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MY FAVORITE CHRISTMAS GAMING MEMORY: QUICK TAKE #7

Image Source: IMDB.com

There's nothing quite like opening a new game or a new console under the tree on Christmas morning. Throughout my life, I've been fortunate enough to have had many of my own Christmas gaming memories with my family. One of my favorites includes my brother and I opening up our new PS3 and having our Dad teach us how to play Resistance Fall of Man. Another was in 2009, when my brother and I played the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the first time after unboxing it on Christmas day. While I have a big collection of these fond memories, there's on in particular that stands above the rest, so let's take a trip back to Christmas 2003.

In 2001, my Dad picked up a copy of SSX Tricky for the Nintendo GameCube which he, my brother, and I, spent each of the next two Christmas seasons playing together. Why only at Christmas time? Well, the logic is simple. Growing up in Chicago where the winters are frigid and the summers are hot, you don't play a game about snowboarding in the heat of the summer -- you wait until Christmas when it makes more sense to play it. Anyway, we all loved Tricky and its wacky, early 2000s style. Leading into Christmas 2003, my Dad showed my brother and I a news article discussing the upcoming release of the sequel to Tricky, SSX 3. At the time, I didn't pay much attention to it, mainly because I was happy with just playing SSX Tricky. I'm glad my Dad ignored my disregard for the hype and went ahead and got the game anyway, because it would change my gaming life forever.

It's Christmas morning 2003 in my Chicago childhood home. It's well below freezing with probably at least a foot of frozen over snow on the ground. My brother and I are opening presents with Mom on the couch taking pictures and Dad in his "Dad chair" sipping on some Christmas coffee. We make our way to unwrapping SSX3, and initially, we don't know what to think, but we say what the heck and pop the disc into the GameCube to see what it's all about. I remember sitting on the floor next to my brother while he sat in his gaming chair in front of the TV trying the game out. I can also still remember watching the game's intro for the first time, listening to the swanky DJ Atomica introduce us to the mountain over a sizzle reel of the game's characters performing logic defying uber tricks. Watching this, I remember thinking, "man, I want to do that".

As the years went on, and as my brother and I got older and went our separate ways as adults, I would carry on the tradition of playing SSX at Christmas time. Every year around a week or two after Thanksgiving, I'll bust out that same copy of SSX3 my brother and I got for Christmas in 2003, and play through it the same way we would as kids. That's right, I've kept this tradition for 21 years straight, and plan to keep it going for as long as I'm able to. At this point, I can blast through all three peaks in about two hours with little to no trouble -- but that's what playing the same game for 21 years will do for you, right?

The game itself was always ahead of its time. It addressed the stiff feeling of performing tricks in Tricky, while creating a level of control and fluidity that stands above and beyond the games of its era. It just feels exceptionally good to play, while absolutely oozing with that unmistakeable early 2000s extreme sports style that we just don't see today. In addition to that, SSX3 has aged extremely well. With EA Sports BIG games being a thing of the past, returning to this game in today's gaming landscape always feels like a breath of fresh air. They really don't make 'em like SSX3 anymore.

So, that's my favorite Christmas gaming memory. Do you have some of your own? Feel free to share yours in the comments below!