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A SPARROW
IN A 'HAWKS' NEST
EVOLUTION
SKATEBOARDING
Written By Shaun McCracken
It's funny. A lot of developers have made games that compete with each
other. For example, football games. We have Madden, we have Sega's
series, we have Midway's Blitz series and in the case of the PS2 and
the X-Box, there's the Gameday and NFL Fever series, respectively. This
is the case with many genres such as baseball, basketball, hockey,
racing games and even some platformers. But it's surprising to see that
hardly any developers decide to take on the Tony Hawk Pro Skater
series. Perhaps they're too afraid to take on the trick system
Neversoft has perfected, as well as the evolving game engine. Maybe
they just can't compete with the name recognition. Konami decided to
challenge this fact with Evolution Skateboarding, a fun, but not as
nearly robust skateboarding game. It brings some good ideas aboard to
the genre, but lacks the technical complexity of the THPS series. Does
this make Evolution Skateboarding a bad game? No. But it could have
been so much more if the trick system were deeper.
You've probably guessed what Evolution Skateboarding is about. Here's a
hint, it's in the title! Evolution Skateboarding pretty much follows
the standard procedure of most extreme sports games. You select a stage
and go through a series of set challenges and goals. Complete a
specific number of them, and you can move on to the next level. This is
done in the Arcade mode. Lord knows why the developers called this
Arcade instead of Career, but that's a good chunk of the game. The
challenges are fairly easy to complete, in fact, you can probably
complete the goals offered in this game easier than THPS's goals.
You've got three minutes to do as much as you can, and if you haven't
finished it, you'll need to start over. Three minutes seems fair, but
now many extreme sports titles offer unlimited time during play, so
here it seems a bit limiting. A cool aspect in the arcade mode are the
boss stages and events. Here, you will need to grind or hit certain
objects or parts to defeat the boss. It's never been done in previous
skateboarding titles, and it does add a bit of life to a fairly
standard game.
Another mode in ES is a Tournament mode, which is pretty much
championship based events where you try to pull as many tricks as you
can on a half pipe. Oddly, this is left out of arcade and treated as a
separate mode. I haven't played this mode as much as the arcade mode,
since it really isn't that engrossing. ES also boasts a Challenge mode.
Here, you have set challenges, such as combos, specific tricks to pull,
score challenges and more. It's a nice change of pace, but to a point
it seems redundant. Also, some of the challenges seem unbalanced or
even unachievable (such as the stages that involve rail combos). I've
been able to complete some, such as the score and combo challenges, but
other stages are more difficult than most of the objectives offered in
the arcade mode. Capping off the modes, ES features a createable player
and a sticker edit mode. The edited player actually adds a new set of
challenges in the arcade mode, which is nice. The sticker edit mode is
fun, especially when it comes to plastering your board with childish
phrases and swears. Nothing like seeing a board with "BIG 'UNS" on the
bottom.
The game design in Evolution Skateboarding means well, but I think
it's biggest fault lies in the fact that the trick system is not very
complex or even modifiable, and that the rail transfer combos are
difficult to perform, since balance is hindered during the transfer.
The combo system is pretty easy to abuse. One would think that the big
points come from the air combos, but that's not true. You can abuse the
combo system in pretty much the same way it can be abused in Dave Mirra
Freestyle BMX 2. You can either pull combos by doing a manual, a quick
air trick, then back into the manual; or by grinding a rail, jumping
with a quick air trick, and then getting back on the rail with another
grind. It sounds like I'm rambling, but if I can show you how it's
done, it seems oh so easy. As for the tricks themselves, there's a good
handful of them, but they aren't as plentiful as the ones found in the
THPS games, and not nearly as good. Still, it didn't really hurt the
overall experience for me. In fact, it's better than BMX XXX in terms
of design and fun. It just seems shallow when you consider the
competition.
The graphics are fairly decent. Not mind-blowing, but it does the job.
The stages are well laid out and are pretty big (one of the stages is
the Plant stage from Metal Gear Solid 2). The character models are done
pretty well, but the stage textures aren't as sharp as other games I've
played. As funny as it sounds, I felt like I was skateboarding in the
world of Crazy Taxi. The colors were bright, and the textures were a
tad blurry or smooth. At times, the game also seemed to have taken on a
cel-shaded look (such as the Plant stage). Konami didn't have a
concrete decision on how the art-direction should have been. The
frame rate stays constant most of the time, but there were some places
where it lagged. The place that did it the most was one of the Tokyo
stages, and it stared slowing down where there were people talking. For
the most part, the graphics are serviceable.
The sound consists of typical skateboarding sounds, and even more of a
typical soundtrack. While the music is licensed, I can't recall any of
the acts in the game. And it's pretty much all rock music. When will an
extreme sports game embrace some different music? The voices from some
of the people in the stages are pretty funny, such as the little girl
who just shouts out obscure things.
Evolution Skateboarding kind of took me by surprise. Other critics did
not think much about this game simply because it wasn't Tony Hawk. I
bought this game as a "what-the-hell" purchase at a KB Toy store for
$9.99. But I was not at all disappointed with the purchase. Evolution
Skateboarding turned out to be a pretty good game with a few flaws.
Sure, the trick system isn't expansive. And sure, it may be a little
easier. And while I would have liked the skater's turning radius to be
tighter, the controls are pretty good. It's not at all unplayable, the
design is not broken in any way, and it is fun to play. I suggest
anyone looking for an alternative to THPS to give this a chance. Of
course, this is the only alternative. But for $10, or even $20, you
can't go wrong.
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Published
By :
KONAMI
Developed
By:
KONAMI
Year Published :
2002
Players :
1-2
ESRB Rating:
TEEN
OVERALL
SCORE
7.6
VISUALS |
7.9 |
AUDIO |
7.4 |
GAMEPLAY |
7.5 |
REPLAY
VALUE |
7.9 |
INNOVATION |
7.5 |
It's actually not as bad as I imagined it would be, but it's still
behind the THPS series.
BMX
XXX
Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2
Every
Tony Hawk game
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