I don’t think I will ever get over the death of SSX. While EA’s extreme snowboarding series isn’t officially in the ground , there hasn’t been an entry since 2012. Yet the franchise still looms large in many gamers’ minds, including mine.
That is especially true of 2001’s SSX Tricky , an arcadey snowboarding game dripping with style that has never been matched, even though many have tried and failed . However, the demo for new indie game Tricky Madness has given me hope that maybe, just maybe, somebody can recapture SSX’s greatness. Tricky Madness isn’t shy about the fact that it is an homage to SSX Tricky.
If the name doesn’t give it away, then the Tricky meter and colorful snowflake icons littered across the demo’s single course sure will. That isn’t, strictly speaking, a problem, and if you’re as big a fan of SSX as me, then the overt homage is exactly what pulled you in in the first place. But it’s a bold move to take so much directly from your inspiration when you might not live up to it.
The demo, now available on Steam, gives you access to a single character on a single course. You can try your hand at a time trial or a trick competition, in the same way that SSX Tricky offered races and freestyle competitions. The course currently available is a simple snowy track down a mountain surrounded by large trees and populated with jumps and rails, very much like an early track you might race down in SSX or SSX Tricky.
The similarities are so strong .
