YMMV / The Tricky Mod

• Accidental Innuendo: Thanks to the placement of Tricky's stop sign in the Game Over screen combined with the fact that it have bone in it causes it to look to some like...something else.
• Awesome Music: Not only does the mod give a fitting voice to one of the most unhinged Madness Combat characters out there, they also use that powerful, insane and shrill voice to create some amazing songs.
  • "Improbable Outset" is a great banger to show what you're getting into.
  • "Madness" is true to its name, it's where Tricky fully reveals his mask and his pure rage. It’s filled with the Nevadean Champion's shrill vocoded screams, and later in the song it actually has the Boyfriend and Tricky singing together to make a surprisingly good melody.
  • While "Honkers" isn't original to the mod (although it's still a reprise), it's a nostalgic bop to those who have played "Madness Accelerant" and still quite the ominous tune for those who haven’t.
  • "Hellclown" is a frantic, ceaseless onslaught that gets across the fact that Tricky and Boyfriend aren't pulling punches anymore, and it gets across how, despite how completely overwhelmed with rage he is, he's still attempting to best Boyfriend at his own game before deciding to kill him, particularly given how the two are still working in harmony in several points in the song.
  • The bonus track, "Expurgation", is equal parts an insane bonus boss song and a comparatively somber piece given the other tracks before it. It somehow feels both like a grandiose finale and like a contemplative stupor that Boyfriend happened to walk in on. In fact, it can almost pretty much rival Cheshyre's own Expurgation. The instrumental version is really great too, as without the notes you can actually hear Tricky's creepy laughter throughout the song.
  • The main menu theme is an excellent cover of PN Classic's main theme "Catastrophe". But crossing over with just plain Awesome Moments, is that not only does the main menu have a random rotation of several characters, each one of them gives a Variable Mix to the music and affects the synth tracks of the song.
  • V2's new title screen opens us up with some great tunes from the get go with an awesome remix of "Chicken Dance" courtesy of Tsuraran.
• Continuity Lock-Out: Granted, not knowing the source material doesn't affect enjoyment of the mod (as several players and even Youtubers can attest to), but the mod is clearly a love letter to Madness Combat and geared towards fans of the series, with a few cameos from its main cast and many Mythology Gags.
• Crack Pairing: Tricky and Sky, although usually platonic.
• Cry for the Devil: It's not uncommon to hear of fans feeling sorry for Tricky in "Expurgation", as unlike in his home series, here it's implied he was revived against his own will, and he's clearly scared and confused, especially without Hank around to fuel his bloodlust. In the middle of the song, he even audibly calls out for Hank.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: In relation to another popular mod, Friday Night Funkin': Corruption: Tricky can't be corrupted or otherwise controlled by a similar entity, no matter how many fan weeks and animations insist otherwise. Aside from the Improbability Drive and Tricky's sheer determination genuinely being strong enough to No-Sell the corruption or turn it against itself, those who are familiar with the story of Madness Combat will know that Tricky's form in "Expurgation" is a corrupt form, created when the Auditor tried to assimilate him and inevitably failed.
• Fanon: Due to both being characters with vocoded guitar-like voices and having very explosive tempers, it’s not uncommon for Tricky and Whitty to be portrayed in fan works as having a rivalry or just outright being archenemies.
  • In the same vein, his rivalry also extends to Tabi and A.G.O.T.I.. Although it can also slide into a form of Villainous Friendship, thanks to the two being more evil/unpleasant than Whitty.
  • Continuing the trend of Rivalry / Villainous Friendship with other FNF mods, it also extends to Sky. With some fans even making videos of Tricky actually being saddened about her mod being erased.
  • Because both are loud and even scream in the songs, it has been jokingly theorized that Tricky is actually Sunday’s co-vocalist who broke his pelvis. The fact that Sunday sings Madness in their mod's Freeplay mode helped.
• Fanon Welding: IRIS’ symbol briefly appears on the Auditor's monitor. What this means, though, is still up in the air.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • Boyfriend being briefly nervous in Tricky's presence initially just seems like another case of Fanon Discontinuity in the same manner as Girlfriend's fear of Whitty's third phase, but remember that this is Tricky we're talking about; Fanon interpretation has it that other horrors fail to faze Boyfriend and Girlfriend because Girlfriend has demonic powers capable of handling the situation regardless of the outcome, Tricky is just as much of a danger to beings as powerful as demons as he is to normal people. Additionally, Tricky is a zombie and has rotting flesh, and the developers of the original game have stated that GF and BF would dislike (or be scared of) gross things.
  • Expurgation's 'Unfair' difficulty could be seen as simply fast notes and note spamming, but take into account that the player has to contend with notes that can instantly KO the player, stop signs that block the note charts, and a skeleton minion pulls on the health bar and reduces a set amount. Now consider that Tricky is implied to be panicking throughout the song, and one of his comments of him asking "Why can't I kill?" Suddenly, the unfair difficulty is not an exaggeration; Tricky is literally making this as unfair for Boyfriend as possible, all in a desperate attempt to kill him.
  • The fire notes in Hellclown can be interpreted as a more psychological attack than a literal one. On Tricky's side of the board, they're always in places where they can be adequately reflected by the vocal track, or just outright contribute to the amount of noise he makes. On Boyfriend's side, they're typically slightly off-beat and obviously not reflected by his vocals. It could be that he noticed Boyfriend's tendency to copy him, and then tried to use that against him by doing things that would either throw off his rhythm or just straight up tear up his vocal chords if he tried to repeat them. It would also explain why, the first time they show up and you presumably survive it, Tricky goes absolutely apeshit; he figured he was doing something clever, and threw a fit because you immediately saw through it.
  • Expurgation makes a ton of sense if viewed in light of the episode of Madness Combat that inspired it. The spikes that come out of the ground around Tricky in one of his poses belong to the Auditor and the place he's encountered in is Hell as overseen by the Auditor. Tricky doesn't have access to his Improbability Drive, can't directly kill people like he loves doing, and can't even fight his archnemesis Hank, instead having to battle this kid he doesn't know in a way he doesn't like. This is Tricky's own personal Hell.
• Funny Moments: Now has its own page.
• Memetic Badass: Tricky natch, it's not uncommon for comments in videos involving the Nevadean Champion to have fans talk or even shill about how Tricky is an unstoppable hazard that is incredibly insane, unstoppable and bloodthirsty, being able to mold reality to his liking without any care.
• Memetic Mutation: You don't meme clown, clown memes you!
• Signature Song: "Madness", though "Expurgation" is a very close second. It's a popular song to remix online, and it even has cover versions in VS Sunday and Vs Starecrown.
• That One Level: Tricky's third and final song "Hellclown". The newly-introduced fire arrows can easily end your run, not helped by the speed of the arrows that may cause you to accidentally press them out of instinct.

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