SSX Tricky

Resist gravity.

When it comes to basing your game’s identity on a single song, it has to be a good one. Thankfully, “It’s Tricky” by Run-DMC is up to the task and the song shines through at just the right moments, successfully making it feel special when you hear it instead of getting annoyed by its repetition. The SSX games are snowboarding racing games that focus on tricks and my only prior experience is SSX Blur. I didn’t even realise this wasn’t the first game until the commentator kindly pointed out how many tracks were brough back from the previous game (albeit with changes).

While the snowboarding games on the Nintendo 64 featured tricks, including Nintendo’s own 1080° Snowboarding, they didn’t usually gel with the racing itself, often being more of a liability than anything else. The SSX games have two ways to help the two aspects gel. The first is leniency. You can land at some odd angles without much issue and falling over still has you tumbling downhill and getting up at a decent pace. The second is tying it into a boost system. However, if you hang onto your boost and continue tricking, you’ll fill up the bar and “It’s Tricky” will start playing. During this, you have infinite boosts and can prolong it by performing uber tricks – and pulling off six will give you infinite boosts for the entire race.

Another neat feature is how the other racers develop as you play. Attacking or not attacking other racers during races (which nets you boost) will impact future races – rivalries and friendships will form, adjusting how aggressive they are towards you. The tracks themselves all manage to both feel and look unique, and are a good length with a ton of fun segments.

SSX Tricky is a game chocked full of the style and attitude of this era of sports games, which makes it a ton of fun to go back to as I do kind of miss all this today. It’s still hugely enjoyable to play and the art style still holds up quite well.

Great

Pretty soon you’ve learned the trick lines that allow you to link grinds and flips in stunning combinations over hundreds of feet of snow, you’ve opened up secret shortcuts to shave seconds off your time and you feel like an expert. You’ll even worry that it’s all been too easy and altogether too quick. It’s only then that you’ll hear the dawn chorus of chirping birds outside your window, look at the clock, and realise you’ve been playing for ten hours. It’s time to make that big decision: play through ’til breakfast or get some shut-eye? Hmm, tough one. Oh, go on then – just one more go.

Lee Hall, NGC Magazine #69

Remake or remaster?

An SSX collection would be great.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play SSX Tricky.

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2007: Mar, Jun, Aug

ea gamecube racing snowboarding Sports ssx