
<MAP NAME="boxmap-p6"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="1, 140, 83, 150" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/thearmchairem-20" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x150.gif" width="120" height="150" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p6" alt="Shop at Amazon.com">	Platform GameCube Genre Extreme Sports Publisher Electronic Arts Developer EA Canda ESRB E (Everyone) Released Q4 2001

- Excelent Graphics - Immersive and Exciting race sequences - Improved course design - Uber-Tricks increase blood pressure

- The GameCube controller butchers this game

Review: SSX Tricky (Playstation 2) Review: SSX Tricky (XBox) Review: Transworld Snowboarding (XBox)
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SSX Tricky

Score: 7.5 / 10

There are many reasons to love the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise, namely the power that it has to bring meaning to life and calluses to thumbs. However looking beyond the immediate, one can find on the horizon an abundance of off-shoots that pay homage to the Hawkmeister. Chief of these and the only title that doesn’t present itself as an awful parody is the SSX series. After making its debut on the PS2, SSX Tricky has made it’s way over to the GameCube looking and playing quite similarly yet feeling quite different.

As far as game description and graphic presentation go I must shoo you over to my colleague in arms; Tazman, as his PS2 review is more than adequate for these questions. However if you’re a recent GameCube convert and want the skinny on how the brilliant yet inherently flawed GameCube controller butchers the game as it did to THPS 3, then stick around.

The Gamecube controller butchers the game.

As in the prequel SSX Tricky is an adrenaline injected racing game which hinges on a rather deep trick system. Attempting tricks requires that the jump button be held, the d-stick angled in a chosen direction, and multiple grab buttons depressed in

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order to complete certain tricks. On the dual shock this is a pleasure, on the wired wave bird it is a pain. The Z- button which is as stiff as Rumsfeld’s upper lip couldn't hack it as a basket weaver let alone as an integral part of a involved trick system. There are many times where the infernal location of the Z-button caused me to do tricks I didn't want to do, INFURIATING! Nevertheless tricks are not everything in the world of SSX Tricky.

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The racing element is incredibly visceral yet flawed due to the fact that; The Gamecube Controller butchers this game. When first I held the blue beaut I was swept away in a romance of Gone With the Wind proportions, yet after playing Luigi’s Mansion for hours and seeing how the d-stick responds when in contact with sweat, namely the way in which it sends the thumb slipping and sliding in peril, my love turned to dust. On a game like SSX Tricky, this fact is emphasized. Rahzel the ghetto fab commentator of SSXT often states “That’ll bronze those thumbs” (or something like that), from this you can infer that the opposable piggy is put to work hard on this title, and how sad when your thumb can’t do its job because its sliding all over creation! Of course if you are a “casual gamer” this shouldn’t be a problem, as the sweat factor sets in after about an hour of play only.

Thus again, The GameCube controller butchers this game. As far as graphics, sound, presentation, and addiction go, I ditto Tazman, yet because of the control I will ditto Reverend Lovejoy when he states regarding the fate of the Springfield witches, "yes Nedwin, but we have many more strumpets to incinerate."

- Tolkiemingway

(January 10, 2002)