| Introduction
‘Disney Sports Skateboarding’ is another in the continuing
series of Konami/Disney sports titles. Considering the
numerous skateboarding titles already available on the
GBA, another one might seem like a bad idea. The Disney
brand name and the popularity of its characters, however,
is still very strong, so its more than likely that Konami
and Disney will sell quite a few copies to those who
simply can’t get enough of Mickey and Donald. As for
skateboarding fans, well, hopefully there’s something
here for you as well.
GamePlay
In games like these, there is always more than one
way to play. The problem, however, is that they all
seem to have roughly the same objective and with no
real indication that you're approaching the intended
goal. So, despite completing everything that’s (apparently..)
required, you may still fail the level as a result of
the less than friendly scoring system, which I must
also add, isn’t even intelligent enough to take into
account the tricks that you’re trying to do.
The objectives themselves require that you gain as
many points as possible by performing a combination
of tricks and pick-ups. On the plus side, there are
eight sizeable parks to try your skills in although
many are locked until you reach the required points.
The problem, however, is that you might never be able
to unlock all the parks, thanks to the terrible level
of coding employed in this title.
Controls
Although this game starts out with a tutorial, I
can guarantee that in ten minutes flat, you’ll be throwing
your GBA at the wall in frustration. Why? Well, not
only are the tricks incredibly difficult to pull off,
but the control system is also hopelessly flawed. I
should also mention that the instruction manual is quite
useless. So if you get stuck, you’ll have to solve it
on your own.
This game is obviously intended for younger players,
but Konami seems to have forgotten its demographic and
designed a control system that will inevitably frustrate
them to tears.
Graphics
If you've played any of the previous Disney Sports
titles, then the first thing you'll notice about ‘Sports
Skateboarding’ is that the overall presentation is not
nearly as polished as others in the series. In fact,
nothing really impresses and although the visuals for
the various parks stick to the tried and tested isometric
viewpoint, they’re still not particularly well designed.
One aspect that should at least be above average,
bearing in mind this is a Disney title, is the animation.
Unfortunately, this too suffers from sloppy implementation,
mostly due to the fact that it's actually been achieved
by manipulating sprites rather than using the currently
favored polygon approach. This results in less than
fluid character animation and glaringly so when you
consider just how many moves the average skateboarder
makes.
As you’d expect, all these visual deficiencies really
impacts the gameplay and results in a title that’s not
nearly as responsive as it needs to be in order to provide
an enjoyable skateboarding experience.
Sound & Music
The music is possibly one of the highlights of this
title and while it's not comparable to some of the extreme
sports titles we've seen recently, it does a fairly
good job of enhancing the game. There are the usual
skateboard related sound effects with wheels constantly
whirring and axles grinding. Strangely though, there
are absolutely no character voices to accompany the
skateboarding action, which in my opinion is such a
shame. It would have enhanced the game a great deal
if they had thrown in a few comments from Mickey and
gang.
Final Comments
I seriously doubt that even the most hardcore Disney
or skateboarding fan will derive any pleasure from this
game. How it even managed to gain commercial release
is a mystery. After all, everything about it is sub-standard,
from the lackluster presentation to the unresponsive
and frustrating controls and gameplay elements. It's
not exactly feature laden either, although there are
a fair number of parks to skate in.
There's also no multiplayer option, which might actually
be a blessing in disguise, since it’s doubtful that
you’d get anybody sane enough to play this terrible
game with you. To be fair, there have been some good
games in the 'Disney Sports' series although ‘Sports
Skateboarding’ is definitely not one of them. Avoid
at all cost!
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