SSX On Tour (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.