"A circular joystick...and killer bees!"

In the early days of skateboarding games you really didn't have an option on what to play. The best thing to come to the arcades that gave some sort of semblance to the skateboarding world, were of course, 720. While finding a working 720 machine can be damn near impossible, the game itself offered up a special control option and a near addicting, yet mindless, gameplay. Playing as a skateboarder, you pull tricks off of ramps and collect money to get into skate parks where you can jump your score through the roof. If you can work with the strange to use control interface, and get into the more intricate things that the game has to offer, then you’ll find that the game does nothing more than create an enjoyable, yet challenging game to play through! Worthy of a couple of bucks in quarters, you could consider this game to be the start of other skateboarding games such as Top Skater and perhaps even the home games like Tony Hawk. In it’s own right, the use of the strange control setup is what really set this game apart from all the others of its day. With the circular control stick, I still haven’t been able to find another game that truly matches the same style that this stick tried to produce.

The goal is to gain points, and access to skate parks in order to bump your score up into high numbers. In order to get into the Skate Park, you have to collect money, either by picking up floating dollars, or performing radical spins off of ramps and over ditches. If you move fast enough, you won't be taken down by the swarm of killer bees that seems to zero in on your from across the screen. They can be avoided, but if you screw up, you're toast! Where the challenge of the game comes in, is to be able to successfully play through the game and make the money that is need to open up the different parks. To my knowledge, there really is no way to finish the game completely, because of the time limit that is placed on your travels throughout the streets. Some of your more interesting enemies that try to stop you range from the swarm of bees to the cop cars that just seem to get in your way at every possible chance they can. Once you’ve gotten into the game, you’ll find that the tricks are more or less done with the directional stick and revolve more around being able to spin like a madman rather than actually performing combinations like we have with the Tony Hawk games of today!

When you get into a game that puts emphasis on spins, the control here doesn't get much better than this. With a large joystick that is set off at an angle, you use this to spin your skater around and around as fast as you can and then land the trick. As for other control options, there aren't any. Where some of the problem comes in, is directing your skater through the environments. With the control set the way it is, you have to do a wide arc just to turn your character around to catch floating money or hit a jump. Beginners to a game such as this are going to have to learn how to use the motion stick that the game offers. Unlike other games where you have a basic joystick, the stick that you have here is more or less a circular motioning stick that really does take some time and effort to work with. In order to get through the game and earn the cash that you need to make it to other skate parks; you’ll have to learn how to use this new set up effectively!

As blocky as they came, the frame rate is low and the detailing is limited only to the environments that you're skating in. Spin tricks look smooth and even the landings come off looking halfway decent for a game of this age. Although there really aren't a lot of special effects to be found here, the in-game visuals still aren't anything to scoff at. Where the problems come in, is with some of the chopping and the occasional slow-down. Even on the arcade machine, these problems came up from time to time, especially when the action got intense. The skate parks are relatively huge and with the three-quarter overhead view that you find here in 720, there is enough that will keep your eyes busy with the smaller details coming through like blowing debris! Amazingly enough, this was top of the line and even today, it beats out some of the more intricate games that we’ve come to play and love in the arcades.

While not exactly the finger snapping beat that you're looking for, the music is as good as it gets. Keeping in mind that this game was created way back when, before the voice over music, symphonic sound and otherwise, the music found here is pretty good in it's own right. The sound effects include a strange rolling sound, cars that move, and the un-forgettable drone of the bee cloud that is looking to take you down. Throughout the game though, you may find that the music tends to drone on and on without much of a change, and there really isn’t all that much variation to the theme of the game. To say that both of the audio aspects don’t come together in a correct way would be wrong, but compared to other games in this day and age; it just doesn’t seem to hit the mark! If the arcade that you’re playing this title in is too loud in some cases, then you won’t hear anything at all, and there is nothing that you can do but make up your own tunes in your own mind.

720 is an old game that's placed in a relatively good looking cabinet. The speaker layout looks like a late 80's boombox and the game really isn't that hard to miss in an arcade? However, machines like these have disappeared, and the only place you're likely to find them is in a run down 7-11, Circus Circus in Las Vegas, or maybe one of the larger theme parks scattered through-out North America! Even with this in mind, the game was the first to put the gamer in the shoes of a skate-boarder, with a wild control, above average visuals and sound, and game play that was addicting as well as mindless all in one. Worth the quarters that you'd spend, when you look at today's skating giants such as Grind Session, Tony Hawk and even X-Games Skateboarding, if you've had a chance to play 720, you'll find an eerie resemblance to this long gone game!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/02/01, Updated 01/10/02