SSX Tricky

SSX was one of the best PS2 launch games when it was released in October of 2000. For the longest time it remained on top as the most fun you could have on the PS2. Now, all the fun and excitement of SSX is on the Xbox in the form of SSX Tricky. Normally, with sequels of this sort, you just add a couple new faces, a new track or two, and some new tunes, and you are good to go. Not with this game though. EA went and totally redid everything to the point that it could almost pass as an entirely new game. Lets take a look.

The first thing to mention is the front-end interface. That's the character/course select screen in layman's terms. No longer is it just a 2D screen with options. The interface has been redone into a full 3D masterpiece. While it isn't really all that important how you choose where you want to go, the 3D look and feel just adds more flare and pizzazz to the mix. I mentioned that a lot has been done to make this game really stand out. Well, the work done on the courses shows just that. First of all, there are several new courses thrown in for added replay ability. Not only that, but every single one of the old courses have been tweaked, modified, or otherwise altered in some way. I'm not just talking about simple graphical improvements either. There is ice on the track when before there was none, some places go left instead of right, there are new shortcuts and ways to go down the slope, and of course, the upped graphics. Basically, all those little tricks you learned in SSX, forget em. They will do you no good in SSX Tricky.

Fundamentally though, gameplay remains generally the same overall. You have tricks in your trick chapters that you must complete in order to unlock new outfits, achieve a certain rank to gain access to new boards, and attain a set number of gold medals to unlock more characters. As you race, your tricks gain you power on your boost meter, which, you guessed it, gives you a burst of speed as you need it. This is one difference over SSX though. On the original, all it did was act as a meter for your boost. Not anymore. This time around, if you get your boost gauge filled up all the way, you now can perform an УUber-trickФ.

Think of an Uber-trick as a super trick. Once you fill up the meter, you'll be treated to a little blurp of Run DMC's song, УIt's TrickyФ, at which point you have 20 seconds to perform an uber trick. Using the tweak trick while in this uber trick УmodeФ will cause your boarder to do a wildly insane trick. You might see Luther riding the bull on his board, or Eddie doing the break dance. All in mid air going 50 miles an hour. Also to note is that each time you successfully land an Uber-trick; one letter of T-R-I-C-K-Y will light up. Fill up all the letters, and the uber tricks can be pulled off at any time as well as giving you unlimited boost. Sahweeeeet.

Also returning is the ability to knock down your opponents. However, there is a twist to it this time. Each boarder has a rival that they go against anyway, but the rest depends on you. Knocking down people fills your boost gauge to full automatically. But be careful, hit them too much and their aggression toward you will rise, and they will start swinging back. Keep it up, and they will turn enemy on you. At this point, I hope you are good at dodging, because they will no longer just wait for you to hit them, but they will go after you from then on. This is a nice touch. Goes to show that you can't just push people over and expect them to be cool with it.

If there was one thing that SSX lacked in, it was voices and music. Well, the music is well covered this outing, that much is for sure. The theme song УIt's TrickyФ from RUN DMC, Bif Naked (who consequently is also the voice of Zoe in the game) has a song in there, and some other good tunes go along well with the feel of snow. The best thing though is that there is just plain more music, much better than just having 4 songs, as in the original. At least it won't get so old so fast now, huh?

The modes in SSX Tricky are aplenty. Besides your standard career mode, where you take each character through the courses and pump them up to champion status, there are several others. First is the free run, here you are instructed on the many tricks and how to perform them. You can practice down a slope on your own, without any (ahem) outside influence. Additionally, you can pick a course and Уshow offФ some tricks. These courses, are again, redone from the race ones to promote big air and insane tricks.

There is one feature in SSX Tricky that I have never seen before in a video game, and that is the DVD section. In the option from the main screen, there are several sub-options. Basically, this is like the special features area found on most DVD movies nowadays. In this area you have interviews with the voice actors, behind the scenes looks at designing the game, and even a jukebox where you can play all of the in-game music at will. Does it matter to the game at all? Not really. However, it is cool sometimes to go look at what went into making the game.

SSX Tricky is not without fault though. The frame-rate slows down considerably during intense graphical scenes. Whether or not it is EA's engine to blame, or the Xbox hardware, is unknown. However, the same slowdown also occurs on the PS2 version of the game, thus leading me to believe that either the 3D engine isn't quite perfect, or EA no more than ported the game to the Xbox, without optimizing it for the hardware. In either case though, the few periods of frame drop shouldn't be enough to take away from an extremely fun game. Also, the prewinding I found must be done with the D-pad. That is all fine and good; steering with a non-analog control measure isn't exactly easy. While it is very possible to switch back and fourth between the analog stick and the D-pad with relative ease, the game would have played a lot better had prewinding been possible with the stick as well, as SSX did. Oh well, nothing is perfect, right?