Skate or Die- Bad n’ Rad

So I turn the game on, and the first thing I come across is a bland screen. I mean, it’s bland even by Game Boy standards. Nice welcome, Konami. Anyways, the only animation on the screen is the flashing “Push Start” thingy. With not much to look at, I start to delve into the game.

Naturally, I press start. I am greeted with an even MORE bland screen, with the only animation being a cursor. I am prompted to choose a stage. I have four choices, of which are beautifully named “Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, and Stage 4”. I decide to start with stage one.

When I start, I am surprised. I expected a crappy, pixelated, well…bad game. What I got was actually pretty awesome graphics. The skateboarder you play as looks realistic, and the pathway you skateboard on looks real enough too. The only thing I’d change would be the background, of which is basically just a looped image of a beat up city.

I find out the controls quickly, which is good. They’re not that hard; right is to go forward, left is to go backward, A is to jump, and B is to duck. I am also surprised by the really good physics system; it feels real, of which is hard to do with a weaker platform like the GB. This game is actually pretty nice!

As I start going forwards, I notice the obstacles. There is definitely nothing really noteworthy about them… they’re just holes in the ground, what I am guessing are bottles or something coming out of windows, spikes, dogs, and rival skateboarders. All of the obstacles are really easy to pass with the exception of the rival skateboarders; all you have to do is stop, jump or duck to avoid them. The skateboarder is really hard to beat. You need to avoid his knifes thrown by ducking, then jump over him when the chance is available.

There are high scores to beat if you get bored with beating the levels. The only disappointing thing about it is the fact that you don’t get points from, say, TRICKS, but from collecting these little energy bar thingies that represent Rupees from the Legend of Zelda. You get more points from the flashing ones, but those are generally out of the way or hard to get.

The only way to get back your low amount of health is to collect these items that I really can’t identify, but those like the flashing energy bars are either out of the way or hard to get.

The sound isn’t half bad; it’s upbeat and energetic. The sound effects, on the other hand, feel cheap and out of place. :/

All in all, this is a good game that could use some polishing. It’s not an excellent game, but worth spending some Viz on, at least. 7/10