While these forums are no longer the happening place they were this time last year, I thought a thread to share memories might be fun for those of us left and for the years to come. To say that I have enough material to put Tolken to shame would most likely be an understatement. In order to not completely overtax my still very broken hands (and mind) I am planning on posting my own memories in nice digestible bite sized pieces. Take a moment to ponder and then post your own.


Where to begin?

Launch day is still extraordinarily vivid in my mind. I spent the morning alternating between anxiously pacing my living room, looking out the window for any signs of a delivery truck and continuing to play the demo. Bulldog and JT2 had become my reality over the previous two weeks. I was already seeing nothing but spinning characters when I closed my eyes and my dreams were full of tumbling red numbers. Time crept along as if the universe itself had nothing better to do that day other than fuck with me. Tick-Tock went the clock. "WHERE THE FUCK IS MY GAME" continuously looping through my mind. Occasionally I would stop to remind myself that I had promised my husband I wouldn't play until he was home from work. I knew by this point there was no way I would be able to keep it. Then it happened. The rumbling sound of a UPS truck barreling down a gravel road. I hear the long screech of engaging breaks as I run out my front door and down the steps. I had no idea that my life was about to change forever.


and yes I stuck a poll up on this bitch so it wouldn't go the way of the dodo.

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2000 - SSX - bought on a whim by an ex-g/f. I still love her for that decision.
2001 - Tricky - the best sequel to any game, ever .... until .....
2003 - 3 - a masterpiece
2005 - On Tour - the problem child - but I still loved it
2006 - 2011 - the long, painful, wilderness years .... wondering.... hoping....
2012 - SSX (2012) - the wait was over / could it match my expectations?
I wasn't amazed by World Tour.... but when my jaded eyes found Explore, I knew this was it. The wait WAS over.

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I was fairly young when I got the originally SSX...maybe 14...I was blown away by all of EA Big's stuff. I LOVED Street and I remember getting SSX on the strength of NBAStreet being so amazing. First in line for Tricky. It was so colorful and awesome. Loved how outrageous the characters were and the sense of speed (at the time) was pretty good.

After that SSX was gone, dead to me for a long time. SSX3 basically had no publicity and I really didn't know it was released for a long time and when I did play it I was entirely underwhelmed. I remember reading about other SSX games being super gimmicky and on the Wii, so I didn't pay them any attention.

Then they announced the game Deadly Decents. Hmmm, I thought, that should probably be an interesting game. But at that point wasn't particularly interested.

When the demo hit simply as SSX I had to at least try it to see what was up. Everything about the two tracks they gave you to play was amazing. I was like WTF I'm gettin this. I just remember once I had rivals no game had a deeper more enjoyable online component. Sure you didn't have simultaneous multiplayer but I didn't care. Any given time, 15 people on my friend's list would be playing SSX and it would be a frenzy for scores and times on every peak.

I even remember going through a lot of trouble just to get Travis because I wanted every possible character to ride with that I could. I was so jealous that I couldn't get Eddie. lol

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SSX 3 was my first "sports" game, and first game out of my comfort zone. I usually only pickup huge titles and only at launch (I'm a bit of a video game snob). Halo, GTA, NFS. In fact, I've always considered the Tony Hawk games an absolute bore. I have no idea why I picked it up, but glad I did!

For SSX 2012, I didn't even know it was announced until AFTER it was released, when I heard about it on March 1st, I went to get it immediately. Naturally, then I needed friends, and that's where Merq comes in!

The End.

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WinonaNET is a RiderNet experiment with a Cross-Platform Scoreboard: http://ssx.ozmonet.com

Well now....

I very first discovered SSX back in 2000 during a chill session round my bestie's house, I didn't even like consoling gaming back then (I was a pc gamer). However, much fun was had and I was hooked. SO much so that I immediately went and bought a playstation (She was also responsible for introducing me to GTA, who couldn't love someone like that?). I subsequently played every game in the series, even perservering to master Blur on the damn Wii, such is my love for the game. Even though I prefer Xbox, until Blur I'd always played on PS3 as my other half bought the games and that is his preference....

Anyhoo. Fast forward to 2011/2012.... I have a friend I often chat to on xbl and we spent months jabbering away about out love for tricky and getting excited about the impending release. We were so excited, I think our other friend who has never played it used to get fed up listening to us going on. We read every news release, all the gossip, sneak peaks etc. Boy I have never been so revved up about a game and I did think once or twice that maybe I was too old to be getting so excited about a fucking video game... (Well, I was 41 by then, lol). I preordered the game (it's the law).

Up to that point in time I'd had a very good history with preorders but didn't want to count my chickens so I waited patiently. Then.... it happened, my game arrived a day early!!!! I hadn't dare hope, but my wish was granted nonetheless... I raced onto xbl to tell my friend. He was pissed, I can tell you. He then gave me a big lecture about how I could be banned from xbl if I played it online early I wasn't experienced with xbox rules, but I do use social networking a lot so I took straight to twitter (whilst he was still doom-mongering) and contacted EA and Xbox. I had to wait a while to get a response and I was climbing the walls until I got an answer. I almost wore out my page refresh button

HOORAH! Xbox said I was good to go! That was all I needed and straight in it went

The following few weeks were a blur (pun intended) but my most vivid memory is of constantly waking up in the middle of the night with screaming, searing pains shooting through my hands. No game has ever put me through this amount of pain.... and I have never ever put as much work into a game before either.

Anyway, that's how my SSX 2012 story starts...

Word

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I've been playing SSX on xbox 360 since release day, but now play ooccasionally on PS3. Feel free to add me - the more the merrier!

Dont have much time so heres a happy birthday.
Ill be back to edit this post with more good stuffs!

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Life Is Music, Play It Louder
Im an 21 year old designer that loves music, gaming and curry -- Twitter: @DamonHayward

Oh my.....
Couldn't wait to get home from work and turn on the Playstation and play SSX...... Getting mad and destroying controllers, but darn, that was awesome.
Happy Birthday to the most hated/LOVED video game :-)

vix fact #1: i rented tricky during my senior week of college, you know the week after finals but there's still a week to go before graduation. so in between going to a phillies game, getting drunk, going to this camp thing, getting drunk, partying in the dorm, getting drunk, and god only knows what else, i played tricky in the downtime.

vix fact #2: both ssx 3 and ssx 2012 got me through retarded break ups.

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- KotW -

So my dad was going to buy me the PS2 on launch day and when he said he was going to get SSX. I was not happy lol My excitement for snowboarding games died with the N64 and I told him I wouldn't play it but he got it anyway. (I guess he knew me well lol) Anyway needless to say it became one of my favorite games. So of course I heard about SSX Tricky and I got that on launch. Loved it. Although I had gotten a bad report card that day and couldn't play it

And I remember going absolutely insane for SSX3. I think I checked the official website over 1000 times counting the days hours and minutes to release. I had wanted it on the PS2 like the previous two games but they sold out and my dad got it for me on the Gamecube. I was disappointed for like 30 min since I had to get used to the new controls but after that it became my favorite and I was able to get 100% for Allegra. Ahh good times. I would have gone for 100% for someone else but that required too much work since I hadn't used any guides or anything.

Now fast forward 9 years or so and hearing about SSX2012 I almost cried hearing they were bringing my favorite franchise back from the dead lol Got this game first day as well (see the trend xD) and fell in love as it was something new and fresh. Though it isn't perfect it still holds its own with the first 3. And with that On Tour sucked and Blur was a serious joke lol

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Xbox Gamercards

First trick it run down Serenity: beaming! Almost as memorable as my first run down Style Mile.
First try on 3-2-1 go online events - a great idea which really improved online play.
Getting into bed at about 2:30 a.m. after a mammoth sesh and lying to my wife.. "what time did you come to bed last night?" , "Erm... just after 12?.."

Loving the VixFacts!

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I remember having to decide whether to study for a big Trigonometry test in school the next day or play SSX. Needless to say I chose to play SSX.
My Trig grade fell drastically the next day but I regret nothing

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Funkmammoth: https://soundcloud.com/funkmammoth

I remember when I played SSX.

The first one.

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO YOU N00BS.

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I actually meant for this thread to be memories of this past year... not the years leading up to it

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ahhh memories going down serenity for the first time was just mind blowing and bliss many memories in ssx in the first year now i shall go play it

I got my game late-mid may and i was extremely noobish, just like the peeps we see on 3-2-1 Go! events... there was a presence of electricity in the air all through out 3 months. It was an amazing feeling, and i was dedicated towards being a trickster, but due to my lack of experience at the time i changed to being a racer and here i am now

It was really fun seeing the SSX series grow up along with myself. I personally enjoy seeing SSX not as a game series but as a friend, one that I've known all my life and one that I'll know for many years to come. It really matured from the laidback nature of the first one to the freedom of SSX 3 to the intense action of SSX (2012). And it'll continue to evolve for the next ten years, and hopefully another ten after that. Same with the characters - there's a big difference from the slacker Mac we seen in the first SSX and the Mac we see now. And you have to agree, some of the sights in the games will stay with you. I very clearly remember slithering down Pipedream in the first SSX, the fan boost in Alaska from Tricky, the thrill from Peak 3 in SSX 3, the insane Monster Tricks in On Tour and the frenzy of Death Zone in SSX (2012). Admittedly, I don't play SSX (2012) as much as I used to, but every now and then I'll load up one of the first four on my PS2 and regress back to being a child (i'm basically a teenager now, which does sadden me, but I just gotta roll with it).

I hope the series never dies.

My memories when I first played the freefalling tutorial are good. Like that warm feeling you get on a cozy evening in on the sofa. My full attention on what the game was explaining to me. Repeating the freefall tutorial multiple times to experiment with the different tricks.

Day 2 and I'm blasting down the Alps. I remember laughing out loud with excitement as I hit Tricky "Trih----trih----trih...!" coming down the slope towards the tile roofs.

I remember that Mornin' Tiger race it was the first track I tried to beat my friends record. His time was 2:24. I got 2:16 by the end of that session.

Last to Hit was next, where I beat his 1:09 with a 1:03

Then I spent 4 hours on Zombies with Jetpacks. Beat his 2:22 with a 2:01. I remember feeling like I had been wasting a lot of time playing by the end of this session, but then I remember back to how I would play WoW all day, and I felt better funny how when you stop playing WoW and start to enjoy your new-found freedom, any amount of time wasted feels like wasted time. Scary 'hypocritical' contradiction where during the time I was playing WoW, it did not feel like wasted time, but more like a way of life. Oh yeah, when I started playing SSX I was just at the end of an 18 month phase of playing World of Warcraft. My 3rd such phase since first playing the game in 2005, but a phase in which I played about 150 days in those 18 months.

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When should I open my eyes?!

Nicely put, I agree.
SSX hooked me in like no other game ever has. The feeling of being right there on the board, mid-jaw-dropping-air, is one I don't get from any other title. When I heard about this latest version coming out, I was like a kid at Christmas again.

As long as EA keep bringing out new versions, I'll keep buying them.

Even Blur, which I had to bury in a lead coffin in my garden.

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I'm building up to it .... my entry (above somewhere) was like a 'preface' or 'overture' or summat

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well yeah so was mine

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Ok right - well. In 2005 I was hospitalised and had a period of convalescing at my parents house. Luckily I had packed On Tour + console in my suitcase. In fact - the day I went into hospital I actually made it to the game shop to buy the game. You gotta get yr priorities right in this life.
Anyway - I dug On Tour.... still do - cuz it was fast. And the tracks were great. And it kind of saved my life - so I'm fond of it.
After that nothing happened in my life AT ALL until 2012. Days came and went. The seasons rolled by. A couple of girlfriends moved on and I lost a couple of jobs. I think I even moved house at least once. I don't really remember much about any of that..... until the day I pre-ordered SSX 2012 from the shop down the road. The guy tried to talk me out of it - tried to sell me some other crappy new game.... but my eyes were fixed on the prize.
I hadn't even played the demo / I didn't know about it. I just stuck the disc in and got on with world tour. I had no idea that Explore existed - along with dozens of other tracks - until a few days later.

Memories-
battling with I_AM_MINE for a couple of months (before she got too good and then hopped the train to XBL).
Getting my first 40,000,000 on Serenity .... and bailing about 3 yards before the finish line. Foul language alert.
Entering trick it on Rolling Thunder every day (the highest prize at the time) and struggling to get even 10,000,000. But still getting gold and winning mega-money. Watching other players getting 25,000,000. How DO they do that?
Gradually discovering the wonders of tracks I hated at first .... Root Down, Zombies, Corkscrew, Lock Jaw. The Monster, Long Horn .... and current hot favourite HUSH.

Its been a long road.... and there's no end in sight.

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I'd been playing for a long time but I then quit then ssx 6 2012 caME OUT and i said. i got to get back in the game. And i did

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this list is so long and ugly that i feel pretentious but i worked really hard on it so i'm posting it anyway

• Playing the demo with everyone in the chat after we all waited until midnight EST for the PS Store to update. A few of us ended up playing until 6 or 7 in the morning before we tried to get some sleep. I woke up a couple of hours later with my hands covered in bruises, so I wrapped them up to try and give them some padding and started playing again. I remember talking with people like, "If we've played just two tracks for this long and still aren't sick of them, then how are we ever going to stop playing this game?"
  
• World Tour was a great experience. Even though it was just a tutorial, I loved the spontaneous AI, the knockdowns, unlocking everything, sampling all of the ranges, and the little character bits we did get. The most memorable part, though, was watching the credits and seeing that perfect Psymon concept. They had him!
  
• The competition just after release was incredible. Everyone was playing at the same time, to the point where records were seconds apart on my wall. We weren't at the point where we understood the most effective ways to race and trick, so we could pretty much do anything to our lines to get a faster time, which afforded a ton of creativity and a ton of runs. It was so fun following others' ghosts and learning from each other. I remember seeing someone wingsuit race for the first time on L2H and sitting there mind-blown for a few minutes, wondering why I hadn't thought of that earlier.
  
• Merq's weekly GEs were a blast. The most memorable week was the first, when Mid chose Critical Mass as the survive drop and everyone was furious with him because it was so easy.
  
• Africa is one big happy memory. I was excited after our first glimpse, but when we found out it had lava, I was beyond stoked. When I finally got to play it, it was even better than I expected it to be. It, Meru especially, felt so old-school SSX. It was the range that really went out of the box and added an element that was wicked removed from snowboarding. That fantasticality is why I love SSX. Meru, in a way, embodied the SSX spirit just as much as Mt. Eddie, if not more. Plus, going down Snake Bite with Heat playing in the background was electrifying.
  
• The reveal of Mt. Eddie and the retro characters, but especially, especially Kaori. I was nervous when we got the first puzzle piece, as I had gotten so hyped for Kaori's initial reveal, her signature, etc. and had been so let down, but man, they nailed it that time. I still get excited when I get to the character select screen and realize that I have Retro Kaori to play as, and it's given me a liiittle more appreciation for the new Kaori, now that I'm not stuck with her.
  
• Getting 3-2-1 Go's and Freeride. Just having them in the game is incredible, but even more incredible is that the team listened to what we wanted and worked hard to get both modes working in the game for us—for free. The team was so passionate about the game and the community, and this is really sappy, but thinking about it makes me tear up a bit. I don't think we could have asked for a better group of people to revive the series.

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Zoe's concept art reveal - I just about wet myself.

Watching everyone create all the merq-designed boards.

Listening to the two Ubercast interviews with Batty.

Having to wear a glove on my right hand because my thumb was so sore from sliding over the face buttons.

Minn showing me how to use a flippin' wingsuit. Thanks dude.

Actually getting the hang of the flippin' wingsuit.

seemed to last forever/only an instant

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twitch.tv/ssxual | youtube.com/ssxual | cody combo movie!