10 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VIDEO GAMES
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2003
Skateboarding combines skating,The Simpsons
What happened to everything in Springfield? Did Tony Hawk, skateboarding prodigy, travel there one day? He must have, because now your favorite Springfieldians have all taken up skateboarding.
Bart Simpson has been skateboarding since we first laid eyes on him, but he's never done tricks like this. The Simpsons Skateboarding by Electronic Arts Games is for anyone who fell in love with the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series and also shares a love for The Simpsons.
The town of Springfield has been transformed into a giant skate park. It's your job to shred, flip and grind with the best of them. The Annual Skate Tour is making a stop in Springfield and is open to locals only.
The grand prize of the skate tour: $99. It may not seem as much, but remember how Homer relished the idea of making $25 when he sold his stock of the nuclear power plant.
Your task is to hit the streets of Springfield, build up your skater's stats and earn boards that will help you achieve your ultimate goal—successfully skating Springfield Gorge, a death trap but a skater's paradise.
One way to improve your skater's statistics is by learning tricks at Skillz School. Completing the objectives also rewards you with a few cents.
REVIEW
It mat not seem like much, but as you buy new stats it goes a long way to becoming the ultimate skateboarder. As you advance in the Skillz School, the tasks and tricks become more difficult to perform and demand more practice. Timing is everything. You can also win tournaments to gain money.
The controls are a little bit difficult to get through, but with practice you'll be skating like a pro in no time. It took me a few hours to pull off a successful grind with a few flips without busting my skater's head open.
The graphics aren't anything spectacular. Although the characters are in 3-D, they're not prize-winning.
The multi-player feature is exciting. It's good to go up and down Springfield and practice your moves,but competing
Chris Moore
cmoore@kansan.com
THE SIMPSONS SKATEBOARDING
B
Rated Teen for comic mischief, mild language and suggestive themes
Now available for Playstation 2
Sells for an average retail price of $30
Contributed art
against another skater can show you how much your practice has paid off.
There are two types of competitions. In the first, the game of Horse, you aren't required to do the same trick as your opponent. You just have to beat his score.
If you fail to reach the target or fall off
your board while playing Horse, then ... well, you know.
The other competition is an all-out skating free for all. You and your opponent have an allotted time to accumulate as many points as possible. The the highest point total wins.
As you complete certain tasks, secret prizes open up to you: new boards, secret levels, and secret skaters (Hint: One of them drives a bus).
The Simpsons Skateboarding is a challenging game. If you want to complete the game, renting it will not suffice unless you rent it many times.
All the goals cannot be achieved in a sitting, but it's a game you can only get better and better at if you practice.
Moore is a Tulsa, Okla., freshman in journalism.
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