SSX Tricky

"If you have a console, buy the console version. If you dont....well go buy a console if you really have to have this."

SSX was released for the Playstation 2 a good two years ago, maybe more. It brought some interesting characters and cool tricks together, so you have a great game. Well, they had to capitolize on that success, and SSX Tricky was released. Overthetop, unrealistic tricks were used, but it's so much fun! Too bad it's not like that on the GBA!

The graphics in SSX Tricky are nice, smooth, and slick for the GBA. Especially the opening video, it's awesome. The courses are pretty bland, but the characters look great. Plus, with the SP, the snow falling is really accented, and looks really great. Overall the graphics are definitely something to look at.

The sound in SSX Tricky was extremely dissapointing. Instead of listening to that awesome ''It's Tricky'' on Xbox, you now listen to a techno-style soundtrack, which is really poor. No cool announcer saying: ''That's a funky tonk manuva!'' No characters yelling: ''I'm unstoppable!'' The sound is what really made the game fun on consoles. I can't stress enough how much the sound means to the game, it plays such a huge part, and that's whats missing. I really found that I couldn't even play the game without that great sound.

The gameplay was also dissapointing. Career mode lost that depth it had, like CPU friends and rivalries. Showoff is ok, except incredibly hard at some points. The controls aren't too hard, A to jump, B to boost, L/R to grab board. R/L combined with B also do ''Uber'' tricks when your boost is up, which are the overthetop tricks. R/L also do knockdowns, to fill your boost bar up. The gameplay was incredibly dissapointing too.

The replay in SSX Tricky really depends on wether you like the game or not. If you don't like it, you'll probably want to beat the career mode (even though its very hard on GBA) and stop. If you really like it, you'll probably want to play your favorites over and over.

5/10. Like I said, the console versions have more depth and more fun to them. The console versions are just so fun, I don't know anyone who can despise them. But the GBA version is really not for everyone, probably not anyone. This game is only for the people who can't get SSX Tricky on a console or really love the game and want to use it on the go.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/30/03, Updated 03/30/03