I think we all need at least one really nice positive thing about the entertainment business every single day of the year, including weekends. Sometimes it may be something simple, like a video that showcases something fun and sometimes it may be a movie poster that embraces the aesthetic we all want Hollywood to aspire to. Sometimes it may be a long-winded diatribe. Sometimes it’ll be from the staff and extended family of CHUD.com. Maybe even you readers can get in on it. So, take this to the bank. Every day, you will get a little bit of positivity from one column a day here. Take it with you. Maybe it’ll help you through a bad day or give folks some fun things to hunt down in their busy celluloid digesting day.

1.24.11
By Jeremy G. Butler (Author Page, Twitter Page, Facebook Page)

What I’m Thankful For:

SSX Tricky

You always remember your first, and it just so happens that SSX Tricky was the first game I ever played on a First-Gen XBOX.

At the time I was in one of those rare periods in my life where I didn’t have a gaming console.  Having outgrown my PSOne and leaving it…well, somewhere…and being turned off to the PS2 for whatever reason, it was the perfect opportunity for something new to grab me.  My cousin comes home from college with his shiny new XBOX, I come over to check it out and he and his brother are in the middle of a race on Elysium Alps.

And holy shit.

At the time, I hadn’t ever seen a game like that.  I was used to my PSOne’s shitty graphics on my shitty TV (and I hadn’t even played that in a couple of years) and before that I was on a Sega Genesis.  So the XBOX was revofuckinglutionary.  And Tricky, what with its smug little voice over guy (“Call your Momma in the room and show her how great you are!”), its repurposing of RunDMC, those fucking UberTricks, the color, the animation, the controls…I had just met the next generation of gaming and I fell in love.

I got into other games, obviously – the Halos, Need for Speed Underground, Tiger Woods, the various GTAs, but none of them sucked me in to the degree that Tricky did.  Countless hours spent maxing out the trick book on EVERY character, practicing the button combinations over and over and over again until I had them perfect.  And it never felt like a chore.  It was never something I felt I had to do out of obligation (especially since this was before the days of the 360’s Achievement Whoring, of which I’m shamelessly guilty), I did it because I loved it.  And no matter what else I played, Tricky always got a little bit of love.   Even after I’d burned myself out on it, I could never fully let it go.

I eventually got a PS2 when the first GuitarHero came out and I’ve since moved on to next-next generations with my 360 and my Wii.  And even though 99.9% of my gaming happens on my 360, I still have my first-gen XBOX hooked up to a television in my bedroom.  It serves only one purpose – to play the original SSX Tricky disc that I bought way back in 2001, when I bought my own console.  And for that – I’m thankful.