SSX Tricky

"I just made yellow snow!"

SSX Tricky is an 'arcade' snowboarding game, where fun is more important than realism. Tricks play a very big role in the game; tracks contain mainly of ramps and rails. It's a sequel to SSX, and a port of a Playstation 2 game, but it is good enough to keep you entertained, alone or with friends.

Graphics 6/10
Awww... I have to start with the worst point of the game. It's a conversion. Gamecube unworthy graphics. Sloppy framerate. Boring, depthless backgrounds. Only the riders themselves are well-detailed and superb animated. The trails in the snow are nice but unrealistic. The crowd is a heap of blurry motions. Then again, the character moves are good as ever.

Sound and Music 9/10
The sound is fantastic and the voice acting is great, featuring well-known actors and singers. The music is a mix of different alternative dance-styles, and very professional. the music changes when you're in the air, or have your Tricky meter full.

Gameplay 8/10
You can choose between two main options: Race and Showoff. The first is racing with 5 other characters to the finish, knocking down opponents, using speed boosts and finding shortcuts (there are LOADS of them!). Every race has 3 heats, which is way too long in my opinion. The objective in Showoff is pulling off as many tricks as possible. There are giant snowflakes that multiply your score. The more tricks you execute successfully, the more your Boost bar will fil up. Once this bar is filled, you can pull of a 'gravity-defying' Übertrick, gaining you enormous amounts of points. But you have to keep an eye at the time. very, very good.

Controls 6.5/10
Every button and stick fits greatly to this game, with the exception of the Y (puts you on the track again) button, and the directional pad (Making spins and flips in the air). I always end up pressing the dir-pad diagonally and making a Rodeo instead of a FS 360°...

Replayability/Life Durance 9/10
LOADS to unlock. 10 tracks, 12 riders, a dozen of boards each, and 7 outfits each. the only bad thing is to replay every track again and again.
Playing with friends is fun, but it has no option to play with 3-4, though...

Buy or rent?
Buy 70% Rent 25% Ignore 5%
BUY! If you don't want to buy it, rent it for an evening and have fun with 2-players...

Conclusion
SSX Tricky is an excellent snowboarding game, but the bad conversion (graphics+controls) puts the score down.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/01/02, Updated 10/01/02