I don’t suppose I’ll ever recover from the dying of SSX. Whereas EA’s excessive snowboarding collection isn’t formally within the floor, there hasn’t been an entry since 2012. But the franchise nonetheless looms massive in lots of players’ minds, together with mine. That’s very true of 2001’s SSX Tough, an arcadey snowboarding recreation dripping with type that has by no means been matched, despite the fact that many have tried and failed. Nevertheless, the demo for brand spanking new indie recreation Tough Insanity has given me hope that perhaps, simply perhaps, someone can recapture SSX’s greatness.
Tough Insanity isn’t shy about the truth that it’s an homage to SSX Tough. If the identify doesn’t give it away, then the Tough meter and colourful snowflake icons littered throughout the demo’s single course certain will. That isn’t, strictly talking, an issue, and in the event you’re as huge a fan of SSX as me, then the overt homage is strictly what pulled you in within the first place. But it surely’s a daring transfer to take a lot immediately out of your inspiration if you won’t dwell as much as it.
The demo, now accessible on Steam, offers you entry to a single character on a single course. You possibly can strive your hand at a time trial or a trick competitors, in the identical means that SSX Tough provided races and freestyle competitions. The course at present accessible is an easy snowy observe down a mountain surrounded by massive timber and populated with jumps and rails, very very like an early observe you would possibly race down in SSX or SSX Tough. The similarities are so robust that instantly upon beginning my first run down the course, I used to be struck by how a lot my muscle reminiscence took over.
Switching between the Tough Insanity demo and SSX Tough, I shortly confirmed just a few issues that my muscle reminiscence had suspected. Tough Insanity is a a lot quicker recreation, not within the velocity at which you go down the mountain however within the velocity at which you pull off tips. Doing spins and flips feels extremely fast-paced, which I solely had an issue with when trying the sport’s equal of Uber tips (that are simply referred to as Uber tips right here as effectively). The difficulty is that in some methods, performing these particular tips at present feels too straightforward, whereas the slower tempo of tips in SSX Tough made Uber tips really feel like a dangerous endeavor.
Moreover, I can’t recover from Tough Insanity’ present steering controls, that are mapped to the left stick. When you press the A button on an Xbox controller to organize for a bounce, you possibly can’t steer however as an alternative should put together the path you’ll spin within the air by urgent on the d-pad. Switching on the fly between the left stick and d-pad when going from steering to trick preparation is somewhat cumbersome for the time being, and I yearn for the flexibility to each steer and put together for tips on the d-pad like in SSX Tough. Therein lies the most important drawback of Tough Insanity: the sport feels a lot like SSX Tough that these moments the place it deviates from its inspiration change into unnerving. However once more, that is only a demo and these items are very a lot in an early stage of growth.
The extra time I spent with Tough Insanity, the extra I appreciated its clear understanding of and love for SSX. Whereas the sport’s artwork isn’t fairly as poppy as that of its inspiration, the demo’s singular course nonetheless offers you a way that it will really feel proper at dwelling amongst SSX programs. That feeling grows even stronger as you poke on the edges of the course searching for secret routes. I used to be glad to find a handful of shortcuts that helped me shave seconds off my time, and even a hidden half-pipe that gave me the proper venue to tug off a collection of tips in seamless succession.
Tough Insanity doesn’t have a launch date but however the full model guarantees eight full programs and characters (who shall be voiced and have distinctive tips), a marketing campaign and free-roam mode, and a voiced DJ to completely evoke the SSX Tough expertise. After my time with the restricted demo, I can’t definitively say if Tough Insanity is the SSX successor we’ve all been ready for, however I can say that it has given me hope it’s going to earn that title.
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