Razor Freestyle Scooter

"Why so small?!"

Oh no! An evil robot has kidnapped five of the scooter gang and the only you can save them from his dastardly clutches! Lawks! Believe it or not, this isn't the introduction to Generic Platformer In Wacky Adventures 325, this in fact the story behind the ''extreme sports tricks'' game Freestyle Scooter. Yes folks, it's time for Tony Hawks Junior...

...only it obviously isn't on a skateboard. This time we're talking micro scooters (not a mini motorbike things I might add), but the gameplay mechanics behind it are exactly the same as every other game in the genre, be it on skateboards, BMXs or inlines. Anyway, first impressions - the graphics are very nice indeed. Despite the fact that the game is a Playstation One conversion, they've been given the full overhaul and look suitably 128 bit. The big headed (literally) characters are well animated and the cartoon style environments are very easy on the eye. Sound wise, the sound effects are ok and the music, whilst lacking big names (in fact all the bands are unsigned and nicked off mp3.com!) is passable in a generic pop-punk way.

And it plays pretty well too. Sure it's exactly the same as pretty much every other game in the genre, but those games were successful for a reason. There's a whole bunch of neat tricks to pull off and the tried and tested control system is pretty much flawless. So why is the score so low? Because it's unoriginal and aimed at children? No-siree. Quite simply because it's so small you really do think you're playing the demo. There's only 3 proper parks, which although well designed and different from the previous, really isn't too big. There's a few extra ones too, but these are just mini bonus levels and prove to be so frustratingly difficult, they're really not worth the effort. Whilst there are quite a few characters to chose from (2 initially, plus about 5 to unlock), there seems to be no difference whatsoever in how they perform.

There's only really 3 modes too. One if the ''Circuit'' mode where you must get enough points to progress to the next round, there's the practice mode where you can ride on any unlocked parks for as long as you like, but without getting marked; and then there's the 2 player mode which just sees players taking turns to beat each other at the Circuit mode game. And that's it. It really does feel like just a playable demo, there's so little to it. Which is a shame really, cos it looks, sounds and plays perfectly fine. Ah well... if you do decide to purchase it however, watch the Credits section... there's a video which you might just find interesting... hell, it'll probably last you longer than the game itself!

GRAPHICS - 8/10 - Pretty darn fine really. Big bold cartoon style parks and some children characters that actually look like children and are very well animated.

SOUND - 7/10 - The music's ok (as unsigned punk bands go) and the sound effects are passable. Pretty solid if unspectacular all round really.

GAMEPLAY - 7/10 - Same as every other tricks game really, but I guess that's a good thing. It isn't quite as punishing as many of its ilk to, which is a good thing (particularly for people like me who truly suck at this type of game!).

LIFESPAN - 2/10 - Oh dear. An experienced player will see it all in an hour. And unlike Tony Hawks and Dave Mirra and such, there's just no incentive to come back.

OVERALL - 5/10 - In most ways it's actually a pretty decent game - too bad they only made about a quarter of it.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/27/02, Updated 11/27/02