E3 2012: Motocross Madness Puts the X in SSX

I always wondered what SSX meant as an acronym, which this year's reboot revealed in its intro video. In a decade or so of releases, we only ever got to play one of the "snowboard, surf, motocross" components defining the SSX competition. The return of Motocross Madness on Xbox Live Arcade is a surrogate for EA's extreme sporting, not just because it focuses on motocross racing, but because it's straight-up SSX on wheels. Avatar Motocross Madness functions identical to that of an SSX race. Competitors hit big jumps, pull of preposterous tricks to gain boost, and blitz for the finish line. There are item multipliers, points, and pick-ups to help you take the top spot, all of which have become the standard in arcade racing games like this. You can see parts of Pure and Nail'd and Mad Riders everywhere. This means Motocross Madness isn't exactly exciting as a rebooted series. It's as expected, and it's as expected in a genre that's since been abandoned wholesale by the likes of THQ. Predictability doesn't diminish Motocross Madness' emphasis on extreme, though. There's an incredible sense of speed to it, and this, if nothing else, is what'll define its races. Just as Mario Kart is the same old song and dance in the kart-racing arena, Motocross Madness hits all the right notes in its own arena. The face-peeling pace of its forward movement is dizzying -- my brain couldn't keep up with the hands guiding the bike around a corner. Control comes down to instinct and reflex, not strategic thought. There's something thrilling about not knowing how you survived the last run. Motocross Madness remembers its roots well, too. I wasted hours on exploring the massive -- for the time, probably -- areas in the pseudo open-world of the PC original. Goals didn't really exist, which just let players pound out tricks and find fun locations to drive around. Pointless meandering returns to Motocross Madness in three grand areas, now filled with stored-away secrets to give you a semblance of focus while wiping out or nailing your backflip + Superman. Complexity doesn't seem to exist here, and that's just fine. This is a game that knows exactly what it wants to be -- even if it's the opposite of ambitious, the dedication to giving you a good time in a simplistic way is admirable here. Sometimes fun is enough