I recently went to my local retro gaming bar with my girlfriend and spent about an hour playing SSX Tricky with her. It had been a long while since I'd played it, and I was absolutely terrible at it, but it brought back so many memories that took me straight back to being 11 years old. That game was the closest I'll ever get to pulling off insane air without actually turning up at the Winter Olympics, and it's about time we had another game like it.
Enter Nathan Dearth, an Indie dev who has been working on the Snowboarding game to end all Snowboarding games.
Back in 2024, we wrote about the news that a spiritual successor to the game from SuperNatural Studios and 2K had been cancelleddisappointing due to costs rising and getting out of control. It was dissapointing news to say the least, but thankfully, another unsung hero from the retro gaming community has stepped up to the mark and been working on their own spiritual successor - Tricky Madness.
Enter Nathan Dearth, an Indie dev who has been working on the Snowboarding game to end all Snowboarding games. Tricky Madness is inspired by the big air and insane tricks that we pulled off in SSX Tricky and 1080 Snowboarding. It's fast and furious, with all new characters and tracks, including courses that you speed down at night.
Tricky Madness has already sold 10,000 copies and remains in early access on Steam. Speaking on the site, Nathan says that "The previous demos were a great source of feedback and the game would have gone in a much worse direction if it wasn't for all the amazing feedback everyone has given me. I want to continue to have the community be a big source of guidance as the game continues to develop all the way until full release."
He goes on to say that "Tricky Madness will stay in early access for approximately a year or two with continual updates along the way."
The graphics in Tricky Madness look amazing, and the game finally feels like the snowboarding equivalent of the Tony Hawks series. The tricks you can pull off in this game look insane too - there's no way Shaun White could pull this kind of stuff off, and Tricky Madness does what Shaun's game never did too by providing some actual excitement (You're awesome, Shaun, but I can't pretend your game was good).
The early access of Tricky Madness includes all of the mechanics and modes that the full version will have, though it only has 3 of the 8 levels and four of the 8 characters at this moment. Regular updates are on their way, however, and the price will increase once more elements arrive. Head to Steam to check it out now!
