Evolution Skateboarding
Review of Evolution Skateboarding
Well starting off, I thought the presentation and menus were (what’s a good word) “BLAH”? Not to be picky but there is no dimension, no uniqueness and you have to look at this silly banner that runs across the screen while loading the mode. This may not sound important but the presentation should get the player in the mood for gameplay, kinda like Foreplay.
Moving onward….gameplay begins with a barebones selection. The player needs to pick a skater, a board, and a mode like Arcade, Career, Verses, etc. Each level offers a set of goals to accomplish like collecting coins, doing tricks, finding objects in a certain amount of time. Yes, this sounds strangely traditional. So what makes ES unique from other games of this genre? Well if I had to guess, it is probably the fact that there is various boss confrontations found in the Career mode; such as battling a giant Spider or a huge Tank. To conquer these bosses the player needs to wear the boss down by grinding and bumping. This was fun but not much of a challenge, but if you like this sort of thing put your imagination hat on and enjoy. The youngsters would probably get a charge from this.
There are plenty of levels to explore like the colorful streets of Tokyo or the dungeons of a European castle. Unfortunately, the level design is weak. There are plenty of rails and obstacles to experiment with but I found it was pretty easy to get lost in them, the layouts are a bit disorienting. I did enjoy scaring the daylights out of the pedestrians that are walking the streets, they freak out when you get anywhere near them.
ES offers a bunch of Pro skaters to choose from as well as a few surprise skaters like MGS Solid Snake. Although, this is really no surprise since his picture is on the back cover. I did like the “create your own skater option”; this is always a fun thing to play with. As always all the stuff I just mentioned needs to be earned.
The skaters have the capability to perform over 70 dangerous to your health type tricks but this was no simple task. The trick control system is a bit awkward and not real responsive making pulling off the tricks and balancing the rails a humbling experience and will surely skyrocket your stress meter maybe this is why its dangerous to your health, hehe! Anyway, the player must hold down the triangle button to manually go making it pretty cumbersome to pull off the combos. Trying to land the trick is even “trickier” if the skater lands incorrectly he will crash. The blood will splatter looking like its coming at you, noses will be broken, etc. HEY crashing was one of the finer points of gameplay in my opinion.
I have to say “graphically speaking”; it is a nice looking game. The skaters and backgrounds were clearly detailed and sporting plenty of polys. So realistic it gave me a touch of motion sickness. The shadowing and lighting effects are right on and there are some cool effects like sparks coming off the wheels of the board while grinding the rails.
The music of ES was a plus. It includes upbeat rock tunes with a blend of rap here and there. I guess you can’t get away from the RAP thing it is hear to stay. There is also an announcer, which could be annoying at times but ITS ALL GOOD.
OUR PLEDGE: We promise that we have fully played 'Evolution Skateboarding' before writing this review. The scores given above are our honest opinion and were not influenced in any way by the manufacturer or distributor of the game.
This review was written by Loretta Mattie © Absolute PlayStation
Click here to view our 9 Evolution Skateboarding in-game screenshot slideshow
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