Thrasher Presents: Skate and Destroy

"A great game for those who want more realism in their skateboarding game."

First off, I know this is a very late review. But I just got into it a couple of weeks ago. This may be a PS1 game but that doesn't mean it's outdated. I still think it's better than any Tony Hawk game out there.

GRAPHICS 8/10

The graphics in this game aren't anything fancy. There's pretty much just enough for you to know what the hell you're looking at, No fancy textures or realistic shadows here. Though the graphics aren't that great, the animations are. Every thing looks perfectly realistic. From pumping to doing "nollie BS Kickflips", everything looks like it should in real life.

AUDIO 9/10

The music in this game is great imo. Classic old school rap. The perfect music for a skateboarding game. Remember rap and skating used to be closely associated with each other back in the day. This game features 14 songs from rappers such as The Sugarhill Gang, Run DMC, Public Enemy and 11 other artists. The only gripe I have with the audio is listening to the same song over and over again because you failed a level gets really annoying. The other audio like grinding and bailing is nothing special, but I didn't really mind.

CONTROL 9/10

Some people say that T:S&D's controls are too complicated or too hard. But I believe that's because they're too used to the simplicity of Tony Hawk. After a half hour or two it gets a lot easier. I think the the complicity is really due to the realism. There's a separate button for fliptricks because when you actually do a fliptrick in real life, you don't ollie first then do a kickflip. You do a kickflip by flipping the board during the ollie. This also stops you from doing endless flip combos like in TH. The L1 and R1 buttons also modify your tricks into nollie or BS. Some people may say that may be too complicated, but I really didn't see a problem in it.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is really this game's main asset. The realism really makes doing simple tricks like 360 flips and such seem really cool looking. When you finally do a big combo you really feel a sense of accomplishment.

The multiplayer is also great. There's 7 different modes to choose from including a special mode called "Sick Fix" where the main objective is to do the complete opposite of normal, to bail as hard as you can. The wide variety of modes and great gameplay will keep you entertained for a good long time.





So basically this game is like Tony Hawk, but way better and way more realistic. If you want a good skateboarding sim, you should definitely pick up Thrasher: Skate and Destroy.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/19/07

Game Release: Thrasher Presents: Skate and Destroy (US, 10/31/99)