The original SSX practically started the snowboarding genre for the PS. It set the snowboarding game standard much the way the Tony Hawk series has set the standard on skateboarding video games. While there are a serious abundance of Tony Hawk games, SSX Tricky fills up the snowboarding drought, and is no doubt currently the greatest snowboarding game to date, easily beating out competitors like Amped even the new Dark Summit.

Tricky Means Tons more Tricks

SSX Tricky has a greater selection of tricks, everything from standard 180 frontside fakies to overblown ubertricks. Do you need to know a lot of snowboarding to appreciate this game? Heck no, in fact, after you’re through with it, you’ll likely come away with knowledge of how a fair share of actual tricks you can pull on a snowboard. Just be sure to realize however that SSX Tricky features a ton of overblown tricks that no actual snowboarder can perform, especially in terms of the outrageous trick combinations available in the game.

The easy question then to ask, is “How does the trick system actually work?” Tricks are performed while your character is in the air. During this period you can have your character spin about, diagonally, frontside or backside, and also perform various grabs. These grabs are done by holding down the R1, R2, L1 or L2 buttons on the controller in various combinations. You can also hit the O button to add a tweak which usually alters the trick being done. Then when as you are about to land you may need to adjust the boarder a bit using the analog stick on the controller, so he/she doesn’t fall flat on his face. That’s all there is to it. It may sound difficult, but is easy to adapt to after some practice.

Race ON! Exciting Gameplay, and Character Building!

SSX Tricky is a racing snowboarding game with tricks. So to understand gameplay best, is to think of it like any other racing game. You want to get through the course ahead of your competitors in the most efficient manner. Tricks will give you a speed boost, the equivalent of nitro in a racing game. Performing tricks will fill up a Tricky meter allowing you to use the boost command to send your racer ahead. Finally a full tricky meter will allow you to do Ubertricks, the over-the-top physics defying moves that SSX Tricky is known for. Overall, the way to win is to perform the most effective trick combinations, keeping your meter nice and full so you can boost your way through the races and keep the lead to the end.

SSX Tricky comes with a nice hefty compilation of characters and personalities that greatly enhance the game. There are a total of 12 characters, each with their own theme attached to them. Examples are: Marisol, the Latin-dance loving snowboarder, Mac the typical DJ-type, Brodi, the really stereotypical spiritual surfer, and tons of other. The best known of course are Elise, the Canadian girl, and Eddie the kid with the fro’ and outlandish outfits. They all start with their own unique characteristics, some perform tricks better than others while some have way high jumps like Kaori. As your progress with each character, performing tricks and winning races, the game awards you with new boards that enhance your speed and trick capability as well as new outfits to deck out your favorite characters in. This gives the game a nice customizable feel and incentive to become a master, the ultimate goal of a racer in SSX Tricky.

Crisp Graphics, Great Level Design and Near Perfect Framerate

Throughout my experience with this game, the graphics have been plain awesome, and more importantly the framerate is stable, which is crucial for racing games. SSX Tricky does not fail to disappoint, it truly creates a sense of snowboarding and airness, as you charge at high speeds through insane snow courses from anywhere in the world, Hawaii to Alaska. The snow effect is especially convincing due to the great sound effects that give you the impression you’re scraping ice or gliding through snow fields.

Level design is complex, especially with “trick” levels like Tokyo Megaplex and Pipedream, which are completely designed for landing rails and doing those crazy tricks the game is known for. Every level has it’s own nice set of shortcuts or other paths, which helps stave off the repetition that is commonly found in racing games (like GT3).

Framerate has not dropped for a moment during the time I have been playing the game, and I have acquired the coveted Master status using Elise. When this occurs you unlock two tracks, Pipedreams and ???, an Alaskan freestyle course where you launch yourself off a helicopter onto a mountain with tons of snow and trees. For fans of the original, SSX Tricky improves greatly on the original, and if you liked the original, this game is worthy of a pickup.

Awesome Tunes, DVD Extras and Ubertricks

Snowboard down the mountain, perform a nice set of tricks without crashing and the announcer over the pumping techno tunes will cry out “Uber Me”. That’s your cue to do some of the impossible. Grab as much airtime as possible and perform everything from the Propeller to the Worm in mid air. Ubertricks definitely add a good element to the standard racing and trick gameplay. If you nail five of them in a race, you’ll be awarded with unlimited boost, making the race fast, but not giving you so much of an advantage you can just boost through.

The music is awesome, with original tracks contributed from artists like Hybrid and Mix Master Mike. There’s also original sound tracks that come in a remixed form from the original SSX Tricky. Top that off with celebrity voices, including Lucy Liu for the voice of Elise and you have one great sounding game.

DVD Extras are also included with SSX Tricky, including a few “making of…” featurette and a few nice soundbites here and there. It’s a plenty big compilation actually, perfect if you’re even the slightest bit interested in game design or if you just plain enjoyed the game and want to see how they managed it.

The Bad

There’s not much to say that SSX Tricky did not pull off. More levels would have always been nice, but the ones included definitely give a gamer a solid 20 hours to race around with.

The game is occasionally marred with some quirky camera angles and off-course errors. For example, if you dive off a cliff that the game did not anticipate, as I did once, you may find yourself stuck, or floating in some strange limbo state. This happened to me once, and I actually won the race though I’m not sure how or why.

Bottom Line

Other than the quirky camera and the eventual repetitive gameplay that follows every game after a while, SSX Tricky should provide gamers an awesome unique experience, whether they are hard-core snowboarding fans or folks who have never even seen the fluffy white stuff. This game is meant to be enjoyed by all, and will give an awesome finger-jarring, combo-pulling experience. At the low price it’s going at, $39.95 retail at stores and about $30 on Ebay, this is a PS2 title to pick up.


Recommended: Yes