263. Street Boarders (Atelier Double, Playstation, 1998)

Since my previous game (#262, Space Chaser) was a maze game released before the genre-definer, Pac-Man, I thought I would keep the theme going and try out Street Boarders (released in the US as Street Sk8er, and in less edgy Europe as Street Skater), a skateboarding game that was released one year before its respective genre-definer, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. The two games are not extremely similar, it turns out; right away Street Boarders is clearly a Japan-developed game with its bright colors and the good kind of 90s music. The soundtrack is a mixture of drum and bass, heavy techno and punk, and it just works really well with the gameplay and aesthetic to pump you up, even if you're just watching a replay. Looking up the US version, they actually filled it with punk rock bands of the day (which, to be fair, is essentially what this Japanese version is doing), which would also be a staple of the Tony Hawk series.

Gameplay in Street Boarders is racing focused, as you have a fixed time limit (extendable through checkpoints) and are scored on time at the end of each course. Any tricks you do along the way will add to your score, with a minimum threshold required for clearing the level, though tricks end up being a requirement, as speed is not enough to get the necessary points. Each level has multiple branching paths, so one route might be more speed focused while another may have a bunch of half pipes that allow you to rack up a higher trick score, so there's an interesting gameplay dichotomy. 

The actual execution of the tricks is another huge divide between Street Boarders and Tony Hawk. While Tony Hawk games require precise directional inputs to do different tricks, and is focused on combos, Street Boarders only requires you to line your character up with a ramp and jump at the right time (or just jump onto a rail to grind). The tricks are executed automatically, I assume taking into account the distance you have to land in order to determine which maneuver is selected. The tricks do get pretty crazy, though: on the second level I managed to land two 1440s (no human has ever landed a 1440, much less back in 1995).

Street Boarders feels like a slightly faster Tony Hawk in terms of movement and turning. Speed is both your ally and enemy, as you will fall over if you bump into anything when going too fast. You can press square to brake, which I only learned after finishing the first level and reading the manual. In between racing stages, there are 30-second half pipe challenges where your trick score is converted into seconds of bonus time for your next race, which is a real treat of a bonus round: something that is a fun way to practice and tied into your future gameplay. The main game is only 3 levels long, but encourages you to replay with other skaters, since each have different stats.

4/5, a shallow, but fast and fun early skateboard racing game