The Decline of SSX ~ Design Doc 

One of the biggest reasons I think Tricky is really loved and well remembered is because of the color pallet. Its bright, all of the colors of the racers stand out and its easy to distinguish them from the background. there was barely any white in the UI and it made excellent uses of the yellow/orange/red colors. All of the other SSX games seemed to really focus on a more muted and white centered pallet that just felt generic.

Man, I miss EA Sports BIG. It felt like the one part of the Sports dev block that remembered they were making games, not just simulations.

SSX3 is my nostalgia cryptonite, and I'm so happy to hear it holds up rather well. I hold many fond memories of playing it

From the looks of it, the answer to 'what happened?' is 'EA happened'; the gradual sanding down of the things that made the series unique and the attempt to replace them with things that are appealing on a more 'generic' level - design elements that don't really take anything away, but add very little in terms of direct appeal - are both signature elements of EA's corporate process. It's so 'textbook EA' that I'm pretty sure the SSX team being in-house was the only thing that kept them from shuttering the studio after 2012.

This shows the importance of Personality in Games, I remember playing Tricky over and over again and lost interest with on Tour after a few days, also I loved that the Characters in Tricky would speak their native language like in Punch-Out wii^^

Can't wait for the next game: SSX - Microtransaction paradise

I appreciate Woolie (SBFP) reference.

Rival shout-outs were a nice touch in Tricky as well. Elise's "Hey Kaori!" is forever ingrained into my memory.

Game Company: "Our last game didn't sell well? Why?" Players: "The game isn't very good, nor was the game prior to that." Game Company: "Nonsense, we can do no wrong. There simply must be no interest in the series anymore" Players: "No, we like the series. You just aren't giving us a good experience." Game Company: "Guess we'll stop making this series cause no one likes it anymore" Players: "What the fuck?"

I remember there was a gamecube at the hair salon I used to go when I was a kid and there was only a snowboarding game. I was pretty young so I never knew the title of it and it always bothered me because I remember having a lot of fun with the game. But the second you showed footage of SSX Tricky I went : " That's it, that's the game." And as you said, I think it speaks a lot about its personality and uniqueness, just the fact that I can recall it by view almost 15 years later. Now excuse me while i download a gamecube emulator and thank you for granting this gift of knowledge, kid me would be happy.

I think at the moment I'd rather see a different developer try to recapture what made SSX great, rather than EA taking another shot at the series. We don't need microtransactions in SSX, and the game just has so many opportunities to have them crammed into it that I know EA wouldn't be able to control itself. Tracks, costume pieces, boards and characters crammed into loot boxes or locked behind hours and hours of grinding if you don't want to pay. It wouldn't matter how good the game was at that point, I just wouldn't be into it.

SSX On Tour is THE reason I got interested in music, which has been a huge part of my life since then. It's so sad to see something that has had a direct impact on my life just fade away like this. Thanks for the video, I really hope SSX comes back sometime.

I think doing away with the varied and larger than life locales of Tricky was the first and greatest mis-step that SSX took. SSX at it's best always had this big celebratory, globe trotting aura and atmosphere to it. Going to stunning and colorful locations with EDM and funk blaring out the speakers and fireworks rigged up everywhere. It was only when you discovered the backwoods shortcuts that you'd find long stretches of just plain old powder to ride down. They were a special treat that you got for being adventurous and unlocking Untracked-the only 100% pure mountain riding track in the game-was treated as being an incredibly special occasion and completely out of character for SSX as a whole. You partied hard and made it to the end so here's something real and unique and away from prying eyes that you can enjoy by yourself. Setting SSX3 in a gigantic interconnected mountain was a novel idea but it should have been a feature exclusive to that game. There's only so much you can do with a big mountain and SSX3 was already grasping at straws by the end. Without unique locations to go through, the vibe of the game suffered immensely and with them also taking away focus from the individual characters, that only made the games feel more generic.

God, I love Snowboard Kids 2

I never owned these games but I absolutely LOVED playing SSX Tricky at my friend's house. It still gives me a lot of nostalgia

Yes, thank your for this. It reminded me that there was a time where I absolutely loved these kinds of snowboarding games. I remember liking the aesthetic and controls of On Tour, but also that I preferred SSX3 as the better game overall. What happened to this genre? For me, after On Tour flopped it was around the time I got an iPod Touch and in the early mobile gaming days before free2play existed, there were a lot of decent mobile arcade-ish snowboarding games that were on the iOS app store (including a port of the DS SBK Snowboard Kids game) that were generally pretty fun. Sadly, almost all of them have been delisted. I guess there isn't much to fill the void nowadays huh? Guess I'll just go emulate Snowboard Kids 2, the greatest video game ever made in human history, yet again.

"More punk aesthetic." "Less personality of cast." - Well, that's an obvious screw up. More punk aesthetic should have been an opportunity to go back to the OTT cast of Tricky. I'd be interested in a quick comparison between the way racers are handled in Tricky and the F-Zero franchise since I'm fairly unfamiliar with both franchises but I've heard a lot of praise for the complicated, almost to the point of soap-opera, relationships of characters in F-Zero and you just mentioned about scripted rivalries with a dynamic system to influence those for Tricky with some clear fondness.

DJ Atomika!! Yeahh, also in Burnout Paradise!!!

Are all snowboard game franchises doomed to blandify themselves?? It's especially odd considering snowboarding never seemed to reach any kind of cultural zeitgeist that would allow it to generate interest through groundedness (unlike, say, skateboarding and the Skate series).

I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves Snowboard Kids!

I loved SSX 3, thats up there for me in terms of the best feeling movement in a video game

This video hit me in my nostalgia nuts so hard... I used to play the first 3 games with my brother and my dad so much when I was like 4... Tricky in particular... I hope I'll be able to relive those moments with them somehow sometime, now that I'm away from home to study...

Thanks for reminding me of the EA Sports BIG era, and Freekstyle by extension. And thanks for acknowledging that Snowboard Kids is the best snowboarding game ever made. You should talk about both of them some time.

Elise: “This is going to be very, very interesting…” Me: *“IT’S TRIC-TRI-TRI-TRI-HERE WE GO!!”*

SSX Deadly was great imo those "dead pits" made you check your time on a jump or go through the course simple before you went full on tricky with it

Im really enjoying these full series dives. As well as all the snowboard kids music sprinkled it... Very good.

I have literally every single one of these 4 main games you talked about, and it’s definitely one of my favorite series of all times. Awesome video!

What I want most of all is a up to date, modern SSX Tricky. Doesn't have to be all fancy, just memorable like the origianal! Please can we at least just get that? I was never a big Tony fan, nor a fan of any other snowboarding game other than SSX. So here's to bringing something great back!

Talk about a blast from the past, you just activated the dark depths of my memory, I haven't though about the SSX series in like over 10 years dude! I played the original SSX when I was a wee lad and I can remember it being hella fun.

Amazing how the first game that started the whole thing gets glossed over so easily.

The one thing I think of about snowboarding and SSX “It's Tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that's right on time It's Tricky, it's Tricky (Tricky) Tricky (Tricky)” I think anyone can agreed this gets stuck in your head a lot.

Randomly suggested to me. This is a well made video

Ssx3 was my childhood

I loved the free roam aspect of SSX 3. They could just do a from the ground up remaster of that game and I would be happy as hell. Maybe with a couple new additions. Also I didn't mind how they organically started events at all.

ssx tricky has huge part of my childhood, loved that game so much as a kid.

I have few memories of SSX 3 but that’s how I got into the series after that I hadn’t played any until SSX 2012 and I really loved it , the instant deaths were frustrating, some of the deadly descent were atrocious but I did like the gameplay and mechanics. The soundtrack could’ve been a lot better since I kept 3 tracks on replay . I still play it every now and then it’s a great time killer .

SSX Tricky is one of my all time favorite games. So many hour so my childhood poured into that game. I'd love a simple remaster of the game, since those are all the rage today.

Yep, this earned a thumbs up from me. I was hooked on the series since the first installment and I would love to see a new entry go back to the personality that Tricky and SSX 3 had and make the gameplay just as memorable. EA Sports BIG needs to take a little jump with this series just like it initially did with the first title in the franchise.

man, I used to play SSX3 all the time as a kid - I can't remember it too well and I was never good at it but this video was such a nostalgia rush! really interesting to watch too, I had no idea about the wider context of the series ^^

Just got snowboard kids reintroduced to my brain, thank you, I thought it was lost forever

12:41 yeah he definitely looks like Woolie! Great reference!

Cool never heard of it might check it out thanks for sharing.

SSX Tricky gives me so many amazing memories and such a big nostailga wave

SNOWBOARD KIDS! OOOOOOOOOOHH THE NOSTALGIA IS OVERFLOWING!

Will there be a Design Doc on Snowboard Kids?

Great analysis

I played tricky at a friends house on ps2 and was amazed. I finally got my hands on a used copy from the flea market and it didn’t work. I was so mad, On top of that my friend moved. i had to wait all the way until the reboot on 360. And it didn’t let me down in my eyes. I loved it

Ssx and skate, the best series put on hold.

Good video bro ! I am hooked.

The best snowboarding game is final fantasy 7.

Ssx 3 is my favorite in the series. Moby was the guy I always played as.

Nailed it to a T, say it with me now FUCK.THOSE.DEATH.PITS Once I played the latest SSX and kept falling into those pits I was instantly turned off and didn't play it anymore. I love how you respected 3 (my favorite of the series) and I completely agree that it's a good game but they couldn't be as creative with the tracks like in Tricky. I alsp want to point out that the customization in 3 was so great too, since different characters had different special accessories you could unlock. Great video!!

Tricky, what a throwback! I still remember those characters!

I'm gonna go into hot take land and say that SSX 2012 is one of the most underrated games I've ever played. Even with the death pits (that I agree are absolutely soul sucking) and the annoying deadly decent stuff, 2012, with a few tweaks could and should be the future of the series. Forget the uber cold and jagged rocks, but definitely keep the wingsuit, improve the track design and you could keep virtually everything else about 2012 the same and I'd still be playing it. It's approach to multiplayer works for me, though I can understand people wanting actual opponents during a race. I also like the characters being somewhat toned down. Grown up Griff is such a cool payoff for longtime fans of the series. I would want a new SSX to be closer to the last one than anything: I know I"m in the minority on that.

This series didn't have to die. I think its still a viable concept in 2023. If they take the character personalities and course design from Tricky, mechanics of SSX 3, and modern graphics I'd play that all day.

I'm surprised that not many others has done similar retroperspectives on the series. I think that you did a great video and I agree with your opinions. I think that the series peaked with 3 - yes, I do agree that it's a bit toned down compared to Tricky, but the level design from a gameplay perspective is great, the exploration bits add a nice sense of downtime and I love the progression system where you can choose your own way to play - doing either trick or racing events or just getting enough collectibles and you'll unlock all the tracks in the game, and from there you can yourself decide where you want to go. I also love the audio mixing - the dynamic soundtrack is awesome and the way that music gets muted as you reach the peak of a jump and then goes back to full blast as you hit the ground just makes you want to do more cool tricks. I don't "hate" many games, but the SSX reboot is one of them. The death pits, the annoying rewind feature, the ultra barren tracks, the stupid gimmicks that control really badly, the annoying grind for better gear because of microtransactions, the multiplayer system and so much more just makes me angry to think about even today - this if anything is a prime example that trying to add too many new mechanics to a game just for the sake is a really bad idea. I hope that one day somebody does an SSX like game like we've seen other series have gotten.

Nice video! Explains why I couldn't get into later games when trying them at friends' places, even though I enjoyed Tricky

In On Tour, all my brother and I would do was put in the cheat codes to unlock everything, then free ride down the peaks over and over again without using Uber tricks. It would take me 10 to 30 minutes to make it down, depending how I felt. I was 6 years old then. But now, my favorite videogame of all time is and will always be SSX 3.

Bring back the bombastic cast of characters and unique and colorful courses of Tricky and the smooth controls and fluid trick system of SSX3 and you would have the perfect game in the series.

havent made it far into the video, but i remember the original SSX! i was a really young kid when i had it, and barely understood how to play it, but i recall having a lot of fun anyway - seeing the snippet of footage from it has given me a wave of nostalgia -i wonder if i can get my hands on another copy...-

I might try steep now since its free on ps+ now

I truly love ssx. Most of my childhood games were snowboarding games including ssx.

Tricky = GOAT. Great video!

Love your videos

3 is easily my favorite of the series played the ever living daylights out of it, ps I always played as moby

I loved the SSX games and always wondered why they disappeared - this explains it really good - and it is also very helpful for the snowboard game we are currently working on, which will be more snowboard kids than SSX but nontheless this is really helpful - Thank you :D And I gave the video a thumb up before it even really started just because you brought up snowboard kids :D

Wow I cannot unsee Moby as Woolie now amazing

almost 10 years now and still no more blips.

Very interesting!

The addition of those DEATH PITS was tragic. Completely broke a pretty good game (I also really liked its soundtrack). Its like they desperately _wanted_ to remove the fun with those chasms and rewind rewind rewind re... Great video dude. I'm just glad I've got SSX3 on my Series X!

oh wow ssx tricky is hands down one of my favourite games ever, its honestly such a shame that this cool of a series basically just faded away.. what made tricky stand out so much were the really distinct exaggerated characters (that are basically all kinda crazy and i love them for it), and the distinct exaggerated courses, they are all so different from eachother and ive spent so much time just memorizing all the fastest ways to go, the best places to jump, where the shortcut signs lead-- combine that with a cool ass soundtrack and a super vibrant colour palette and thats a great game right there

I didn't even know Tricky had a story, and this was one of the first games I had ever played, next to Monkey Ball and the original Rollercoaster Tycoon. Me and my sister just played the same thing over and over in split-screen, she was more into the racing while I was into the tricks.

When you asked what Snow Boarding game we all remember, I shoutes out Kids Snowboarding just before you answer.

Ansem: Darkness darkness Xemnas: Duality duality Brodi: Yeah bro, yinyang is cool

I remember playing The Sims 2. You can make the character play SSX3 on his computer. X)

SSX Tricky was one of my favourite games as a kid and I had on tour but I really don't remember much about it except the hyperstylised Ui.

Haha, nice scrublord reference

One of my favorite things from these games was the soundtracks

😂 the nanosecond mention of Blur tho🔥

Also; Could you Imagine SSX 3 coming out now? It would have so much microtransactions.

I really enjoyed SSX Blur, it was way more enjoyable than On Tour for me. A little getting used to steering by tilting the nunchuck and making big movements for the uber tricks (which, once you get the hang of them, are actually impressively tight), and you had a surprisingly immersive experience. The nunchuck controls in it were actually so good it could have acted as a second analogue stick for other games, which, along with using the pointer to aim, would have effectively have enabled triple-analogue controls, and as far as I remember SSX Blur was the only Wii game to use the nunchuck like that.

Am I the only one who Loves and still plays the 2012 game??

If I remember correctly, SSX was the best launch title for PS2. I loved that game

The worst part about On Tour for me is that it's 30FPS. After playing through Tricky and 3 it just feels so sloggy. I wish these games would get a full remaster treatment that sold well enough to get a new game made, but I know good things don't happen in this timeline :( RIP SSX, Burnout, and NBA Street.

I only played SSX Tricky and my gosh did I love that game. I was thinking about getting the reeboot, but it looked bad so I bailed. I really don't think there will ever be a new one either, but if there is just take the characters, track designs, and aesthetics of Tricky with the improvements of 3 that you mentioned.

I totally get the polarized reaction towards SSX 2012, but I do think it's a solid entry into the series. I actually really liked the deadly descents (minus the avalanche one that reversed the camera for some reason, that was a weird one), it put a spin on traversing the tracks where it forced you to slow down and figure them out rather than mindlessly score big air or going real fast. After a while I knew the tracks inside and out and avoided those death pits unless I legitimately screwed up. But yeah, it did lose a lot of the personality of the previous games, and pulling of crazy amounts of tricks was way too easy. In a perfect world, we'd have Tricky's style/personality, SSX3's connected world, and 2012's graphics and online play. I just started playing Steep from the PS+ free games this month, and it's interesting but way more realistic than SSX which is a bit of a bummer, but still neat.

Tricky was one of my favorite games of all time, SSX3 was probably the only other one I played. It’s backward compatible on Xbox one, I wish Tricky was too though! I was a Mac and Simon main. “I got the skills to pay the bills!” 😁😁 Good times.

On Tour was the one I grew up with, so I'm biased towards it. I fucking loved it.

SSX tricky was a blast back in the day I think that lack of personality and uniqueness in the tracks really hindered the experience in later installments of the franchise.

ITS TRICKY, TRICKY, TRICKY!!!!!!! Man, I love SSX!

I grew up playing on tour. I personally like it a lot, but I’m sure it’s the nostalgia factor and the fact that it had mario, Luigi, and peach as playable characters

All the PS2 SSX games are still awesome today

We just need a Tricky, 3, and On Tour remake. Just rebuild them all from the ground up with modern graphics and a trophy/achievement system... not just a simple remaster.

Wow thanks 🙏 what a wayback trip! SSX 1 + 2 was go-to with my 1st Beloved over like...6-7 years?? We used to relax with it when we weren’t up for storyline games (we beat those as 1 player-he did fight/platform/fast-reflex etc parts; I solved puzzles/did dialogue trees/searched environments pixel by pixel etc...& 2gthr we were a mediocre gamer). Hadn’t thought about Tricky in ages but this made it all came back like a Proust madeleine. I played Brodi (who I apparently totally thought was “Bodhi” or “Bohdi” or “Bhodi” & just now found out he’s “Brodi” wtf??? in my own personal Mandela Effect Moment when I googled for spelling) or Kaori the most, I remember everything Brodi used to say & I loved Kaori’s vibe + jpop interstitial. My Ex played as Zoe or Mac; he had a crush on Bif & Mac looked/sounded/behaved/dressed just like our friendly neighbourhood dealer/DJ, they even shared background character beats, it was eerie. We both dug Luthor, more bc character actor performance; Luthor controls awkward AF but he was ridiculous & while I mostly kept my other characters sweet snowboard paladins, Luthor was absolute fun playing as aggro-mayhem-chaoslord so we used to do “Luthor runs” on bad days, to decompress-ignoring usual course goals to concentrate on knocking out everything & everyone possible in our path tumbling down a mountain, until we alienated the other characters & were laughing in real life. In retrospect, it’s funny how much of the game language leaked into our couple-shorthand...like we’d say we had a “Luthor Day” or needed “Luthor time” to signal a rough day, eventually just drawling a Luthorism meant something was pissing my Ex off or it was time to leave a party. We used other phrases from the game, esp from fav characters, to mean all sorts of things. Even alone!-I remember self-soothing or bolstering for stressful events with Brodi or Kaori phrases bc they were OTT positivity personalities, which I lack, so their catchphrases + verbal tics became in-jokes-so-in-only-I-got-them stuff. Absolutely wild 2 goofball games got so woven into my life for 6-7yrs then I totally mindwiped til this video. Was so striking when you said 3- onwards Tricky felt lacklustre, grindy, repetitive. That says so much to me about how the series must’ve done away with elements that made the first 2 SSXs truly charming bc those games were 4evr playable. Our 3rd Xmas, I gave my Ex his 1st console-I was super poor so it was a big big big surprise, planned my whole year around that thing lol worth it tho just to see his face plus he became a lifelong gamer. Anyways, the store I got it at had this deal where if you paid x amount extra you could pick 3 games from a bin. If I remember correctly the console only came with a demo disc so it seemed like a good idea, it’s a bit sad to get a present you can’t just play with no matter how old you are. Can’t remember the other 2 but Tricky was under the tree with the console that year. We beat the game over holidays, maxxing out all the characters within a few weeks, kept playing the original with the same maxxed characters, then with SSXt2, played both while beating dozens of other games/series, despite getting newer consoles/PC gaming, we held onto old setups & kept playing Tricky 1 & 2 for at least 6 more years. Those games never bored us, we probably discovered all secrets within our initial months playing then ran likely thousands (!!!) of the same courses with the same characters. Even tho I’m sure that compared to SSXt3-onwards, SSXt1+2’s models/sounds were simpler/rougher, gameplay less sophisticated, content thinner, & stories more gestured-towards via worldbuilding + design rather than explicitly existing as arcs/plotlines, it really speaks to the series losing its core spark or soulfulness or something if followups felt grindy + repetitive. Makes me wonder what the original magic was. Tho I could NOT wrap my head around no Rahzel. 🙀There it is! Mystery solved; no Rahzel, no Tricky😹

Haha was that a Woolie reference with Moby?

so true. ssx 3 was one of my fav games ever, but it gets to grindy after a while. i think the perfect ssx would be a combo between tricky and 3

The move to open world killed this. The original design with tracks and taking turns with friends to set times and high scores was what people loved about SSX. The open world ironically made everything bland and the same.

Something most people forget to mention, On Tour sped up the games considerably. As in, when you hit boost you ZOOM down the mountain. I always loved this and thought the previous games felt sluggish in comparison going back to them. Blur and 2012 continued this trend, which I enjoyed. 3 is definitely the best overall though.

I liked this video!

I didn't know On Tour even happened so that's new to me.