 There is a new player in
the (until recently) Tony Hawk dominated arena of Skateboarding video games. MTV Sports:
Skateboarding hit the ground running and it is battling its way to the forefront of the
fray. It might be hard to take a look at a skateboarding game without saying,
"Well, in Tony Hawk it’s like this..." or "Tony Hawk does it this way." Well, I’m going to do you a favor and not mutter the words "Tony Hawk" anymore in this review, because MTV
Sports Skateboarding stands very well on it’s own two feet
(four wheels?) and won’t be pushed around by you-know-who.
 MTV Sports: Skateboarding
has an excellent array of options. 14 Pro Skaters and about an equal number of
make-believe skaters form the arsenal of skating power that you have to choose from. It
has 10 different game modes, over 60 individual tricks and almost 40 different levels to
grind, ride and shred. It supports 2-player mode and has 4 different games that you can
play against your friends. The single player option lets you choose among 6 solo-skater
play modes. I was very impressed with the wide selection of games. The many play modes
really extend the playability of the game and definitely helped hold my attention for
hours on end.
 The single player modes
are Freeplay, Lifestyle, High Score, MTV Hunt, Survival and my favorite, Stunt Mode.
Freeplay allows you to choose a skater and just go kick it at one of the indoor or outdoor
skateparks. Freeplay lets you practice your tricks and pull off cool combos with an
unlimited amount of time on the clock. Freeplay was fun for a little while, but I really
like to see my score piling up. Besides, if I pull off a 540 Darkair with a late Shoveit
to Nose Slide, I want to get credit for it! Lifestyle is the game
’s career mode. You pick a skater and compete in freestyle competitions and
are rated by a panel of 6 judges. Your rating reflects your technical ability, variety of
tricks and the number of successful tricks pulled off in a specified time period. As you
qualify on each of the competitions, you unlock new outfits, boards and courses. The game
also gives you hints on how to improve your score for next time.
 High Score mode gives you
2 Minutes and 30 Seconds to pull off as many grinds, airs, slides grabs and combos as you
can. If you do good enough, you get the honor of being named Top Skater for that course.
MTV Hunt pits you against time while gathering MTV logos that are strewn about the skate
course. If you collect 10 you move on to the next course. The catch is, if you wreck, you
drop one or two of the logos that you
’ve already collected
and as is the nature of pesky MTV logos, they scurry off to find a new home and you’ve gotta collect them again. Survival mode gives you 30 seconds on the clock;
you earn more time by pulling off big air and cool combos. The goal is to remain "alive" as long as possible.
 The game mode that most
caught my attention was the Stunt mode. You are given a somewhat short downhill course and
you need to ride the course and pull off the biggest and baddest tricks before you get to
the end. If your tricks are rockin
’ enough, you get to
travel to the next course. The courses become increasingly difficult to navigate, which
really honed my skating skills. The first Stunt course is basically a ski jump where your
skater gathers speed on the downhill and is launched high over a half dozen cars all the
while pulling phat tricks and spins in the air.
 The two-player modes
include Battle, Time Bomb, MTV Hunt and Deathmatch. Unfortunately, the two-player mode is
where the game is slightly lacking. Battle mode awards each of the player 100,000 points,
the players then skate around trying to
"Steal" points from their opponent for pulling big moves. The drawback to this is
that if you match two evenly skilled players against each other, the game goes back and
forth until one player eventually just gives up. Time Bomb is a shorter two-player game
where one player is marked at "the Bomb" which will explode in 65 seconds, that player must "tag" the other skater in order to pass the
bomb. The player left holding the bomb after 65 seconds looses. MTV Hunt is just like the
one player version apart from the fact that both players are trying to collect the MTV
Logos. Deathmatch doesn’t sport the blood and guts that its
MTV Celebrity cousin does, but it does have weapons that you can fire at the opponent
skater. These modes are all creative, but they left out the one mode that a player like me
wants most: Time Trial, the mode where you score as many points as you can in a preset
time and the player with the most points at the end prevails. This could have been a real
winner of a two-player game if it supported this mode, but alas, we all have our
weaknesses.
 The game
’s graphics are decent. The camera that follows the skater always stays at a
nice angle for full trick viewing and future terrain anticipation. Lighting and shadowing
are simulated, but the skater’s shadow disappears when you’re doing a trick, but that's no biggie. The ramps and walls all sport a
realistic effect by having sponsor names and labels plastered all over them. The game's
soundtrack is outstanding. The crew picking out the music must’ve sent out a questionnaire to groups of local skaters to determine their
favorite bands. There is a whopping 10 songs by 10 different punk, dub, ska, rap and
hardcore bands. Some of the highlights are: Pennywise, Cypress Hill, Deftones, No Use for
a Name, and Goldfinger. While playing any mode of the game, you can select any of the
above artists to listen to in loop mode, or just put the stereo on shuffle and shred to a
random sampling of contemporary skate tunes. One word of warning: when you select shuffle,
the game pauses for a split second when switching songs, and that can really mess up a
carefully executed combo.
 Play control is pretty
good. It is easy enough for a beginner to pick up quickly, but it is also precise enough
for an experienced user to execute the tricks that he wants when he wants. The tricks are
pulled of by a direction pad + action button combo. Flatland tricks are done using the
grind button while on flat ground. Rotations are done using the R1, R2, L1, and L2
buttons. The options menu gives you the choice of three preset controller configs. These
configs just switch the positions of the grind, kick trick and grab trick buttons.
 Overall, I had a great
time with MTV Sports: Skateboarding. It is fun and challenging enough to hold my interest.
The plethora of game modes gives the game a
"something for
everybody" type of appeal. The soundtrack is great and the
play control and graphics fit nicely into the picture. MTV Sports: Skateboarding is a
stand out game that is a great addition to any skater’s (or
skater-at-heart’s) game library.
--Tim Johnson |
