I got hit by Nostalgia Bait and it Worked.

This post is not a few days late, and it is arriving on the same day of the week it always does! You have no proof that it is Wednesday and not Monday. Don’t check your calendar… Jokes aside, I am late on this one. Really late on the members-only stats post. It has been a really busy week. Before writing about the game I wanted to talk about, I will quickly catch up everyone who might be confused.

On Monday this week, I made an offer on an apartment, and it was accepted. It’s almost twice the size of the place I’m currently renting and in a great location. I saw it on Monday and will be returning this weekend for a home inspection. It has been a whirlwind, and I’m exhausted but excited. If you are reading this blog, just cross your fingers for me and hope everything goes through.

I have this memory of going to visit my cousin around December 2002. He had a GameCube for a few months, and for that year's holiday season, he had received a copy of SSX Tricky. It was an arcade snowboarding game with silly, over-the-top tricks and an amazing soundtrack. If you've never played or seen it being played, here is a link where you can see it in action.

I have a lot of nostalgia for SSX Tricky. Over the years, I’ve spent a number of hours playing emulated versions and hoping for some sort of remake or remaster, knowing in my heart that I’d likely never see it happen. Still, I can dream. The closest thing I’ve seen to a game like SSX was STEEP from Ubisoft. It was fun for a bit, but I started to hate it quickly after buying it on sale for $3.99 due to the amount of live-service nonsense in it.

Enter, Tricky Madness. I stumbled on this indie arcade snowboarding game last week a few days before it released. By all counts it was made for me.

To be clear, this thing is really early access. Not knowing the full history, it seems to have been in the works for some time. It has two playable characters that play exactly the same, two tracks, and three modes: Racing, Time Trial, and Freestyle. In terms of controls, it plays well enough on the keyboard. I did a bit of rebinding because reaching Z, X, C, and V while trying to hold Shift and hitting W, A, S, D was a bit painful. Movement is W, A, S, and D, with arrow keys for tricks. I moved a lot of the tricks to the number pad and mapped tricks there as well.

Once I was comfortable with the controls, I started learning the tracks in Freestyle. At first, it seems like they are really linear, but as you fly down these tracks, you start to notice optional side paths. Some of these routes offer shortcuts for the Time Trial and Racing modes, while others offer better points bonuses for Freestyle. These tracks have grown on me a lot, and I have found myself thinking about different routes while cooking or editing my most recent video.

The voices of the two playable avatars are somewhere between amusing and annoying. The two ladies scream and say sassy random nonsense as you fly down the hills. I don’t mind them and have not muted their voices yet. They could use more variation in their quotes. The same can be said for the announcer. He breaks the fourth wall and yells at you when you bail. He attempts to act excited when you're doing well, but quickly, you’ll hear everything that he has to say and mute him.

The game has a planned campaign with a different map and collectibles. They also claim to have more tracks planned for the cups and other modes. But how is it? Does it stick the landing? Mechanically, it works a bit differently than SSX. Rather than building up a meter and holding down a boost button, you get boosts when your score hits 800+ by ending whatever trick you are doing. Combos can be built to get the score up faster, and chaining tricks and grinds together to keep up a constant boost feels great. The trick system is smooth, and jumping with the spacebar and tossing your board through the air and defying physics feels great. It has made me miss the times when sports games didn’t need to be realistic because that was the era I really connected with them.

At the time of writing, I’ve put about 10 hours into Tricky Madness. A good chunk of that time was this past Friday, where I just kind of zoned out and got stuck playing attempt after attempt to get a gold medal on the second, longer track in Freestyle. I did eventually get it and then instantly restarted to get a better score.

I really like this thing. It’s extremely bare and has minimal content, but it is priced accordingly. If you miss the era of extreme sports games, this one might hit a soft spot for you, as it absolutely has for me.

Tricky Madness on Steam

Tricky Madness is an upcoming arcade snowboarding game with a focus on speed and big air inspired by classics like SSX and 1080. Race down the mountain, explore secret areas, catch big air and perform Wicked tricks.

STEAM

Okay yeah this post is late.. BUT I uploaded a full length Caves of Qud movie and a shorter history video about Qud. Plan for this week is Tuesday - Thursday. I have an appointment on Friday but I'm going to see if I can sneak a stream in Sunday. We'll see what happens there.