional points. You get an infinite boost and extra points if you stay in Tricky Mode. In addition to the regular Race and Trick modes, the Survival mode offers a new challenge type. In general, survival mode aims to reach the end of the run without dying or, in some instances, to complete numerous runs of the track without dying. Survival mechanisms 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 provide a challenge. Like previous titles, more costly gear provides more significant advantages to metrics such as speed, boost, or tricks. What distinguishes the gear 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, and rocks, oxygen tank for low oxygen, ice axes for ice, and gravity suit.
World Tour, Explore, and Global Events are the three game modes. The 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 may 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 timing. Global Events are asynchronous online competitions in real time where players report scores and are rated 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 into the course. The player’s performance may be gauged by how well they fare against those ghosts.
