The cinematic teaser, which portrays a desperate snowboarder skidding down a dark and stormy Himalayan slope -- his last words: "I'm not gonna make it," as he shoots over a cliff side and into the air, deploying his squirrel suit -- seemed to suggest that the new SSX would be "moving away from the bright colors and crazy arcade feel of the early titles in favor of a more realistic tone," as Game Informer observed. "Is this true?" the site asked creative director Todd Batty.
"No, absolutely not," insisted Batty, who described "Deadly Descent" as a "new" event type in the game, "which is all about survival gameplay." SSX will also include "Speed Descent" and "Tricky Descent" events, according to Batty. "We wanted to make sure we hit the over-the-top arcadey gameplay in all of these different gameplay modes. We decided to lead with the new Deadly Descent gameplay in that trailer, but all of the classic SSX style will be there, too."
The image makeover isn't fully complete, however, as the original SSX: Deadly Descents logo and name are still prominent on the EA.com game page (as of publishing); though the new, just SSX logo was used in last week's promotional video and is featured on the game's Facebook page. Of course, as Joystiq commenter "ptcamn" pointed out last week, lost in this little fiasco is the fact that EA tried a very similar, "survive the ride" marketing campaign for 2003's SSX 3 -- skull-face lightning flash and all.
