Coming as a direct port from the PS2 and GameCube game, EA Big deliver another mountainside foray. Think different, think extreme, think SSX Tricky.

Gameplay:
SSX Tricky grabs you from the moment you turn the on the X-Box with explosive music, a funky graphical style and intuitive gameplay. After only a few goes, you’ll be stringing together some great combos and earning your gold medals on the first few courses. The courses, aah, how lovely they are. Garibaldi, the first track, is a beautiful opening venue to start your love affair with this game. From the first insane drop to the last curve around to the right leading up to a massive jump which takes you over the line, the adrenaline will coarse through your veins and make you want to have another go, and another, and….then it’s 3am. The beauty of the game lies in its simplicity paralleled with sheer depth of gameplay and this is how I want all games to make me feel when I play them.

There are a huge number of costumes and boards to unlock for the twelve characters available for play, which you will earn through the World Circuit mode. Each of the characters has their own personality and style of riding which makes you choose your favourite and one best suited to your own style. In races the characters personalities really shine through as they interact with each other and hurl abuse as they pass you on the way down the mountain, and this really is a nice touch. It makes you smile, laugh and feel good about playing the game. Where SSX Tricky really takes of is the addition of the Uber Trick system. This works in kind of the same way as a Tony Hawk game, with each trick landed successfully giving you more power on your adrenaline meter. When full, Run DMC blasts from the speakers telling you that you can pull of an Uber Trick to give you even more points. Pull off six of these in a race and you have infinite adrenaline allowing you to Uber Trick and boost until you are blue in the face. Yesss!

Graphics:
Framerate, blasted by some, but is it really important? Well, as it never affects gameplay, no. Ranging from 30-60 fps is not bad at all, as we were very happy with 30 fps not so long ago so why change now if the gameplay is not affected? It never spoils your enjoyment of the game and, lets be honest, I play games to enjoy them as I expect you do too. The rest of the graphics are more than adequate for the game offered, as the style is very cartoony and the graphics do a great job of conveying the extreme-ness of the game itself. To be honest, the last thing you are looking at is how well textured the snow my be as you are hurtling down the slope at 64mph pulling off a 1260-misty-frontflip to late Indy, or something as equally insane.

Sound:
A masterpiece in sonic engineering. All the commentator's voice overs are time-stretched to fin in with whatever song is playing. It's one of those things you don't notice until someone points it out to you but works ever so effectively. It pushes the game along and is just downright funktastic. Sound effects are just as polished and the riders interact with each other wonderfully, with tons and tons of voice samples for each character.

Longevity:
You'll get out as much as you put in. To complete the game with each charater takes a pretty long time and the way the game plays makes you want to see everything it has to offer. Constant rewards for doing well provide every incentive to play it to death, which makes for an extremely well rounded game and one that is both superficial and deep as the ocean all at once.

Round Up:
SSX Tricky encapsulates what a game should be like for me, maybe you are different and that’s cool, because everyone is entitled to their opinion (unless it is narrow minded and childish.) Again, the X-Box has another extremely strong title available and I hope EA continue with this series as I see a long and prosperous future for it. Put away any doubts you have about this game, and play it. Play it and enjoy it for what it is and not what you wanted it to be. Play it for the fun that oozes from every second of playing it. It’s a blast, goddamit!!!

Pros:

• Pure arcade fun
  
• Great music and sound effects
  
• Bags of replay value
  

  Cons:
  

  • Occasionally ropey framerate
    
  • Some may not give the game the time it needs to get the most out from it