my girlfriend got this game, and i was worried that she would get frustrated due to the fact there is zero information about how difficult the tracks are. So i'm making this for her,me and anyone else who wants some info.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Anl2gRydqxZndHIxX2tWeVlvYmJURlVncUNIMDB3Mnc&pli=1#gid=0

* Green Square: easy with no way of dyeing
** Green Diamond: safe with with changeling areas
*** Blue Square: can be unsafe but dangers are clearly visible
**** Blue Diamond: unsafe but with skill can maneuver down the mountain
***** Black Square: dangerous with blind drop offs and will require plenty of "rewinds"
****** Black Diamond: freakin impossible and sometime just poorly designed.

I don't need any feedback about how easy it was for you to get down a LAST CALL and that i'm just a noob. I know you are a bad@ss, this is a way of breaking down the difficulty levels in the game.

chart is not done and is evolving. people feel like these "ratings" are accurate? so far

while browsing the scoreboard i noticed that some localizations do include the difficulty

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Patagonia isn't that hard, is it? Unless you aren't using a wingsuit, I would have thought Route Zero was more difficult than most of them.

When I played SSX for the first time I was mad with the random crevases everywhere. I can understand how this could help but it gets better, it just needs practice...

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Maybe there should be a more descriptive ranking system.
We both know Death Zone and Sentinel are hard as hell, but they're hard for different reasons.
Categories like: Crevasses, Gaps, Ledges, Tunnel, Visibility, Avalanche, and Obstacles would help distinguish why each map is hard.
Example:
I'm kinda ripping this off the DDR diffuculty meter idea.

This might be a much too complex way of doing this though.

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1) That is awesome. Thank You for posting it.
2) That is.... *going all girly*... That is SO SWEET of you! *giving you a Scooby Snack for being a good boyfriend*

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It's certainly a great idea, and I'd love to see this progress.

But I feel like it's got quite a few inaccuracies. Take these with a grain of salt, of course:
Wrecking Crew and Intrepid are 3-star at best. Certainly not 5-star. With some nice armor and common sense, it's easy to make it down.
The Mount Wakefield drops should probably be 2-star. The frozen ravine at the end is disorienting on all 4 drops.
Off the grid should certainly be a 5-star. The other Antarctica tracks, not so much. Evil Genius and Long Horn are 4-star at the most, Headshot probably a 3. And I'd refrain from dissing Long Horn; tunnels≠poor design. Long Horn actually seems to be a fan favorite for its raw downhill derby feel.
Jack-Knife two stars higher than Route Zero? Hardly. Risky behavior is punished to a much lesser degree on Jack-Knife.
Pan's definitely a star easier than Unsanctioned. I'd say Pan's a 2, Old School's a 1, Unsanctioned's a 3.
And why is all of Cerro Pollone 5-star? Why is all of Cerro Torre 6-star? It's really not that difficult to get accustomed to the wingsuit mechanics... And I'm willing to say Code Blue is Patagonia's easiest drop.

Remember that these are all opinions, so I'm not commanding you to change stuff. My point is that this certainly should be a collective effort. We all will have differing opinions on the various tracks, and I feel like a nice average would be more suitable for an information resource like this.

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Most real-life snowboarding slopes I've been on have Green Circle, Blue Square, Black Diamond, and Double Black Diamond, with a description on either the board or map of why they're rated like that. A similar rating system might be more informative, but that's not to say that your rating system is horrible or needs to change.

I read this though a few times and correct me if I am wrong but you are going for a how likely you are to survive it not so much how difficult it is to place in it. Because the ones with the higher survival rates can actually be more difficult to get a high medal in.

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Nice idea, but I think a more simplified version would work better for this game.

Easy - Practically impossible to die in.
Medium - Occasionally tricky to navigate, small chance of dying.
Hard - High possibility of death, lots of crevasses, track memorization is advised.
(Very Hard - For a few crazy hard tracks, like One Step Ahead.)

Nothing should be too complicated in SSX, and usually the track is either hard or not so why so many options.

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This is good content for the FAQ actually, you might want to make Gondee aware of it. He's still listing for help

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<CurryKingDH>: I did want the title to be 'This image is in no way grooming you for Thor's mighty hammer'

I had also started to do something similar, you can merge my guide with yours if you wish

Difficulty ratings
* = easy, nothing really dangerous on those tracks.
** = normal, after doing the track a few times, you'll know the places to avoid.
*** = hard, knowledge of the track AND precise control are required to get out of this alive.

Africa – Meru - Corkscrew (merge with Red Light at the end) **
Cavern tunnels, many rails, lot of small lava pits but can skip over most with enough speed.

Africa – Meru - Red Light (merge with Corkscrew at the end) **
Similar to CorkScrew, but with fewer, larger lava pits.

Africa – Mawenzi - Hush ***
Headlamp required, cavern tunnels, some rails, long bridges similar to the ones in Incoming except their edges are raised making drifting out easier. Holding the grind button can help avoiding many deaths.

Africa – Mawenzi - Incoming ***
Headlamp required, cavern tunnels, lot of the track spent riding on long bridges (with lava crevasses on each side). Any slight carving error tight lead to lava land. Holding the grind button can help avoiding many deaths.

Africa – Kilimanjaro - Snake Bite ***
Headlamp requied, cavern tunnels, a bit of everything from the Africa tracks. A bit easier than the Mawenzi tracks but still a lot of lava pits everywhere. Use a board with a low speed and don't hold forward while adjusting your line.

Alaska – Silverthrone - Old School *
Totally safe, just have fun in this playground, grinding the many big red pipes.

Alaska – Silverthrone - Pan > Old School *
Starts with a flat, straight track with many jumps opportunities, possibility of falling from the mountain on the the left if you lose your line.

Alaska – Silverthrone - Unsanctioned > Old School *
Riding multiples ledges on the side on the mountain, possibility of falling by going over a bump or blind jump.

Alaska – Foraker - Lock Jaw *
Nice, wide track with a bit of everything, a few pits.

Alaska – Foraker - The Dilemma **
Armor required (avalanche), mostly going into tunnels or over them while outracing avalanches, one or two big crevasses to jump over.

Alaska – Foraker - Invincible **
Armor required (avalanche), front view descent. Left side as higher drops, easier to outrun avalanches on the right side.

Alaska – Denali - Emergency Exit ***
Armor required (avalanche), front view descent, similar to Invincible but longer and with crevasses on the right. Avalanches on the left side are harder to outrun.

Alps – Vorassay - Broken Pass *
Totally safe, ride over rails, village roofs and miscellaneous destroyed scenery.

Alps – Vorassay - Beyond the Fall > Broken Pass *
Mostly safe ride on multiple ledges, emptiness to the left, moutain to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you.

Alps – Vorassay - The Hammer > Broken Pass *
Totally safe, nothing but ramps, jumps and big air everywhere.

Alps – Grand Golliat - One Step Ahead ***
Wingsuit required, probably the most difficult track of the game, long narrow track, full of twist and turns, lose your line by 1 degree and fall to your doom. If you can do this track at full speed, without wingsuit and rewinds, you are a god.

Alps – Grand Golliat - Sentinel ***
Wingsuit required, similar to One Step Ahead but more forgiving as the track is larger.

Alps – Grand Golliat - Hard Currency **
Armor required (rocks), mostly straight track with rocks on both sides, hop over or go around the smaller rocks littered along the track.

Alps – Mont Blanc - One Way Ticker ***
Armor required (rocks), similar to Hard Currency but made harder by the narrow corridors where drifting a bit too much can send you crashing against the walls. Use a slow board.

Antarctica – Vinson Massif - Rolling Thunder *
Mostly safe, navigate glacial caverns and sunny landscape. Not a lot of places you can die.

Antarctica – Vinson Massif - Evil Genius > Rolling Thunder **
Some crevasses here and there but you see most of them in advance.

Antarctica – Vinson Massif - Off the Grid > Rolling Thunder **
Large crevasses spread all around the track but well placed rails help avoiding falling into them.

Antarctica – Mount Craddock - Headshot **
Thermal protection and armor required, no pits, track is mostly sunny, the cold shade is under the track (short wide tunnels)

Antarctica – Mount Craddock - Long Horn ***
Quite a wide track, can fall on the leftmost and rightmost sides of the track if not careful. Leftmost side has a lot of long rails going by the mountain's side.

Antarctica – Mount Craddock - Root Down **
Thermal Protection required, lots of sunlight all around, low chance of freezing to death.

Antarctica – Mount Slaughter - Dreadnought ***
Thermal protection required, right side of the track is the most sunny.

Himalayas – Chomo Lonzo - Bear Claw *
Wingsuit required, totally safe.

Himalayas – Chomo Lonzo - Fall from Grace **
Oxygen tank required, riding alongside long crevasses and a lot of ramps.

Himalayas – Chomo Lonzo - The Monster ***
Wingsuit required, ride a cracked glacier, jumping from one huge bloc to another.

Himalayas – Makalu - Fast Forward *
Totally safe, ride on or beside crumpled sections of the Great Wall.

Himalayas – Makalu - Trickypedia > Fast Forward *
Totally safe, similar in design to Fast Forward.

Himalayas – Makalu - Serenity > Trickypedia > Fast Forward *
Totally safe except for the pit at the very beginning, lot of ramps and Big Air.

Himalayas – Mount Everest - Burnout **
Oxygen tank required, the track itself isn't dangerous (as long as you manage your oxygen and keep going down).

Himalayas – Lhotse - Death Zone ***
Wingsuit and headlamp required, a safe section to build up tricky, followed by darkness and pits, then riding ledges on the side of the mountains, a wingsuit section and the finally a combination of small tunnels and avalanches.

Japan – Mount Fuji - Area Zero **
Riding in large caverns, lots of pits and crevasses with rails to get over them safely, stick to the left side for a safer ride.

Japan – Mount Fuji - 99 Assassins > Area Zero ***
Pits and crevasse left and right.

Japan – Mount Fuji - Home Run > Area Zero **
Riding down in spacious tunnels with a few crevasses.

New Zealand – Mount Wakefield - Last to Hit *
Totally safe, starting from the top of a dam, down the frozen rivers.

New Zealand – Mount Wakefield - Bulldog > Last to Hit *
Totally safe, ride in or along a large frozen river leading to the dam.

New Zealand – Mount Wakefield - Mornin’ Tiger > Last to Hit *
Totally safe, wide track with some big rocks, trees and jumps.

New Zealand – Mount Wakefield - Zombies with Jetpacks > Last to Hit **
Riding on the side of the mountain on multiple ledges of different elevations and lots of rails. Could fall off the mountain to the left if not careful.

New Zealand – Mount Tasman - Buckeye **
Wingsuit required, avalanches, right side is faster but has crevasses.

New Zealand – Mount Tasman - Jack-Knife ***
Pulse goggle required, many crevasses you don't see coming or falling into them from big jumps from above terrain.

New Zealand – Mount Tasman - Thunderbird **
Armor and pulse goggle required, it's all about going down avoiding fallen and standing trees you don't see coming.

New Zealand – Aoraki - Route Zero ***
Pulse goggle required, until you go through this track a couple of times, expect to fall in cheaply placed crevasses often.

Patagonia – Cerro Pollone - Weirdsville **
Wingsuit required, ride through the debris of a plane crash.

Patagonia – Cerro Pollone - Majestic > Weirdsville ***
Wingsuit required, narrow descent on the side of the mountain.

Patagonia – Cerro Pollone - Blackbox ***
Wingsuit required, track on the side by the side of the mountain.

Patagonia – Cerro Pollone - Salient ***
Wingsuit required,

Patagonia – Cerro Torre - Code Blue ***
Wingsuit required,

Patagonia – Cerro Torre - Last Call ***
Wingsuit required,

Patagonia – Cerro Torre - Vengeance ***
Wingsuit required,

Patagonia – Fitz Roy - Broken Elbow ***
Wingsuit required, jump, short glide, land, repeat.

Rockies – Whitehorn Mountain - Curnoe’s Moustache *
Totally safe, grind fest (rails, fallen trees, electric lines)

Rockies – Whitehorn Mountain - JT2 *
Totally safe, wide track, lots of big air opportunities, some rails and tunnels, a long section where you can ride train rails.

Rockies – Extinguisher Tower - Broken Tooth (merge with The Dagger for the last part) **
Icy tunnels, long crevasses/emptiness on the left side of the track

Rockies – Extinguisher Tower - The Dagger (merge with Broken Tooth for the last part) **
Right side has you riding a ledge on the mountain's side, the left side is a safer course through icy tunnels. Crevasses on the left toward the end.

Rockies – Extinguisher Tower - Wrecking Crew **
Armor required (trees), wooded area, narrow track.

Rockies – Mount Robson - Intrepid ***
Armor required (trees), similar to Wrecking Crew but steeper and longer.

Siberia – Boris - Diamond Back *
Totally safe, abandoned nuclear plant & hangars.

Siberia – Boris - The Big Show > Diamond Back *
Totally safe, a series of big jumps.

Siberia – Boris - Vapor Trail > Diamond Back *
Mostly safe descent in snowy conditions.

Siberia – Kara-Oiuk - Critical Mass **
Ice axe required, ride on the left and/or right of a long crevasse spanning the length of this straight track. Rightmost side is the safest.

Siberia – Kara-Oiuk - Don’t Make Me *
Ice axe required, frozen river and trees.

Siberia – Mount Belukha East - Punch Up **
Ica Axe required, similar to Critical Mass but with twist and turns. It's not always easy to lock on the natural icy rail before the jumps across the big crevasse in the middle of the track.

Tasting notes for SSX - like it This is a good idea, nice one.

One suggestion - you could add filters into it, so that users can quickly navigate to the tracks they want to see, or filter by difficulty.
I copied the sheet and made an example here - hope you don't mind. Feel free to copy it back if of interest.

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well done useful guide

caves/hazards column would help

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Patagonia isn't hard as hell -_-

It's even a piece of cake !

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I have 9 Deadly Descents, but Death Zone ain't one.

This is great. I was just starting to do something similar. Sometimes I can't remember what a track is like from the name, so I wanted to create a quick description for each one that would remind me. Somewhat like the descriptions you have here, but more about the general feel than just the difficulty. Difficult aspects, like crevasses, could be a column with a 0-5 rating. 0 = no crevasses, 3 = significant crevasses along one side, 5 = more crevasse than track. Same with trees, rocks, etc.

There's an inherent flaw in the rating system when you state "I don't need any feedback about how easy it was for you to get down a LAST CALL", yet the rating descriptions are almost entirely subjective. If the idea is for other people to be able to use it, they need to be broken down using facts. Probably detailing the terrain and description of any additional game mechanics, similar to what Hibou77 has done.

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thanks guys, all this is good feedback. I don't play the game a lot, so i will look back at some of these ratings and make adjustments with these comments in mind.

I haven't seen anyone take into account a very important aspect of the tracks when giving them difficulty ratings:

how hard it is to get gold on them. Now a track may be fairly simple to get down with a few hazards but if it's closed off with lots of narrow passages, caves, low ceilings etc that will make it pretty difficult to do trick events on it. Hell, with the exception of Wrecking Crew, the drops on Extinguisher Tower are pretty rough to get gold on without a good amount of practice and strategy.

Long story short, track difficulty + AI difficulty wouldn't be a bad idea for giving tracks ratings like you're doing.

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It is possible to not understand without being confused.
It is possible to be inaccessible without hiding.
It is possible to be aware without being awake.

Prime example:
Trick it on Punch Up (Siberia DD)

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HAZAA!! Made this signature myself. Even the Celica GT-FOUR thanks to GT5.

I personally love Wrecking Crew. Whether that be because ive beated batty's stupidly fast time on it or that i just like it btw batty, #whenyougonnabeatit

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I agree, but I think it's subjective and some interpret it as being difficult. Having watched beginners play on my console a couple times, cliffs and auto death drop offs can be the most intimidating features.

I remember a person wanted to try SSX on my console and asked, "What is an easy course I could try?" I think of difficulty as "Can I beat a score of X." So I replied, "Umm... Serenity" just because it's packed full of fun easy safe jumps and I couldn't think of any means a person could die there. She started playing and a few seconds later she came up short on the second jump, died, didn't know how to rewind and said, "I thought this was easy." Then went back to playing an online shooter game or Skyrim. I just think people see difficulty differently.

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It just needs some pure objectiveness. Crevasses doesn't automatically means a course is hard, jumps were you can't see where your going makes a course hard. If the jumps are easy to make it can't be counted as hard. If the course says that a wingsuit is required, you'll have to take into consideration that the player has a wingsuit before checking if the course is hard or not, some crevasses aren't that hard to bridge with a wingsuit on. Saying all Patagonia levels are hard is just wrong and more of an opinion.

Difficulty rating for track should always be about how hard the course is to survive. That's because the AI should always indicate it's difficulty, that being gold for hard, silver for medium and bronze for easy. Even though it's not always the case, listing difficulty for AI would be nonsense since it's what the AI is meant to represent. Only the difficulty of the course makes sense to list.

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I agree the difficulty is an opinion, but i'm comparing these tracks with other tracks in this game. Someone might tell me that ALL these tracks are easy, or all of them are hard. But both parties would probably agree that the tracks in Patagonia are more difficult than the ones in Alaska.

the snarky comments i made in the last comment were more for my girlfriend than anything. I agree that the term "poor design" is probably not that helpful of a description to most people. Although, i do agree that some of those tracks are poorly designed (my opinion).

Again, thanks everyone for the input, i'll try to work on more of this chart tonight.