SSX: Mt. Fuji Details And Reviving A Genre

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, it is also something that I refuse to believe.

Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy blowing things up and shooting people in the face as much as the next guy! But spending hundreds of hours with my friends stringing together endless combos in search of the ‘perfect run’ in SSX and THPS is easily some of my fondest gaming memories.

Fast forward nearly a decade and our team is hoping to not only re-launch one of the greatest IP franchises in EA Sports history, but to bring this type of experience back to the forefront of gaming. SSX is a game for gamers.

Arcade games are challenging to design. On one hand, many players expect instant gratification from an arcade title and have little tolerance for an overly steep learning curve. This is actually true of most games today, but is even more important in this type of game. On the other hand, with a shallow learning curve and instant gratification comes the perception (which is often true) that the game lacks depth and is therefore only going to be enjoyable for a short time.

Embracing this challenge from the onset, our team adopted a motto for SSX: “make awesome easy, and make oh-my-god really hard.” Rather than following a more traditional zero-to-hero learning curve, SSX lets you feel like a hero from the first time you pick up the controller. And from there, with a little practice, or in some cases a LOT of practice, you can start to perform like a superhero.

We had three major goals for SSX. The first goal, and where we spent the majority of time and effort with this reboot, was to recapture that core gameplay magic across Race, Trick and Survival events. The second was to build a massive world for players to explore. The third goal was to redefine social gaming on a console with something we call RiderNet.