Extreme Sports Gets With DMC
And I said SSX: Tricky was better than all of them. Hindsight has swayed my opinion a bit; six years of contemplation can do that to a fellow. Yet SSX: Tricky helped exceed most of the games in that historic list simply because it was the best sports game available for a sports gaming fan such as myself. Even amongst the other genres of games that year, SSX: Tricky did more for its genre than arguably any other game on this list (then and now) save for Grand Theft Auto III. On another level, SSX: Tricky was also the first game…strike that: medium…I wrote a review about on Gamespot.com. I haven’t been able to find said review, but I can recall at least three details regarding that review:
Dear God, that review was formulated horribly.
When I wrote the review, it was about a full two months of having played the game. Considering the game did not have online play, that is special.
If a game had intrigued me so much to write about how fantastic it was, it had to have meant something big
“Big” is as accurate a term to describe SSX: Tricky as I could amass. Outside of the development team name, “big” describes every aspect of the game: character creativity, levels, tricks, design, etc…considering how sports games at the time wasn’t even able to integrate lifelike presentation to their games, the fact that Tricky reeks of style as much as it does was very memorable at the time and still holds up today. Of course, the presentation was second only to the gameplay, being one of the first games the PS2 had that rewarded aggressive play by gaining speed boosts for pulling off 1260 Stiffy Airs and pushing opponents down (especially fun before a big jump.) The game contained a plethora of content, such as unlockable outfits and boards, and contained a DVD documentary extra on the disc about the voice actors (such as Macy Gray, Oliver Platt, and Bif naked) and the design of the game. Tricky was not a pure sequel, as some of the characters and all of the tracks were from the first SSX, but redesigned; it was if EA actually knew how to make the game they originally wanted to release for the PS2 launch, and wanted every PS2 owner to know it as a sort of apology for release what, in hindsight, seemed like a tech demo. As such, SSX: Tricky was one of the first of a plethora of games in 2001 that offered a significant amount of bang for their buck, and was one of the first great sports games of that generation.
* This editorial is part of a TeamGameOnline.com article recalling my favorite PS2 games of all time. This followed Guitar Hero. *