Schimid
Mar 1st, 2007, 02:47 PM
Just picked this up for Wii, and LET ME TELL YOU;
I hated this game for twenty-to-thirty minutes. Absolutely HATED IT. I've always had a soft spot for the series and think the cream of the crop was the third one, so when I saw the videos and screens that made it look like this one was going back to that sort of style, I was really excited.
I cannot stress this enough: The controls are infuriating. They will completely and entirely piss you off, more than Monkey Ball, more than Ninja Gaiden, more than Stuntman (yeah, remember that?). It's not uncommon to steady yourself after a humble 180 Mute before your rider suddenly develops some undocumented form of Tourettes and courageously attempts a 1200 Double Backflip Stalefish three feet above the ground. Worse yet, after crashing, the game implores you to "SHAKE TO RECOVER!" which will send your arms and newly-formed tears all about whilst trying to awaken your rider who seriously just might be dead.
The single defining moment in the game, though, comes when you remember the B button, and realize what it does in mid-air. B cancels any move, and basically resets your rider to normal. This is a gem. After most tricks you'll end up with your board to the sky and your head to the rail, but a quick throttle puts you back to perfect. It's not revealed in any tutorial and it ends up being a fantastic way to balance the otherwise maddening trick system.
Speaking of which, an ubertrick is like the Wii equivalents of a Rubiks Cube. Yeah, it's not that hard when you figure it out...but there's no way you will without some serious help, or some long, dark, lonely hours. They start out easy, making a loop or a Z-shape in the air with your Wiimote. They gradually get tougher, where you'll end up making a heart (using the nunchuck AND Wiimote, which is pretty cool) and other fairly simple stuff. Keep in mind that you have to be extremely close to the source, and even these simple patterns are pretty tough. The games makes them rewarding by giving you tons more points than in previous installments for pulling them off. The problem comes when the developers tried to be cute and added in some genuinely ludicrous patterns. Wanna dance on your board? Draw a treble cleft. No, seriously, do it, right now. You're falling. Do it.
When you're on the ground, the carving feels great...if you have the sense to tweak the options a little. They want you to use the control stick to turn, and to physically turn the nunchuk to put more OOMPH into it, but you know better. There's an option to make movement exclusive to the control stick which, to be honest, is most highly recommended. One minor gripe, though, is that in the past your character's footing didn't factor into the gameplay. This time around, if your character is goofy-footed (such as my boy Moby Jones), air control is inverted. It doesn't sound like much of a difference, but it's going to take a lot of time to unlearn.
The licensed music is gone (bad), and the DJ is back (good). I'm actually really disappointed in the original score produced by Junkie XL that layers and fades and gains the better, or worse, you perform. It's got some really good funky beatszs but there's a glaring issue in that if you end up on your back, it doesn't just go back to the bare bones of the song, waiting for you to rebuild a la SSX3. The song, and I'm being serious about this, cuts off completely. As if to say everyone in the world is looking at you, there's an obnoxious sample of someone cutting a record (probably in half, judging by the intensity) and then the most dreaded silence I have ever known.
Overall it's a good buy, especially for fans of the series, but be expectant to wade through the control system until you get it down pat. With a little more polish and refinement, this game could've been the hallmark of the series.
I hated this game for twenty-to-thirty minutes. Absolutely HATED IT. I've always had a soft spot for the series and think the cream of the crop was the third one, so when I saw the videos and screens that made it look like this one was going back to that sort of style, I was really excited.
I cannot stress this enough: The controls are infuriating. They will completely and entirely piss you off, more than Monkey Ball, more than Ninja Gaiden, more than Stuntman (yeah, remember that?). It's not uncommon to steady yourself after a humble 180 Mute before your rider suddenly develops some undocumented form of Tourettes and courageously attempts a 1200 Double Backflip Stalefish three feet above the ground. Worse yet, after crashing, the game implores you to "SHAKE TO RECOVER!" which will send your arms and newly-formed tears all about whilst trying to awaken your rider who seriously just might be dead.
The single defining moment in the game, though, comes when you remember the B button, and realize what it does in mid-air. B cancels any move, and basically resets your rider to normal. This is a gem. After most tricks you'll end up with your board to the sky and your head to the rail, but a quick throttle puts you back to perfect. It's not revealed in any tutorial and it ends up being a fantastic way to balance the otherwise maddening trick system.
Speaking of which, an ubertrick is like the Wii equivalents of a Rubiks Cube. Yeah, it's not that hard when you figure it out...but there's no way you will without some serious help, or some long, dark, lonely hours. They start out easy, making a loop or a Z-shape in the air with your Wiimote. They gradually get tougher, where you'll end up making a heart (using the nunchuck AND Wiimote, which is pretty cool) and other fairly simple stuff. Keep in mind that you have to be extremely close to the source, and even these simple patterns are pretty tough. The games makes them rewarding by giving you tons more points than in previous installments for pulling them off. The problem comes when the developers tried to be cute and added in some genuinely ludicrous patterns. Wanna dance on your board? Draw a treble cleft. No, seriously, do it, right now. You're falling. Do it.
When you're on the ground, the carving feels great...if you have the sense to tweak the options a little. They want you to use the control stick to turn, and to physically turn the nunchuk to put more OOMPH into it, but you know better. There's an option to make movement exclusive to the control stick which, to be honest, is most highly recommended. One minor gripe, though, is that in the past your character's footing didn't factor into the gameplay. This time around, if your character is goofy-footed (such as my boy Moby Jones), air control is inverted. It doesn't sound like much of a difference, but it's going to take a lot of time to unlearn.
The licensed music is gone (bad), and the DJ is back (good). I'm actually really disappointed in the original score produced by Junkie XL that layers and fades and gains the better, or worse, you perform. It's got some really good funky beatszs but there's a glaring issue in that if you end up on your back, it doesn't just go back to the bare bones of the song, waiting for you to rebuild a la SSX3. The song, and I'm being serious about this, cuts off completely. As if to say everyone in the world is looking at you, there's an obnoxious sample of someone cutting a record (probably in half, judging by the intensity) and then the most dreaded silence I have ever known.
Overall it's a good buy, especially for fans of the series, but be expectant to wade through the control system until you get it down pat. With a little more polish and refinement, this game could've been the hallmark of the series.