SSX Tricky - PlayStation 2

SSX Tricky removes two characters from the previous game and adds five new ones and adds two new race locations--Garibaldi and Alaska--to the already beefed up World Circuit. Features have also been added to the older tracks, effectively making them new again. Tricky improves the graphics a bit and refines the controls. The game also tweaks the basic gameplay by letting you upgrade your boarder's stats in races, but also forcing you to attempt and master the show-off mode as well. And they went a long way toward improving the challenge by evening out the learning curve. The first game tended to be a cakewalk until the later races in each set; this time your rivals get more intense and aggressive depending upon the lap you're taking.

As in the first game, personality is everything--not only in terms of voice acting, but also in how you treat the other riders. The game has three basic attitudes in regard to you. If you block and attack characters too much, they'll remember it and actively seek you out. If you help one or two of them they become your allies, warning you of danger or fending off attackers.

In many ways SSX Tricky is only an upgrade to the previous game. Admittedly, what's been added doesn't look like enough to equal buying the game all over again. But these changes are deep enough to change everything, and delight even fans who are tired of, or mastered, the first game. Maybe that's the most impressive über-trick of them all. --Bob Andrews