"A skate boarding gem that is totally rad!"

Skate Or Die: Bad 'N Rad. If you are going to be playing a game like this you are probably looking for some nice fast paced, action packed, skating madness. And your certainly going to get it from this fun, if a little hard, skating game.

Gameplay
In Bad 'N Rad, there are a total of 7 levels. You start of with the first four, and you can start at any one of these levels. When you complete the fourth, you unlock the fifth, and every level you finish after that will give you the next level. Some of the levels are really challenging, and it is quite difficult to finish the game. Luckily once you unlock a level you can use that level as much as you want until you turn the game off.

The controls are simple and responsive. A will make you skater jump, while B will cause him to duck, allowing you to avoid various challenges. While you can't control yourself very well in the air, you don't really need to, so it is not a real problem, although it can kill you,

There are two types of levels. Side-Scrolling ones, like 1, 3, 5, 6 and 7, and ones where you are constantly riding downwards, and have to avoid obstacles. This gives a good mix of different challenges. Some of the levels are a bit similar, but they are all unique in some way.

8/10

Graphics
Bad 'N Rad has pretty basic graphics. Not great, but not that bad either. Nobody had any faces, most of the enemies' attacks are just blocks or circles, and the background for some of the levels is not great. Some levels however have fairly detailed backgrounds, such as the city background in level one, and the sewer in level three. Overall, it balances out, and it certainly isn't lessened a huge deal by the graphics.

7/10

Sound
The music in Bad 'N Rad helps set the scene. The fast beated songs are quite catchy, and are fun to skate to. The sounds are not great, basically beeps and bells. You probably won't take much notice of this however, as the upbeat music usually drowns it out. Again, the sound balances out, and its not great, but it does what is needed.

6/10

Replayability
While there aren't many levels, you will want to try and finish this game and that can take time. So while there isn't a huge amount of play time, there is a lot of practice game, and because this game is quite addictive, this could last you a while.

8/10

Final Verdict
A fun fast paced game that I highly recommend. Definitely worth the effort of finding it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/19/06