you know, i get it. for most of my adult life, i've mourned the SSX series and waited like a coiled spring for a new game. granted, i never played any of the entries after this one, but, to be fair, they all looked like microwaved dogshit. still, i've waited for a true sequel to this game for so long. and i do finally understand why we haven't gotten it and never will. it is frankly just too fucking difficult to iterate on this game. from top to bottom, this game is mechanically dense and full of little refinements and tweaks to the SSX formula that i can't see being improved upon. you could try, sure, but it'd be a fool's errand. this was the peak of SSX. this was the furthest the series could go. it was a funeral for the series. but it was also a celebration for the series.
i used to be someone who thought SSX Tricky was the ever-so-slightly better entry, but now that feels like a borderline offensive opinion to throw out. SSX Tricky is a fantastic, outstanding game. but does it push as many boundaries of game design like 3? does it manage to add a superior level of complexity to preexisting mechanics in a way that feels like a natural evolution like 3? hell, does it even have the better OST? all these years, I used to think these questions weighed in Tricky's favor. i just can't see it now. (that said, i still absolutely crave the remix of "Smartbomb" on Tricky's OST on spotify. i need it badly.)
SSX 3 is a landmark game in what it achieves as early as 2003, but it remains a landmark game in how well it's aged and managed to still be fresh to play. i know everyone gushes about it, but it truly is impressive as all fuck to be able to start at the top of peak 3 and go through six different and varied courses and end all the way at the bottom of peak 1 without a single load screen from the word go.
the loss in vibrancy, cartoonishness, and informed personality does hurt, and it's always been my biggest sticking point with the game. yeah, all of Tricky's cast fucking annihilates the newcomers here and all the returnees feel like they've been sand-papered down to a less distinct and memorable edge. i can completely concede that. but, the game puts emphasis on characterizing the different tracks of the game. there's nothing quite as outlandish as aloha ice jam or outright impossible as tokyo megaplex, but we trade that for grounded fantasies. look at something like ruthless. ruthless is absolute eye-candy for anyone who has an appreciation for nature, but it also has this horrific realism to it in that you could easily imagine it claiming the lives of reckless newcomers every year. sure, you're still hitting rails at lightning speed and regularly doing jumps that should shatter femurs, but the style shift to realism makes it feel more memorable and weighty.
all this is to say that i can't necessarily begrudge anyone who prefers Tricky. at this point, i've seen approximately 0 people ever argue either of these games are bad, so it feels as though it's a continuous argument between which of these two games is the more definitive entry. forgive me, but i'm going to use a fairly nebbish final argument for my position. we've had sequel after sequel for SSX 3 try to take the series in a new direction and each has ultimately failed. most tellingly, none of these games have tried to claim the mantle of SSX 4. and how could you? how could you ever claim to iterate on SSX 3 when it captured the formula, the gameplay, the design, everything so well? there has never been anything like this game since its release, and, at this point, it's starting to look more and more certain that there never will be.
personally, i would love to play SSX 4. i just expect that if i ever do, it won't be called that. the series is dead, and i say that with reverence.
i used to be someone who thought SSX Tricky was the ever-so-slightly better entry, but now that feels like a borderline offensive opinion to throw out. SSX Tricky is a fantastic, outstanding game. but does it push as many boundaries of game design like 3? does it manage to add a superior level of complexity to preexisting mechanics in a way that feels like a natural evolution like 3? hell, does it even have the better OST? all these years, I used to think these questions weighed in Tricky's favor. i just can't see it now. (that said, i still absolutely crave the remix of "Smartbomb" on Tricky's OST on spotify. i need it badly.)
SSX 3 is a landmark game in what it achieves as early as 2003, but it remains a landmark game in how well it's aged and managed to still be fresh to play. i know everyone gushes about it, but it truly is impressive as all fuck to be able to start at the top of peak 3 and go through six different and varied courses and end all the way at the bottom of peak 1 without a single load screen from the word go.
the loss in vibrancy, cartoonishness, and informed personality does hurt, and it's always been my biggest sticking point with the game. yeah, all of Tricky's cast fucking annihilates the newcomers here and all the returnees feel like they've been sand-papered down to a less distinct and memorable edge. i can completely concede that. but, the game puts emphasis on characterizing the different tracks of the game. there's nothing quite as outlandish as aloha ice jam or outright impossible as tokyo megaplex, but we trade that for grounded fantasies. look at something like ruthless. ruthless is absolute eye-candy for anyone who has an appreciation for nature, but it also has this horrific realism to it in that you could easily imagine it claiming the lives of reckless newcomers every year. sure, you're still hitting rails at lightning speed and regularly doing jumps that should shatter femurs, but the style shift to realism makes it feel more memorable and weighty.
all this is to say that i can't necessarily begrudge anyone who prefers Tricky. at this point, i've seen approximately 0 people ever argue either of these games are bad, so it feels as though it's a continuous argument between which of these two games is the more definitive entry. forgive me, but i'm going to use a fairly nebbish final argument for my position. we've had sequel after sequel for SSX 3 try to take the series in a new direction and each has ultimately failed. most tellingly, none of these games have tried to claim the mantle of SSX 4. and how could you? how could you ever claim to iterate on SSX 3 when it captured the formula, the gameplay, the design, everything so well? there has never been anything like this game since its release, and, at this point, it's starting to look more and more certain that there never will be.
personally, i would love to play SSX 4. i just expect that if i ever do, it won't be called that. the series is dead, and i say that with reverence.
NickShutter
3 months ago