I’m going to go out on a limb and say SSX Tricky was the best entry in the snowboarding series. Well, I guess it’s not that controversial, especially since it is the twentieth anniversary of SSX Tricky and the game remains so beloved. But to properly talk about this legendary series, I’d like to go back to the very beginning.
The PS2 launched November 24, 2000 in Europe, and that winter in the UK supply of the black, blocky console was low. As Christmas approached, some parents were paying hundreds of pounds to get a hold of one. But I was fortunate. I guess in order to get into my good books my mum’s fiance got one for me, for Christmas. The problem was there weren’t that many games to play on it. Tekken Tag was pretty good but I could only beat everyone up with Hwoarang and Law for so long before I wanted something new.
That was when I saw that PSM2 magazine had given a very high score to a game called SSX, a snowboarding game. I had no real interest in snowboarding, but hey, my mum’s fiance was footing the bill, right? I picked it up, along with shedding another £30 for the 8MB memory card - not a small amount in those days. I got home, booted up my new game, and first heard those immortal words: “EA Sports… BIG!”
It started a trend of charismatic extreme sports titles. Snowboarding games led the way and were once considered killer apps. Titles such as 1080° Snowboarding on the N64, Cool Boarders on the PS1, and Amped for Xbox, were shown off to entice players over to their respective platforms. Amped, in particular, was used as a showcase for the Xbox’s impressive graphical capabilities. SSX on the PS2, however, seemed to come out of nowhere.
It was a revelation. The characters were brash, with distinct personalities. The presentation was a cut above - the FMVs and cinematics looked great. The sound effects were dizzyingly vivid. The music was brilliantly thought out. There was even an MC as an announcer (who could, admittedly, be annoying after you’d heard him for the umpteenth time). Just everything about it seemed to ooze personality.
I fondly recall trying to get on this rail shortcut in Merqury City Meltdown and taking photos of my screen to send to PSM2 to print in the magazine, for their SSX leaderboards. And I can never forget the astonishment I felt after I’d completed the final level, Pipedream. Only it wasn’t the final track, there was another!
The song, Finished Symphony by Hybrid, as it played over the preview FMV for the newly unlocked level, Untracked, blended with the awe I felt speeding down this snowy wonderland. It was just a pure white mountain, studded with trees, to explore, to chill with, to vibe with.
Its sequel raised everything to new heights. The level design became even more outlandish - the neon Tokyo Megaplex still colours my dreams. The characters became even brasher - there was a guy with a ginger ‘fro - and there was more of everything: more levels, more snowboard gear, more crazy tricks that made for hours and hours of fun. A friend and I spent hours trying to get high scores, chasing those huge colourful snowflake multipliers. Run-DMC soundtracked it all.
I remember those good times. And the vibes. Oh man, the vibes. But where are all the snowboarding games these days? Where is that luscious powder and the sense of possibility, the unequalled pleasure of sliding down a gorgeously rendered mountain?
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Sure, we have Riders Republic, a richly detailed playground that offers incredible freedom. You can mountain bike, wingsuit, ski and snowboard in that game. And our reviewer has said snowboarding is a highlight. But to have snowboarding as an option in a menu of options cheapens the experience, in my opinion. It just does. One of our other editors thought the same of the open-world game Steep: “how much better could Steep have been had it been focused on only one extreme sport?”
I want something dedicated, something pure. Just like SSX 3 offered the unforgettable chance of snowboarding down an entire, massive mountain, taking 25 minutes or more to complete.
In short, as we head into snowy season (if climate change still allows it), I want to vibe again. To get lost in that pure, crisp air. Riding down SSX’s Untracked or Elysium Alps, couldn’t you feel the crispiness of it all?
Not many remember (or want to remember) the PS3 and Xbox 360 reboot - 2012’s SSX. It was… not good. I was so excited to play it, but after an initial buzz, the excitement faded quickly. Sure you could wingsuit, but you didn’t really need to. The level designs could be janky and punishing, forcing you to rewind. Yes, it had a rewind feature, taking you back up the course (while your competitors carried on), and it destroyed the sense of flow at which the PS2 SSX games excelled.
Twenty years after SSX Tricky launched, I am still hoping for something to recapture the magic. Maybe it is nostalgia, but I think it points towards something else, something bigger than nostalgia. It is, in fact, all about the snow. Just think about the associations: winter, cosiness, crisp air, Christmas (for some people), and the loveliness of a blanket of white descending over a mountain or town. Our editor-in-chief even wrote a whole feature about how snow is the best aspect of Red Dead Redemption 2. And I’d have to agree, some beautifully depicted snow just enriches games. I can easily see, in my mind’s eye, the snowy levels of God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn, the way it crunches and splits when you trample its freshness.
But I await a game that lets me carve my way through it, down some steep slope, flowing in the majesty of a gorgeously rendered mountainscape, complete with that nice white powder. Tricky, you spoiled us.