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Isnt Tony Hawk Pro Skater, but its still good!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 20 / 27
Date: September 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Ive played this new release by Electronic Arts on my PAL version which came out a few weeks ago, and ive gotta say that its pretty neat.

Im an avid fan of The Simpsons and I was really surprised when I heard that "The Simpsons Skateboarding", was released for the PS2.

Well, you sure get to play all the Simpson charachters, ranging from Bart Simpson, Lisa, Marge, Krusty, Homer and a whole lot more. Each charachter or skater has his/her own unique style, speed, and tricks.

Now about the tracks. Similar to the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series, you have to unlock certain tracks aswell as as skateboards etc. However, there are a variety of tracks available to you even if you just want to have some fun!
These include the Simpsons back yard, the sreets of Springfield, The chemical plant and many more.

The sound effects are great aswell. Cars honking in the background, Bart shouting "Oh Curumba", when he falls off his skateboard and lots more!

The controls are great aswell. Skate Boarders are easy to control and menuever. Well you just have to practice a bit and then volla!

About the graphics now. I frankly thought that the Graphics somertimes tend to get a bit blocky. It sometimes feels that youre playing this game on a Playstation, rather than a Playstation2. Well, this really doesnt take the charm of the game away though.

Overall, besides the small graphical errors and glitches, this game is perfect and really really fun to play!!

It's pretty fun.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: November 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I've never played any of the Tony Hawk games because I could care less about SkateBoarding or that genre of games. The only reason I picked it up was because it was a Simpson's title, and I'm not disappointed. Once you get used to the controls, which for all I know are standard in such games, the game's pretty fun.

You start out the game with the basic four characters (Homer, Marge, Bart, and Lisa), and one environment. There are a few other characters to unlock, and around five more environments to unlock by completing levels and such.

What can I say? The game is solid. Most of the bad reviews I've heard are basing it on previews that they've READ (thus having never played the game), or basing it on Simpson's Wrestling (again, never having played the game). Simpson's Wrestling sucked, yes. Get over it. It was a different team working on the game - it implies nothing about the quality of this game.

Overall - if you like the Simpsons and video games in general, it's a good buy. I don't know how it stacks up against other skateboarding games, but by itself this game is worth buying.

Don't be fooled into believing reviews of people who've never played the game, or judging this game based on Simpon's Wrestling. At leaset rent it and see for yourself.

"worst game ever" comic book guy after playing this game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: December 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I am a huge simpsons fan. But to be honest this game is really terrible. I hate the animation and the graphics are horrible. They should of used cell shading so the graphics resembled the cartoon. I played this game for about 5 minutes and i had heard the same phrase coming from Homer's mouth over and over. After five minutes of playing this game I had to quit because i couldn't handle it. They should of directly copied the control scheme from tony hawk pro skater. Fox and EA need to realize the just putting the Simpsons characters in a game doesn't mean that it is a good game, they need to make gameplay a whole lot better.

WARNING: This game should not be played!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 10
Date: May 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

*sigh*. This has to be one of the worst games I have ever played. I went back to the video rental store and demanded for my money back after playing this... If you have ever played Tony Hawk, then you will notice that the moves are opposite and slow. If you havent played Tony Hawk, get that instead. If you have played Tony Hawk, run away from this game!

This game sucks!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: December 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

When i played this game it was so hard to complete the level it is really hard to do moves and you have hardly any time to do anything. Don't by this game or you'll be sorry!!!!

Only for the most rabid Simpsons fans

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: January 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

We were very disappointed with this game. We loved Simpsons Road Rage, because it wasn't too easy yet it wasn't so frustrating at each point that it made you want to bang your head against a wall... (those are the games that collect dust). In Road Rage, even the missions can be skipped if you just can't seem to conquer that part of the game.

I've always hated games in which, if you don't push the controller buttons at exactly the right second, then you end up trying and trying until you want to throw the controller across the room. This is one of those games. You have to push buttons in order to skateboard; and when you actually compete in the game by skateboarding, if your timing is off even a small amount while pushing buttons then you fall, or you miss picking up the donut, etc.

The game has four parts basically; you can learn the tricks in "Skillz School"; you can play a game in which there are multiple objectives; you can do tricks within a short time limit; and you can compete with a second player in skateboarding (you get points according to how well you complete tricks and how difficult they were).

I went to Skillz School, but the problem is, it's incomplete. I even went back three times in case I'd missed something in the wording. I ended up doing the harder tricks fairly well, but for instance, "kick flip" I think it was; you push the square button. Nothing happened, over & over & over again. The instructions in the game say only that a flip is with the square button plus a direction arrow. Well, that isn't one; that is a 'late kick flip'. I never did do a kick flip except by accident, and it's necessary later in the game.

Then, one of the main parts of the game is a multiple-objective mission in which part of it is to pick up donuts that are up on a spiral on high railings, etc. You then have to skateboard on the edge of the skateboard, along the railing in a spiral, to get the donut. Another game is 'shop a holic' and you have to open five stores in a small amount of time. That was a bit easier. Another part of the mission is to pick up the five truant children hiding in town. We never saw any !

Most of it is very difficult (and I chose easy level; but the controls are just too finicky) and there's no way to figure out how to do it better, because the controls are SO hair trigger that it's hard to know just what you did that messed it up and made the Simpson fall off the skateboard. And, I tried over & over to get better at it. The slightest wrong tap on the joystick or so forth can mess it up. I spent most of the game time trying to jump onto a railing to get a big donut, only to miss the railing by a mile (there is no way to race up to it; they make it really hard) and go into the pit over & over again. In other words, if your idea of fun is to try the same thing over and over without any progress, and no way to achieve any, this game is for you.

Even hubby, a huge Simpsons fan, found the game pointless and annoying. He laughed a bit at some of the things they said, but even those weren't as humorous as in Road Rage for PS2. Also, without any progress made, you can't unlock more characters. It's also missing a good aspect of Road Rage; a part of the game where you can just zoom around for fun, and practise without pressure. I tried practising in Skillz School, but that gets very dull. All around the game is just not as user friendly in its controls or instructions as Road Rage was.

The only people I can see liking this game are either the most rabid of Simpsons fans (who want to buy anything associated with the show) or people who play video games so much that they are experts with the controller. Because really that is what you will need to be. Also, it made hubby dizzy; the scenery always seems to be spinning. The skateboard goes so fast that any time you turn slightly the view spins around. Not for the car sick- prone person either ! Wish I had liked the game; I plan to give it away to a ten year old, who will probably have the time to become an expert at it...

worst.game.ever

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: September 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Save for Konami's original arcade beat-'em-up, the lineage of games based on The Simpsons has been less than stellar. The last two games to feature Matt Groening's maladjusted family unit, The Simpsons Wrestling and The Simpsons Road Rage, threw together the colorful characters of Springfield with gameplay that was remarkably similar to that of certain other popular game franchises. Now that pro wrestling and a Crazy Taxi clone have both been checked off the list for Simpsons game concepts, EA and The Code Monkeys have sought to mimic the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater formula to produce The Simpsons Skateboarding. The concept isn't exactly inspired to begin with, but the game itself is executed poorly enough that neither fans of the cartoon nor fans of action sports games will want to have anything to do with it. As unenjoyable as the gameplay is, the single biggest offender in The Simpsons Skateboarding is its graphical presentation. When you begin play, you'll initially have access to only one level, as well as Homer, Marge, Lisa, and Bart as playable characters, though fulfilling objectives in the first level will unlock the subsequent level, and finishing the game will net you other playable characters like Nelson Muntz, Krusty the Klown, Otto the Bus Driver, and others. The levels you'll go through are all broad approximations of Springfield locations designed as skate parks. You'll start off in the area surrounding Springfield Elementary and move on to downtown Springfield, also visiting Itchy and Scratchy Land, the nuclear power plant, and the Springfield Gorge. In each of the 10 levels in The Simpsons Skateboarding, you'll have to complete a set of goals before you can move on, and the goals remain largely identical from level to level. You'll start off with six quick lesson objectives in "skillz school," where the game essentially forces you to master a few key maneuvers before you can move on. Once you've completed skillz school, you'll move on to the regular level objectives, none of which should surprise action sports aficionados. In each level, there's basic item collection (like grabbing three donuts), three high-score score objectives, a destruction objective (like knocking the head off the statue of Jebediah Springfield), and a letter-collection objective, which changes from level to level and includes spelling "skinner" or "squishee" or the like. Finally, each level also has a competition component where you have to earn a certain point score on a specific area on the map before the time runs out. There are also two perfunctory multiplayer games, which include a basic score-based competition and a game of horse. There's nothing in The Simpsons Skateboarding we haven't seen in a dozen other action sports games. The game will occasionally get rather devious with the item placement on some of the collection goals, but that edge is dulled by the big arrow at the top of the screen that directs you to your next objective. This simple, linear format might be more forgivable if the gameplay was solid, but such is not the case. The gameplay is just a stripped-down Tony Hawk, with a handful of basic kickflips, grinds, aerial grabs, inverts, and manuals and a special trick or two. The limited number of tricks isn't really so bad, but the boards handle lousily, turning wide, moving rather slowly, being needlessly difficult to bring to a stop. Rotating your skater while pulling a vert trick is theoretically done with the shoulder buttons, but either the timing is incredibly specific or this mechanic is just broken, because half the time the skaters simply ignore the spin command. Grinding, on the other hand, is stupid easy, as the balance meter will stay at dead center as long as you don't move to the left or right while you're actually on the rail. The game is full of these kinds of gameplay quirks that make it unexciting to play. As unenjoyable as the gameplay is, the single biggest offender in The Simpsons Skateboarding is its graphical presentation, which is just bad. The township of Springfield has been rendered in a flat, blocky fashion, with lots of four-sided buildings and six-sided trees, and the textures range from passable to downright awful, exhibiting lots of blur and occasionally some really nasty color banding. The actual character models do kind of resemble their animated counterparts, but their proportions don't look quite right, and joints between the distinct head, torso, and limbs portions of the models are all very visible. Remember the episode of The Simpsons where Homer and Bart fall into a weird three-dimensional world and are rendered with polygonal models? Those models are head and shoulders above anything that The Simpsons Skateboarding is even remotely capable of. Topping it all off is some really vicious and sporadic slowdown, which brings the game to its knees. The only positive thing to say about this game's graphics is that the levels are large and the draw distance is unnoticeable, but these merits hardly make up for the rest of the visual deficiencies in The Simpsons Skateboarding. The game sounds only slightly better, featuring a blasé soundtrack of reinterpreted Simpsons themes and lots of voice samples. The game sounds only slightly better, featuring a blasé soundtrack of reinterpreted Simpsons themes and lots of voice samples. Actually, there's just lots of voice, but you'll hear bystanders like Apu, Barney Gumble, and Ralph Wiggum say the same few phrases whenever you get near them. Springfield Action News anchor Kent Brockman serves as commentator for the game, and he'll call out every single trick as you pull them off. With only two different inflections for each phrase, this becomes preternaturally annoying within the first level. With so many other quality action sports games on the market at the moment, the only possible reason you might be attracted to The Simpsons Skateboarding is the Simpsons themselves. But unfortunately the game makes such ham-fisted use of the license that only the most casual of gamers or the most hard-core of The Simpsons fans will be able to enjoy The Simpsons Skateboarding. Everyone else truly has no excuse for playing The Simpsons Skateboarding and should steer clear of this tired excuse for an action sports game.

Surprise! Another crappy Simpsons game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: November 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have a question to ask. Why can't anyone make a good Simpsons game? Every year a new Simpsons game comes out that is either mediocore or plain awful to play. Its an injustice to the tv show really. Simpsons Skateboarding tries to mimic the success of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series, but like so many other skateboard games, if comes up short. The music is horrible and the sound clips from the characters become repetitive and annoying pretty quickly. The graphics are so-so; some environments are okay while others are bland-looking. The character models just look...weird. Polygons don't seem to suit Homer and company. It would've seem more logical to use cel-shaded graphics because the Simpsons are a cartoon in the first place. The biggest thing I have against the game though is the controls and game physics, they just don't feel right. Your skater could be moving at full speed and can hardly get any air going off a ramp. Sometimes the animation feels choppy and the controls don't respond quick enough, which makes you mess up on your tricks very often. There has been worse skateboarding games made and there are some fun bits in Simpsons Skateboarding. But with the exsistence of the Tony Hawk games, which revolutionized the skateboaring genre, why settle for anything less?

STOP MAKING SIMPSONS GAMES!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 11
Date: December 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Yes,I like watching the simpsons on tv,no I do not like playing simpsons video games cause they're horrible!

This has been going on since 8bit nintendo,and developers still can't make a decent simpsons game.If they really wanted to make a great simpsons video game,then they should release the original simpsons arcade game(the one you had to pop quarters into) on a console.I don't know why that hasn't been done yet,cause THAT was a simpsons game I had a blast playing esp. when 4 people could play at the same time!

As for simpsons skateboarding,a big thumbs down!!

{bad copy}

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: March 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I'm seeing a disturbing trend in games featuring the Simpsons. First there was "Simpson's Road Rage" which was Crazy Taxi with Simpsons characters, which was half decent. But when they tried to apply the Simpsons to the Tony Hawk formula, they fell flat on their face, much like you will find youself doing quite often if you play this game. The controls so horrible that they render the game practically unplayable. The physics will not allow you to do what you'd like to do, making many of the goals completely unrealistic. The only thing this game has going for it are its graphics.

Bottom line: If you are going to buy this game, make sure you are willing to spend a lot of time learning the controls, because otherwise you will put it down after fifteen minutes and never have a desire to play it again. If you are a big fan of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series and big Simpson's fan, do not buy this game thinking you will get the best of both worlds because you will be very disappointed.

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