SSX Tricky

"SSX Tricky combines great graphics, gameplay, sound, and an excellent replay value to create one of the best GCN games to date."

As one of the launch titles for the Nintendo Gamecube, SSX Tricky had tremendous anticipation. Even though it was EA’s first ever Gamecube game, people were expecting another blockbuster hit. The only other snowboarding game that SSX Tricky can compare to is the highly acclaimed, 1080 Snowboarding for the N64. Can SSX Tricky earn its own respect, or will it be swallowed up the growing number of excellent Gamecube games?

As you progress through SSX Tricky, you are faced with a growing number of characters to play as. All the boarders have different stats and they each have their own uber, or signature moves. If you receive a medal during a competition, you can upgrade your rider’s edging, speed, stability, or tricks. Another cool aspect of this game is the ability to change your boarder’s clothes. You can earn these different clothes by completing certain tricks for each boarder. Each boarder also has their own unique snowboards which are better for certain things than others. You can get snowboards which make you faster, give you better balance, allow you to be better at tricks, or give you better edging. You can even get snowboards which improve more than one stat. These snowboards are earned by improving your boarder’s ranking. The rankings go from newbie, when you first start the game, to master, when you have gold medals in all the World Circuit events.

There are different characters you can be. They are: Brodi, Eddie, Elise, JP, Kaori, Luther, Mac, Marisol, Moby, Psymon, Seeiah, Zoe. Each of these character have their own specific strengths and weaknesses. Eddie, Marisol, Psymon, and Brodi are characters that excel at speed. Mac, Kaori, JP, and Seeiah are all boarders that specialize in tricks. All the other characters are average except for Luther who has awesome stability.

Visuals: Electronic Arts has used the Gamecube to its full potential. Anywhere you look in the game, you see great graphics. The texture of the snow and ice has been created so that it looks incredibly realistic. The environments are also very well done, all the trees, jumps, and rails are graphically superb.

All the characters in SSX Tricky are extremely polished. You can see many different textures in their hair, clothes, and face. All the tricks that the boarders do are very close to being realistic. There are some moves that are physically impossible but they do look good and that’s all that counts. Every animation in SSX Tricky is very well done and is also very life-like. Some of the animations are impossible to do without breaking your neck or killing yourself.

Sound: Throughout the game, your ears are greeted with crystal clear sounds. There are three different types of sound in the game. These four types are: voices, sound effects, and music. The voices are said by three people during SSX Tricky, the announcer, your boarder, and your opponents. The announcer always says annoying one-liners that aren’t funny and get on your nerves after a little while. Your boarder has some catch phrases that he uses when he falls, pushes people over, or hits a good trick. All of opponents will laugh in your face when they pass you, push you down, or when you push them down. After the race, if you make them an enemy, they will berate you while you stand there and take their insults. Then, you tell them an annoying “wisecrack” that is the same every single time.

All of the sound effects in SSX Tricky are very well done. You can hear the boarders whizzing by you and the sound of your snowboard on the grinding rails sound very realistic. Whenever you miss a trick, you hear a loud smacking sound as you hit the snow head first at 50mph. As you fly through the air, you can hear the wind of your board cutting through the fresh mountain air like a knife through butter.

All of the music in SSX Tricky fits the game perfectly. All of the musical tracks are very upbeat and allow you to really focus on the game. The music has been very well done and does not have any flaws in it. Unlike a lot of video game music, the tracks do not get on your nerves. They don’t all sound alike which is great because variety in music is a very good thing.

Gameplay: There are a couple different modes in SSX Tricky that you can play in. There is the World Circuit mode and the Free Ride mode. In World Circuit, you ride around and either try to score more points than your opponents, or beat your opponents to the bottom of the hill. In showoff mode, you try to score as many points as you can. As you do more tricks, you fill up your trick meter. Once your trick meter is full, you can do uber tricks which give you more points than any other tricks. If you do six or more uber tricks, you can use boosts as much as you want. In the race mode, you try beat your opponents to the bottom of the hill. As you go down the hill, you can take shortcuts or use boosts to pass your opponents. In order to receive boosts, you can pick up the boost item, or you can do tricks to earn boosts. In both of the world circuit modes, you have to get third or better to advance. The higher you place, the more points you earn to upgrade your stats. As you receive more medals and points, you can rank up. Every time you rank up, it shows a movie that has your character dancing to some music picked specifically for them. It’s quite funny and you’ll want to rank up, not just for the new boards, but also for the rank up movies.

In Free Ride, you just snowboard around the tracks and there are no other riders to get in your way. You can try to find shortcuts, try out tricks, or just practice the course. It’s the most boring mode and you won’t spend much time here at all. This is clearly the worst mode but that doesn’t mean it’s bad, that just means that the other modes are much better than this mode is.

Replay Value: SSX Tricky has a lot of replay value. It has a couple different modes of play that each have two different ways of playing them. It will take you quite a while to get a gold medal in every competition. After you get all of the gold medals, you can also try to finish all of the trick chapters in order to receive all of the character’s outfits. If somehow you’ve finished all of these things, you still have the multiplayer mode and trick attack to try. If you become bored of doing all of these things then you must have absolutely no life. Just getting the gold medals and outfits will take you hours and hours of fun. This game will give you hours and hours of fun and will never be put away in a closet and be forgotten.

Overall: This is definitely one of the best Gamecube games I have played. There are no weak points in SSX Tricky and is very well done. For one of the first Gamecube games, it is incredibly how well done it is. All of the creators of this game should give themselves a pat on the back as they’ve done a great job creating an extremely fun game that is also very realistic. As the first great sports game for the Gamecube, all of the future sports games will be compared to SSX Tricky and they will most likely fail. SSX Tricky is one of the best Gamecube games and is a must have for any sports fan or anybody that just wants to have fun playing video games.

Graphics - 9.4
Sound - 9.3
Gameplay - 9.3
Replay Value - 9.4
Final Score - 9.4

Information Box

Genre - Extreme Sports
Publisher - Electronic Arts
Developer - Electronic Arts
Players - 1-2
Online Play - Not Supported
ESRB - E

Release Date
November 18, 2001

Overall Score: 9.4

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/30/02, Updated 11/30/02