Looking for my path

I remember first playing the series back on the PS2. My cousin first introduced the game to me and I became addicted to the gravity-defying tricks. I introduced it to my younger sister and she became addicted to the customization.

Fast forward a few years - and lack luster follow-ups - later and we get the reboot of the series.

This reintroduction of the series brings a more mature tone. Yes you can still do the Worm while in mid-air with a guy in an afro but you no longer get great customization options of the prior games. Whereas before you could hook your character up with psychadelic shirts, hot pants and even devil wings, now you can only choose outfits. No more additional accessories such as panda backpacks or guitars.

The characters forego their previously more cartoon-y looks. Now they adopt more realistic looks (although I still can’t imagine how to make someone with an afro feel realistic).

A rewind feature has been added to the game. This feature is prevalent in car racing games and so it makes a debut in this game. The use of it is pretty simple - hold the rewind button if you went off a cliff. The catch is that you either lose points or time when you use it. I didn’t like it at first but it made me choose my lines along the slope carefully. No longer can I just jump off anything I see because there might be a cliff.

A new slope type has been added - the deadly descent. Here, you just have to make it to the bottom of the course. You just have to make use of specific gear to make your descent more survivable. In some courses, you may need a head lamp and in some you need an oxygen tank. In any case, they add variety to the game instead of the ever popular Trick It and Race modes.

I particularly like the execution of the online experience in this game and this is where the longevity of the game is found. There is the explore mode where you try to get all the gold medals on all the courses. To make things interesting, you are not only going against the computer but also your friends. Their best times/scores are posted and you get additional points for beating them.

In the Global events, you go into competition style events against everyone. You try to place in a specific bracket which gives you credit rewards based on the number of people in the bracket you place. The higher your bracket, the higher your reward.

This aren’t as easy as I remembered it. I used to easily get gold on all the course in the previous games but I have a hard time getting gold on the Trick It events (my favorite events). It was frustrating at first but when I get the gold medal, it was very satisfying.

The series has matured. It’s no longer cartoon-y but its still fun. I haven’t played a game for as long as I’m playing it now before. It’s frustrating but also satisfying. I see a long future for this game. I wish it had one more thing though - a create a player (boarder) mode. I wish I could take my favorite moves and just put it on a character to either looks like me or looks like someone I’d want to be.

Overall, it’s a great game but could be a disappointment to legacy players looking for the pick-up-and-play style that made the previous games addicting.