Late last October the PlayStation 2 launched in the United States. With it came a whole slew of launch titles, but most of the titles didn't warrant a permanent purchase. However, one title, SSX, received rave reviews from critics across the board. One year later Electronic Arts is slating a completely revamped version of the title for Nintendo's GameCube. While the game is not completely new the levels, players, soundtrack, and various other components of the original SSX game are receiving the overhaul. Most importantly, though, the already exaggerated trick system has been tweaked out even further, which is why the title is receiving the new name SSX Tricky. Electronic arts plans to bring the franchise to new heights, letting the player do even more of the impossible -- SSX Tricky serves up extreme snowboarding like never before.

Features

• Utilizes GCN Optical Disc for additional content including a new "DVD-like" 3D front end, as well as exclusive behind the scenes and "making of" footage from voice recording sessions to off the mountain interaction between the riders.
• All new "Garibaldi" and "Alaska" courses. Garibaldi, located in British Colombia, Canada, is a fun "big air" first course with a slew of different routes, providing a number of different experiences. Set in the Wilds of Alaska, the Alaska course features near vertical sections of snow that link the multitude of huge cliff drops on what promises to be the scariest, edge-of- your-board course yet.
• Celebrity voice talent for riders. Expanded facial animation and digital diaries for each rider on the World Circuit, as well as detailed background information on each. Riders bring their own attitude and riding style to the table and play a key role on the Circuit.
• Completely renovated tracks with tons of new shortcuts and all new designs. Track layout will be different depend on the mode: stunts or racing.
• Six all new competitors, as well as six of the eight riders from SSX, make up the circuit. Two of the stars of SSX (Jurgen and Hiro) are sitting out the upcoming season due to serious injuries sustained during the off-season.
• New "Uber" tricks, take airborne tricks to the next level.
• Unique Showoff (trick) versions of nine courses on the World Circuit.
• Improved competitive rider AI tightening up each race and making nothing a "sure thing."
• Second generation rider physics providing more "in-air" and "on snow" control.
• Graphic power of the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube allow the creation of a multitude of visual improvements and unique new cinematic gameplay moments.
• 60 frames per second for all full screen modes. Also displayed in breathtaking wide screen.
• Music delivered by new songs and exclusive mixes from the cutting edge world of electronic breaks and beats cut by such turntable all-stars as Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys, Aphrodite, The Plump DJs as well as others.
• Fresh in-game soundtrack delivering a more interactive and intelligent companion to gameplay. Music and sound effects are woven into the game to create more emotional moments, before, during and after theyve occurred.
• Nettwerk Records will be releasing a soundtrack CD of the music in SSX Tricky.

Gameplay
Electronic Art's has a sub-brand called EA Sports Big. The name of the game is extreme, and EA Sports Big has done a great job of delivering on that with SSX. The EA Canada-developed snowboarding game managed to successfully kick-off Electronic Arts' new EA Sports Big brand and became one of the PS2's top selling titles despite not having the name recognition of Madden, Tekken or Ridge Racer. Originally looked at as a simple upgraded or enhanced version of the first game, the newly titled SSX Tricky is shaping up to be a full-scale sequel with a huge list of improvements and new additions. For those of you who are not familiar with the SSX franchise, it is best described as surreal snowboarding. Everything that takes place in SSX is something you would never see even the most professional of snowboarders accomplish. The tracks designs are all overstated with sky-scraping jumps, gaping berms, ice-covered loops, and unbelievable vertical drops. Just imagine the coolest snow-packed environments possible, and you'll be getting close. The object of the game is to win medals, which in turn awards you experience points. As you upgrade your character you will open new tracks, and give yourself the ability to perform bigger and better combos. Like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is famous for, you can link your tricks together for more points. The more points you get, the more turbo you'll receive, and the faster you'll be able to go. SSX Tricky builds and embellishes on all this for a more pleasing experience.

The first noticeable addition is SSX Tricky's larger-than-life trick system. In the original SSX players cold catch major air and do some pretty unbelievable grabs, but with SSX Tricky players will be able to take this to a whole new level. For example, you can now grab hold of your board, toss it around your body, and twirl it on the end of your foot -- this is only the beginning as character too will perform tricks like handstands and backflips on the boards. This is not a simulation by any stretch of the imagination. As far as gameplay itself is concerned, EA has enhanced the physics both when in air and on snow to keep you in the air longer. And for those of you with a widescreen television, SSX Tricky will be completely compatible with your expensive 16:9 hardware. The extreme snowboard game also includes some brand new uber-tricks that are much more difficult to perform and generally require more lift to be completed, but make up for it by being more rewarding. Most of the uber-tricks have the character do moves that take them off of his or her board and are animated extremely well and look pretty amazing from what we've seen of them.

The setting too has changed from the original. To help make the changes more plausible, the game's storyline, which will be more fleshed out in SSX Tricky, puts the player in the world of SSX one year later. The SSX World Circuit has progressed, the courses have seen some redesigns, new trick venues have been added, and some new faces have come to the fore. The two new courses include a venue called "Garibaldi" that's located in British Columbia, Canada, and "Alaska", which is set in the Alaskan wilderness. Garibaldi is being described as a big air course with several different routes, which should provide the player with several different play experiences. While the Alaska venue is set to include near vertical sections of snow, offering the boarders some intense "edge-of-your-board" action as they continuously find themselves flying off of huge cliffs.

In addition to the all-new courses, the original tracks have received a major overhaul and are roughly 50% different than they were in the original SSX. Completely new shortcuts have been added, the designs have been changed in some areas and the overall experience on each track should offer the gamer with a completely new, yet familiar, gaming experience. What's more, all nine of the World Circuit courses will have a unique Showoff (trick) venue that will contain additional background and interactive elements that have been tailored to the trick events.

While former characters Jurgen and Hiro won't make the transition over, the other six characters from the original plus six completely new ones will star in SSX Tricky. One of which is Eddie Wachowski, whose specialty is "boardercross" and gets his inspiration from the world of skateboarding, freestyle motocross and freestyle BMX. We'll introduce the other new characters at a later date.

On top of having new faces to look at, both the old and new will have a much more life-like personality through the use of expanded facial animation, more detailed character bios, and newly recorded voices by some fairly well-known people from Hollywood, which will also be named at a later date. And to expand on this even further, EA Canada plans to implement some heated rivalries between some of the players. Through the use of in-game cut-scenes and special voiceovers before, during and after the races, certain riders will have a greater deal of hate for others. And the plan is to have these riders be much more aggressive when up against their particular rivals, which could prove to be very intense.

Control
Controlling all of this on this is an interesting experience. After all, the SSX-style control scheme was born on the PS2 controller, which has four shoulder buttons. GameCube only has three so we were very interested to see how EA adjusted the control scheme. Basically, EA removed a few buttons and has also given a few buttons double functionality. On GameCube you can no longer change camera perspective, which was relatively useless anyhow, and the boost button doubles as your tweak button while in the air. The current controls are still being tweaked, but are as follows:

• Analog stick -- Control your character's direction.
• C-stick -- Push and hit other players in close proximity to you.
• L/R/Z -- Grabs and combination grabs. It works just like the PS2 minus the L1 button. To fill the gap of the L1 button EA says there are so many tricks and combos in the first place they can do without it. Players will just get bigger points for their grabs. For example, pressing L1/L2/R1/R2 on the PS2 is a big trick grab, but on GameCube pressing R/L/Z at the same time would earn you the same points.
• B -- Jump. By holding this down you can crouch and then pre-wind your tricks.
• A -- Turbo. For some reason EA made the biggest, most important button on the GCN controller boost, and it actually doesn't work out well at all. It should be the jump button, and EA admitted the same and said it would most likely change by release. While you're in the air, the turbo button is used for tweaking out your tricks.
• X/Y -- Right now these buttons aren't used for anything, but may or may not be used for grabs so the four-button combo system works just as it does on the PS2.
• D-pad -- Pre-wind your tricks by holding in any direction on the D-pad while crouching by holding the jump button. For example, holding down would pre-wind a backflip.
• Start -- Options menu.

So, without a camera button, how will you change perspective? Simply press start and adjust the camera mode in the options menu. Trust us, it's better this way anyhow. Those who played the original SSX know that it got in the way and was most often accidentally pressed. Also, the camera is more dynamic now. If you pull a trick on a corner, which often acts like a half-pipe, the camera will pan from underneath you to above you showing off the entire grab. Later on it pans far back in wide-open areas. EA says the teams are still testing the feature, and tweaking it for balance so players aren't jolted by the change.

Graphics
We played an extremely, pre-alpha version of SSX Tricky. So our judgement on graphics is anything but final. The team still has a lot to do in optimizing the lighting setup, putting texture effects in place, and most importantly stabilizing the framerate -- this was the most noticeable problem. It had lots of extra debug code in it and wasn't optimized yet. The framerate was dropping in between 60 and 30 a lot. One of the project leads commented that because all the platforms face framerate drops they have to make a decision to lock it at 60 with less going and less effects, or to lock it at 30 with all the goods. It's an interesting proposal because the downhill speed is really felt at 60 frames per second, but no matter which way it goes EA knows it has to make a decision and stick to it. We can only hope it delivers on that.

Sound
Just as was the case with the original, the music in SSX Tricky will be completely intertwined with the gameplay, meaning that you get better beats when you're performing mind-blowing tricks, and less inspiring music when you're tanking it. The game's music will include stuff from the original, plus a few new songs and exclusive mixes from turntable stars like Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys, Aphrodite, The Plump DJ's and others. And, like the PS2 version GameCube's should support Dolby surround sound.

Outlook
The original SSX was by far one of the best games on the PS2. The over-the-top trick system and huge, surreal mountain-scapes made for an amusing experience. With all of the upgrades being made to the original SSX, which includes new characters and tracks, redesigned courses, new tricks, all-new character voices, enhanced physics, new songs, and more, there's no denying that SSX Tricky should be considered much more than just an upgraded version of the first one. SSX Tricky is shaping up to be a full-blown sequel. The only thing we hope EA will fix is the tournament scoring method. In the original players must win three races, ranking from first to third place, to progress to the next level. Sounds average, but if you lost in the third round you had to go all the way back to the first and start completely over. Meaning, even if you won two first places and a fourth place in the last round you would have to start all over. Hopefully a point system will be implemented. Outside of that, we're extremely pleased that SSX Tricky is making its way to GameCube. It may be the extreme snowboarder of choice if it launches later this year.