Review: SSX3
Another game I’ve been playing a lot of lately is SSX 3 for the Xbox. It’s a snowboarding game. I bought it because I thought I could play it with the DDR dance pad. The truth is, you pretty much can. You don’t need trigger buttons, so you can play this game as long as your dance pad has the arrow keys and the letter keys (A, B, X, Y). One of my dance pads only has A and B, but you need the X button to recover.
I haven’t been playing it with the dance pad, however. I’ve just been playing with the normal controller. It’s not an aerobic workout by any stretch of the imagination to play SSX 3 with the dance pad, so I thought I would make it easier on myself and just play with the controller. You can’t do some of the tricks (like sliding on the poles) if you only have the arrow keys.
This game allows you to race for speed or compete by doing tricks. I like the speed racing right now because I haven’t mastered the tricks yet, but I’m sure the longer I play, the more interested I will be in the more technical things.
The funniest thing I’ve noticed about this game is that it makes me want to learn how to snowboard in real life. I realize I won’t be able to snowboard with such aggression as the game shows, but I really enjoy the pretty scenery and learning how to master the board. I imagine learning to snowboard would be the same, except it would be cold. So many people blame video games for childhood obesity, but I think they actually promote the idea of learning a sport in real life. For me, this game has been enjoyable and made me want to expand my real life experiences.