21. Landing Your First Tricky Move (On Gerabaldi) - SSX Tricky
Talk about your franchises that desperately need to come back, the first two SSX games were more like cultural events. The first, Sony's flagship PS2-seller that everybody fired up that warm Xmas morning in 2001, and the second; a richer sequel in every regard, coming complete with some fantastic voice acting, better visuals, wilder characters and the best trick-system in any arcade title ever. You'll be hard-pressed to find anyone who's not played a sizeable chunk of both. Back in the early noughties, EA's 'radical bro'-themed studio 'EA BIG' then took the game's template and applied it to everything from snowmobiles to motocross (Freekstyle was immense), but it was in the perfect mix of Tricky's thumping Run DMC-powered soundtrack and the candy-coloured visuals within that made even the very first jump on Gerabaldi one of the best. It's rare you get the same sense of satisfaction in-game that a specifically shot trailer cemented previously, but from Eddie's "I can see my house from here!" screams, to Nick Malaperaman's brilliant one-liners as Moby and absolutely everything about Psymon, SSX Tricky made a first impression of historical proportions.
