SSX Tricky

Other products by Electronic Arts

Product Features

• Tons of tricks
• three modes
• more than 30 characters

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005NUJ3
• Item Weight: 5.3 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: January 25, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (150 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,286 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)

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  Video Games > PlayStation 2 > Sports

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

When Sony released the PlayStation2 last year, there were only a few standout games. One of them, SSX, brought snowboarding to people who didn't even like snowboarding. Now, only a year later, PS2 fans get a new reason to stay indoors during the cold winter months. SSX Tricky is the game, and it more than lives up to the moniker.

Tricky removes two characters from the previous game and adds five new ones. It adds two new race locations to the already beefed-up World Circuit (Garibaldi and Alaska). The developers also added features to the older tracks, effectively making them new again. Tricky improves the graphics a bit and refines the controls. The game even tweaks the basic gameplay by letting you upgrade your boarder's stats in races, but also forcing you to attempt and master the showoff mode. And EA improved the challenge by evening out the learning curve. SSX tended to be a cakewalk until the later races in each set, but this time your rivals get more intense and aggressive depending upon the lap you're taking.

As in the first game, personality is everything. This is true not only in terms of voice acting, but also in how you treat opponents. The game has a few basic attitudes. If you block and attack characters too much, they'll remember and actively seek you out. If you help one or two of them, they'll become your allies, warning you of danger or fending off attackers.

In many ways, SSX Tricky is only an upgrade of the previous game. Admittedly, the additions don't look like enough to justify buying the game all over again. But the changes are deep enough to change quite a bit, and they'll delight even fans who are tired of, or who mastered, the first game. Maybe that's the most impressive über-trick of them all. --Bob Andrews

Pros:

• Refined controls and new tricks
• Excellent computer intelligence and challenge

Cons:

• The graphics are only slightly improved

Product Description

Intense snowboarding excitement comes back to the PS2 in this remix of the fan-favorite SSX. Whether you're interested in high-flying tricks or high-velocity racing, you'll find plenty of what you're looking for in SSX TRICKY. Take your pick from a field of more than three-dozen boarders and vie for the highest rating in each unique event. Training mode allows you to get your chops down before entering the competition, World Circuit mode is a full-fledged competition that spans several events, and Show Off mode challenges you to pull off as many dangerous stunts as you can within an allotted time period. This installment of the game features all-new tracks, more character interactions, and a cool, new soundtrack. Of course, the game is packed with shortcuts and secrets to uncover, plenty of bonuses, and loads of other thrills. The graphics are built on the same model as the original game, but a few new flourishes add to the visual landscape of this nerve-wracking ride.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Everything is top-notch, especially the frustration factor., January 8, 2002

By	Chad Trotter (Laguna Niguel, CA) - See all my reviews

Playing SSX Tricky is a love-hate relationship... At least, for me. I absolutely love so much of this game, it's so incredibly fun to play, so unique, so energetic... It's just a blast! But along with that joy comes a whole bucketload of frustration... Particularly in the later levels.

Imagine, if you can, playing SSX Tricky. You're riding down the mountain with trees and other obstacles whizzing past you... You're in the lead, and you're holding 'up' on the controller to keep your character in the crouched position to retain your speed. You're cruising along when suddenly there's a dip that you didn't see coming, and your finger is still holding the 'up' button. Well it happens to be a coincidence that this same button also makes your character do front-flips while in the air, and since you've suddenly become airborne, your character naturally starts doing a flip. The dip comes back up a lot faster than your flip-happy character assumed, and they end up getting a mouthful of snow, tumbling head-over-heels down the mountain while other racers whizz past for the win. Argh. Welcome to SSX Tricky!

I know this may be pretty minor to some people, and probably not enough to warrant taking off a whole star of the game's rating... But I've wanted to throw the controller across the room so many times at little things like this... I just couldn't give it a 5-star rating with a clear conscience.

Annoyances aside, this is an absolutely superb game. The characters are well modeled (A few are also pretty well endowed), the courses are incredibly long and have a very very wide variety to them, the graphics are stellar, the sound effects are incredibly realistic, the music is perfect... I could go on and on.

The funniest part about this game has got to be the commentary. I'm a firm believer that the commentary exists only to make you laugh while playing the game. Often the announcer will give you props by saying you pulled off a "Sweet funky-dope maneuver!" or your character will randomly blurt out, "French toast and syrup!", or even something so intellectual as, "Get those thumbs bronzed!" As cheesy, corny, and lame as they are... They're also good for a great laugh.

Many people have said that this game is more of an expansion of the original and not a true sequel... Well my friends, this couldn't be farther from the truth. While it's true that there are only 2 new levels, the old levels have been COMPLETELY redesigned, re-thunk and reworked. I also own the original SSX and the only level that looks even remotely close to the one seen in the original game is the Aloha Ice Jam, and even that has had some serious makeovers. There are also a ton of new characters to choose from, and there's finally a use for that silly bar on the side of the screen! Ubertricks!

Talk about star of the show, the Ubertricks have taken over the trick scene in SSX, making it faux-pas to be in the air with the board still attached your feet. With your boost meter fully charged, you can catch some big air, press a button and watch your character flip the board over their head, kickflip it like a skateboard, or... Well... Tricks that words can't even begin to describe. I'm sure you've seen the commercials, so you probably have an idea of what I'm talking about.

This is an astoundingly great game, and I urge anyone to buy it, regardless of what console they own. It's also available for both Xbox and GameCube, and it's just as fun on those systems as it is on PlayStation2. Don't let the picky graphics-loving fanboys tell you otherwise. Games are all about having fun, and SSX Tricky has definitely mastered the Fun Department. It's so easy to pick up and play, you'll be playing this game for a long time to come.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most fun game of all time!, June 20, 2002

By	Strategos "The Guardian of Time" (In Space above Planet Earth) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

Okay, maybe it isn't the most fun game of all time, but my sister sure thinks so. Interestingly, I bought Pikmin for one sister, Super Monkey Ball for another, SSX Tricky for me, and then I find that they completely stop playing those games when they give SSX Tricky one try. Even my dad, who almost never plays games loves this one. But what do I think of it? Well, the gameplay is pretty near perfect, the graphics ARE perfect, the control IS perfect, the learning curve is excellent, and the game is just plain cool. Sure, some people may be able to beat it quickly with one character, but the game is loads of fun, and DEFINITELY the best snowboarding game ever made.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Improving on the best, November 12, 2001

By A Customer

Until yesterday, SSX was by far the best of the PS2 games I've played. Then I played SSX Tricky.

The whole look has been refined. The intro is better, the 3D front end is slick, the tricks are better, and the music is improved. They've even made logical little changes, like moving "Freeride" into a new "Practice" section, rather than being listed as an event under "Single Event."

The courses themselves have been completely overhauled. The revisions to Snowdream, Elysium Alps, and Merqury City Meltdown are great -- just enough of the original courses remains to make things seem familiar, but they're sufficiently different that it's a whole new game. (As a concrete example, the first major shortcut in Elysium Alps, behind the Danger fence, is still there and largely unchanged. The second major shortcut, the series of cliffs above the ice, is completely re-done.) The Tokyo Megaplex is, well, a new pinball game. Pipedream is entirely re-done, and is now a reward for completion of the showoff events, rather than a course to be raced on its own. And the new courses, Garibaldi and Alaska, are fascinating -- I feel like it will take me two weeks just to figure out the different options on the course, let alone off the course.

The new characters will add depth for those who like having a broad range of digital people from which to choose. The Hollywood voice talent is less interesting in the game than it is on the included DVD material, which shows snippets of how the game is designed, animated, programmed, and then "voiced."

All in all, it's a distractingly good improvement. I rented it instead of buying it, but now I can feel the (...) money disappearing from my wallet.