You'll be amazed at some of the cool stuff you'll see in SSX Tricky. The first thing are the great looking, super styled, courses. Each course has it own very distictive look. From the bright and clear to Night with cool colored lighting. Everything is available here. Each course is also lined with bright and interesting Billboards, some of which are glass that you can smash through, with a cool glass breaking effect. The snow effects are cool with 6 different riders going down the hill all creating, there own grooves, spray and other effects it's pretty impressive to see. The Insane spectator towers are very cool as well. There are sparks when you grind rails and other good effects. The Draw distance is also impressive, even though there is a tiny bit of pop up that you can see. And the Frame-rate sometimes stutters just a bit. But those are only nit-picks.

SSX Tricky's gameplay is solid and enjoyable. First the controls, IMO I find them a little complicated at times, I'm sure this will pass with time, but when I have to think about what buttons to press before I go off a jump, I get alittle annoyed. The control stick turns your character, but the control pad also turns your player, but only when you are not crouched. To spin or flip you must set up to the jump crouch press the spin/flip direction, then hold those and let go of the jump/crouch button before you reach the end of the jump. Not to metion you maybe pressing all three shoulder buttons, it can get quite confusing if you're trying to pull of a cirtain trick. The other thing I don't like is the turning interface, if you're crouched you gain speed, but can't turn as sharp, the problem is if you come to a turn that you can't make while crouched you have to let go of the crouch button, which causes your player to jump, usally off course. The other problem is that if you don't crouch at almost all times the computer will blast past you. But it does get noticably easier to control after some practice and once you learn the courses the turning problems become lesser, but you still may find yourself jumping off track by accident. The computer compitition is fierce, they won't hesitate to knock you down or block you off. SSX also gets tricky to control when there are meny competitors in one turn, you garenunteed to get knocked around. SSX Tricky can be a tough game, the CPU riders will win if you make too many mistakes(those mistake being usally of the steering type). The race mode is the first main mode of the World Championship mode, which just happens to be the main mode of play in SSX Tricky, like I said earlier the CPU opponets are tough and will be on your tail most of the race if you get the lead. The problem with the Race mode is that There are three runs on each preticular course, a Quarterfinal, a SemiFinal and the Final, I know this is realistic, but the thing is you could win the quarters and the semis but lose in the finals, it's really annoying to have to do the all three runs again if you don't win the gold medal, especially on some of the longer tracks. Also the CPU's get faster and better with each run, so the Finals compition is harder than in the Quarters. The other main mode of the World Circuit is Showoff, where you try to pull as many tricks as you can, in one run down the hill. At first it is pretty easy to get the Gold medal score, but it becomes progessivly harder, up to the point that you HAVE to stray from the course and do tons of high wire grinds. Showoff is fun, but because of the lack of jumps on some of the courses it becomes a grind fest and not very snowboard-like at all. SSX Tricky uses the modern method of rewarding you for being good, as you gain gold medals in the Race and Showoff modes of the World Circuit mode you'll unlock boards(for your current rider) and riders. If you place in the top 3 you'll unlock new courses. To unlock your riders new outfits, you have to complete sets of tricks called chapters, which are part of your trick book. One thing I do like about the world circut is the rivalries and friendships that take place on the track. You can even change a riders oppinion of you by nocking them down. There is also TONs of back story on each character even icluding fake interviews with each rider! That part is incredible! Overall Tricky's gameplay is fun to play, a challenge to master, but I find it a tiny bit unbalanced and complicated.

The sound in SSX tricky is one of the best and most enjoyable parts of the game. There is of course the typical sliding, scraping, and crunching noises of the snowboard, but the other sounds are really cool. Like the crowd for instance they are very loud and get in to the Race of Trick sessions, it really gets you pumped when the crowd is cheering for you. The other cool thing about the sound is the voices of the characters, you really get into the game with the characters chatting it up. Your character has, crash, big air, landing huge trick and starting/finishing a race voice clips. Your rider will also even call out to another rider by name if he/she passes you. You begin to feel like you're really on a tour with these characters. The music is good too. When you pull a bunch of tricks and fill you boost meter, a short clip of "Tricky" by Run DMC will start playing. Then you will be able to try Uber Tricks(which are like special moves), if you land and Uber Trick, the game will blurt "TRICKY!!", you'll find yourself shouting TRICKY!! a few times. The other songs are cool as well. And the Radio/PA annoucer is pretty good too.

In the end SSX Tricky is a good game, at this point in time I sort of fail to see why some people where raving about this game. But I can see the potential it has. Like you just read I have some problems with the controls and the some of the game design, but I love the rivalries and Friendships that exsist on the hills. I would reccomend SSX Tricky to anyone who likes extreme sports games, Good Racing games, or snowboarding. SSX Tricky is also comes at a very cheap price now, I got my copy for $10 dollars CDN brand new, but I've seen alot of stores in the USA and Canada selling it for cheap as well. If you haven't played SSX Tricky at least rent it, but don't hesitate to pick it up if you can find it cheap.

8.5 out of 10

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