SSX, the surprise hit of the PS2's launch line-up, has made it's home in almost every PS2 owner's collection. The intense trickery and edge-of-your-seat racing combined with superb graphics and sublime gameplay made this a game for everyone, and for me personally SSX was easily the best game in the PS2's launch line-up. Everyone's ears perked up when a sequel was rumoured, although with EA's track record for sequels added to talk of celebrity voiceovers and other cheeseyness, people were sceptical. Can EA make a sequel without selling out? Will the SSX series lose its hardcore centre?

Not a chance! SSX Tricky is bigger and better than ever before! With longer tracks with bigger jumps, more characters, better tunes, uber tricks and more, Tricky oozes class from every eye-watering pixel. Swing by the DVD extras and watch footage of the celebrity voiceovers, designers and musicians doing their thing first, as once the game is started and that icy voice says, "Welcome to SSX Tricky", you'll forget that they are there.

Anyone who was sceptical over the fact that they are the same tracks as last year can rest happy. True, they have the same names and the same landmarks, but that's pretty much where it ends. Many of the tracks are longer than before, and all of them have been built twice - one for racing and one for pulling tricks. In race mode the tracks are bare, leaving loads of opportunity to pass and punch opponents, whilst for the trick competitions the tracks are littered with additional ramps, grind rails that soar overhead and giant coloured icicles hanging from the sky in prime positions to multiply your trick score. There are also all new shortcuts and alternative routes that ensure that this is no cash-in sequel.

Most of the characters from the first game have returned for this instalment, with the exception of Jurgen and Hiro. (EA say they retired due to injury, we say they were just annoying) and we are compensated with 6 new characters to play as. Flagship Eddie voiced by David Arquette, Seeiah voiced by Macy Gray, Marisol voiced by Lucy Liu and the others all slide into the game as if they were always there. Interestingly, there is now a rival system where if you shove someone out the way with the right analogue, they'll remember and hunt you down for the rest of the season, though the lure of a full boost meter for a knockdown begs you to get nasty!

The progression through the game is generally the same as the original SSX, where you work through all the tracks with all the characters in both Race and Showoff modes to unlock the fantastic free-slope. Tricky incorporates this and the additional characters add to the length of the game but it still never feels that repetitive. Each boarder has their own trick book to master and outfits to unlock, and they have different styles of board as before. Also worth noting is that your trick book is now accessible from the in-game pause menu, which makes it a lot easier to gain outfits. For the gamer who likes to unlock and complete everything, this will certainly not be over in a day.

The trick system is just as intuitive as ever. Hold down X to prewind and then release to jump (as per Tony Hawk games), using one or any combination of the shoulder buttons to perform a grab trick. It's all the same as SSX, but now with the new addition of the uber tricks. Snowboarders of the real world laugh as Psymon takes his feet off the board and spins it around his neck, yet it fits into the game seamlessly without looking out of place and adds a new dimension to the already fantastic trick system. To be able to uber, though, you must trick your way up to a full trick meter, where Run DMC sing along to the background music "It's Tricky!!!" to notify of your uberness. Take a crash and you lose half of your trick meter, but manage to pull off 7 uber tricks and gain Super-Uberness for the rest of the run!

On the subject of the tunes, Run DMC and the rest of the crew are as banging as ever, with many new artists including the Beastie Boys joining the fun, making another outstanding area of the game and all tunes are available from the DVD content, along with interviews of the bands.

If there was a criticism that anyone could have with this game, it would be that it's too similar to the last one, and yes, the game has the old tracks, characters, gameplay, structure and so on, yet it's so much more! It's the SSX you dreamed of, with all your "they could have stuck a ramp there" thoughts put in just for you. Million-point runs are not out of the question on almost all of the tracks! If you loved the first one, you'll adore this and like Tony Hawk, whilst the structure and game basics remain the same, the sequel introduces new enhancements and improvements that make it well worth buying.

But that's probably the biggest question here - "I've already got SSX, is this really worth it?" For anyone without SSX this is a must-have, but does it offer enough for owners of the original? The answer is definitely! Anyone who laboured with SSX for every trick book will fall in love all over again with SSX's uberness. It's bigger, it's louder, it's trickier, it's SSX Tricky!

Reviewed by AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).