Skate Or Die: Bad 'N Rad

"Bored of boring boards? Come on board!"

Skating today is all about pulling the cool tricks, and it's all in good fun. They may be the X-Games (as in extreme, a word I loathe and wish I could send to the lowest circle of hell), but everybody has a good time. Back in the early nineties, a veritable vault of skater culture and weary jargon, skating was not just fun fun silly willy kid stuff - it was cutthroat competition. You had to skate ... or die. The Skate or Die series has always captured the fierceness to be the best very well in its game, and Bad 'N Rad, while insanely difficult, is no exception. Even though you will be dying more than skating, there's something piquing about that makes you beg masochistically for more.

You are a nameless, faceless skater who's out to challenge the baddest of them all, Leroy (odd name for an Ultimate Skating Champion Villain). You can start at any of the first four levels, and there are seven in all, which are unlocked one at a time as you come to them. Along the way you'll meet up with other skaters that bear the most off-the-wall idiosyncrasies. The first boss is a clown that juggles balls off the ceiling and the floor; one sewer level pits you against a boarder in scuba gear that's hard to hit directly on top of the head; still others hurl knives at you, and dogs will attack you in the residential areas. Not all of it is side-scrolling skateboard silliness, however. You will also occasionally weave your way around hazards of the local environs in overhead-view levels, and do it all on a strict time limit to boot. Bad 'N Rad demands the most of your platforming skills and then some because of control, the next major issue on the list.

A skateboard can be a fickle device at times, especially to the amateur of amateurs, but an expert can flawlessly handle even the trickiest slab of wood on wheels. That's in real life; in this game, everything runs as if on ice, with that faint afterthought of a skid coming up as you stop. This'll make you end up falling in pits just as you come to a dead stop on occasion. You'll also experience meetings with the abyss when you want to jump from a hill to level ground but end up committing the ultimate oxymoron of planting your face in a bottomless pit. These controls are not fun to deal with, and can totally ruin it for a novice. Still, if you can get used to them and enjoy the thrill of making them work in the midst of the difficulty surrounding you, as I do, then this is not a major concern.

Music consists of edgy beats and rhythms that are fun to play (skate?) to. The sound effects are basic and sound like what would happen if you squeezed the sound chip of a frog toy so hard that it broke and let out only the last vestiges of a sound vibe. Music rocks, sound sucks. The music does go nicely with each locale, though. You get an upbeat, rockin' tune for the first level on the rooftops of a section of apartments (I guess that's what it is), a dark and eerie movement for the sewer, and fast-paced beach tunes for the first couple of overhead levels. You won't hardly notice the sound, but will deal with it because the music is nice to listen to. This is all speculation and based what I think, so you may or may not agree with this. I'm not you, play what you want.

All in all, Skate or Die: Bad 'N Rad, to cite its full title, is an engrossing game, more than worthy of time spent with a Game Boy in hand. Some players won't be too thrilled with the fact that the controls are a bit sketchy and that is way way way WAY too hard (I've never beaten it myself but still enjoy what I can beat). I think this game has hooked me personally though because it is something that appeals to me. It would therefore be redundant to admit that this review contains more than a fair share of bias, but I have stated it for those who did not catch that particular repetitiveness. This game will only be fun if you want it to be. Based on the current number of reviews for it, I assume it has been largely ignored by many gamers. Letting my bias show again, I say: Their loss.

Score: 7

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/07/02, Updated 06/07/02