🎶No motive, no crime.🎶
🎶No motive, no crime. No motive, no crime.🎶
🎶Sing it with me.. I remember, when we used to search...🎶
🎶 in the Channeling Room in Kurain...🎶
🎶Good cases we have, good cases we've lost... Along the way...🎶
🎶Every case is gonna be air tight... Every case is gonna be air tight...🎶

own a physical copy of this on the DS and have since at or close to launch but only just now getting to this more than a decade later. clownery.

this was as great as i expected it to be, not that i expected anything less from a Takumi game. wonderful sprite work, music, and dialogue/narratives but more than anything i was most impressed with the animations. every single character and each of their movements have so much charm. characters like Bailey have small presences in the grand scheme of the game at large but i'll remember them forever.

i think in 2024 i'm going to make a project out of targeting specific portions of my backlog, mostly games that i have owned for extended periods of time without playing or finishing yet. i feel like i've missed out on so much.

wasn't sure what to make of this going in. when it was first revealed i thought it looked exciting when it looked more of a horror centric title but as more was shown i kinda cooled on it. add in the somewhat middling reception and i let this fall off my radar until it hit Game Pass. having actually played it however, i was pleasantly surprised and would take a spiritual successor / game in this format over a The Evil Within 3 probably.

the open world is very Ubisoft in structure (as is usually the case 95% of the time anyways) which wasn't great on paper but the execution here made a massive difference. the setting, use of urban legends, solid to great side quests, and inspired visual direction made the repetitive nature of things barely even register earlier in. while i was going around doing side missions and exploring the map while slowly chipping away at the story content i probably would've given this a 4.

as time goes on you end up left with some less compelling stuff in the open world like a metric shit ton of collectibles across different types. some of them like the relics were fine as they usually came with some kind of interesting flavor text whereas things like the statues, tanukis, or spirits (though those make sense in universe and i wouldn't flat out remove them) are way too numerous and end up being a massive drag. i acknowledge that some people don't have the worms that i do and won't need to factor this in but unfortunately i did. </3

it wouldn't have been as big of a deal if i hadn't somehow made it to the end of doing pretty much everything but still had to grind out money to purchase the last outfits, magatamas, and songs. without any side quests left i had to resort to looping the map smashing the yellow ether blocks to scrape up enough.

so basically a great experience when doing the side missions and earlier exploration, a lesser but still good experience to see the full story through in the end, and then going for full completion is rancid in spots. not something particularly uncommon or unheard of, i guess.

i didn't get to Spider's Thread at this point but i will years down the line when i return for a replay. the base game missions that came with the expansion were great and among the best in the whole game. wish more of the whole thing leaned into the horror like those did.

This is THE definitive extreme sports game. Everything you could want is right here. Larger than life characters. Incredible, intense speed. Pulsing, blood-pumping music. Smooth, addictive gameplay. Flashy courses with monstrous drops and BIG air. Out of this world presentation & charm. Some of the highest levels of spectacle in a game. It's got it all. It's got it ALL.

Now if you played the original SSX in 2000 you may at first think that the game's returning characters, soundtrack and maps make it just a slight upgrade, but no. No, no no no. The characters have a mountain's worth of personality added, as well as a slew of new characters to check out (my favorites are both newcomers: Eddie and Psymon). There is a new "rival" system where each character has preset friends and enemies, and can improve or worsen relationships by how you interact with them in matches. The maps have all been updated with significantly better design decisions, as well as the new stages, the fantastic Garibaldi and Alaska maps, giving a solid beginning and ending to the newly improved World Circuit. These additions make a definitive version of this game; a perfect first taste for Gamecube and Xbox compared to the PS2-exclusive original.

But despite all these great additions, there is one thing that sets it far apart: a new mechanic that set the standard for every SSX game that followed, and wished it could top. This game's true crowning jewel is in it's name. "Tricky".

The already-ingenious boost/trick system is taken to lengths far above your wildest dreams with the new Tricky meter. Like the original game, when you do tricks you gain more boost energy, which incentivizes doing tricks and getting big air during races. But now when the boost is maxed out, the Tricky meter lights up and Run DMC's "It's Tricky" begins to play. Now you can do "UBER Tricks", granting you access to some of the most insane shit you've ever seen, before or after, fiction or non-fiction. Your character will take the board off of their feet and do things you never knew could be done with a snowboard. These tricks, as flashy and intense as they are, are not easy to pull off as they need to be timed just right and let their animations play out before you land, or else you bail. But when you time it right, you get the game yelling "TRICKAYYY HUH!" and a letter added to the word "Tricky" above the boost meter. When you do enough tricks to spell the whole word, you now have infinite boost meter and can speed your way to victory. Btw, every character has a signature trick, so you're gonna want to check them all out and master every character. You won't regret it either; every signature trick is specialized to accentuate each character's loud personality. IE, Eddie does the worm on his like he's at a disco party, and Psymon spins the board around his neck like a maniac. It's fucking glorious.

SSX Tricky does basically everything right. It's a triumph, it's a party, it's a hit, it's in-your-face, and it's a banger. It's the cream of the crop of extreme sports games, and most games in general should bow to it. No one does it like Tricky.

Tricky's only real flaws are as follows:
1. The rail detection when grinding is spotty (improved in the sequels)
2. You WILL want more of it's whole thing specifically but unfortunately the game ends (not improved in the sequels)
3. EA refuses to remake/rerelease it (fuck EA) or do anything with the SSX franchise at all (do I need to say it again)

Do not shy away. Play this game as frequently as possible. Then as it becomes easier for you, play this game once a day, or as needed. This perscription's my recital. I think it's very vital. To rock (a rhyme) that's right (on time) it's TRICKY ITS-HUH-HUH HERE WE GO

Every character's narrative development halts halfway through the story so the Plot can kick in

Nearly every square rpg has this issue to a degree, but this is the first one to leave me disappointed when the credits rolled.

Still a very good game!! Just not as good as its siblings.