MTV Sports Skateboarding
featuring Andy McDonald
Overall Rating
88
%
Graphics and Sound
MTV Sports Skateboarding looks pretty sweet. The graphics may not be
revolutionary, but they do their job well in single player modes. In two
player modes, the screen is divided vertically into two pieces. These 'half
screens' don't give very much viewing area, sometimes making it really hard
to see what you're doing. (This is especially true when you're trying to
chase someone...) The skateparks look very good, though, and are very
functional.
The sound effects are pretty good, but I find myself wondering
where the applause (or, the much more frequent 'booing') is coming from... I
don't SEE a crowd anywhere...! The soundtrack is a nice hard mix of the
latest bands playing fast, driving songs that work really well for a
skateboarding game. These artists include the Deftones, Cypress Hill,
Pennywise, System of a Down, OPM, Snapcase, Goldfinger, Pilfers, No Use For
A Name, and Flashpoint. And each time you start a new game, you can select either one song or random play. If you select your music and avoid the random feature, you can play the game without having to listen to System of a Down. (That's
a GOOD thing.)
Gameplay
When you play MTV Sports Skateboarding, you have several modes to
choose from. In fact, there's ten separate game modes. Sound amazing?
Well, statistically, I suppose it is, but ask youself how many different
modes you can think of for a skateboarding game. Seven? Five? ...Some of the
modes are a bit of a stretch. I know that professional skateboarders are
known to be very athletic, daring, courageous and, well, extreme - but I
think that if asked to ride down a hill in a city to a ramp over a large
expanse of construction area, perform as wild a stunt as possible while
hurtling over this abyss and then land on the ramp on the opposite end of
the chasm, they would laugh their heads off. (and refuse...) And If you
don't find that to be a strained concept, how about the 'deathmatch'
multiplayer mode, where you have to knock your opponent off of his board the
most, using projectile weapons, such as 8-balls, blue star things and hand
grenades(!?). Alrighty then. With a host of air and land tricks, the
variation is definitely there, but it takes a whole lot of practice and some
mad skills to progress at ALL in this game.
Difficulty Level
Are you a die-hard extreme sports gamer? If you like the amazing moves that
can be done in skateboarding, you'll find a good deal of them in MTV
Sports Skateboarding. The problem here is that it just may be
easier to learn to actually perform the moves than to try to get a high
enough score in the game to progress. The point goals are excessively high,
the stunts are insane, and the difficulty shoots up from there. If you're
looking to play for hours and hours and you don't get discouraged by
watching yourself fall face first into the concrete floor after a massive
jump from a halfpipe, then this game might be for you. If you get easily
dicouraged, you may want to rent this game first.
Game Mechanics
MTV Sports Skateboarding has an interesting control layout which is
fairly simple and surprisingly difficult to master. Tap that twice, hold
this down until you're about to land and push the shoulder button to spin...
but don't 'tap' when you're supposed to 'hold' or vice versa. This isn't
helped much by the fact that what the buttons do may be different depending
on whether you're airborne or on the ground, or depending on the mode you're
playing in. This is especially noticible of the triangle button which is
used for Flatland tricks, Grind tricks or launching weapons (in the
two-player deathmatch mode). Probably the only real thing that hampers this
title is the lack of a variable difficulty setting. This could be as simple
as having lower goals to progress if an easier difficulty level is selected.
As it is, the game works very well, but you really have to be good. Or else.
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