System: Playstation

Genre: "Extreme" Sport

Price:22.95 at GH

You would think that a game that has those damn Razor Scooters in them would be just a horrible licensing effort cooked up by some dumb schmuck.

Well....you'd be half right.

The story  (a story...in a game like this?) behind Razor is that your friends have been captured by the malfunctioning, badly programmed robot Norton and you have to catch up to him and free your friends. Your guess as to why you have to collect wheels to do it is as good as mine.

It's obvious who this game ripped off. I won't name names, but it begins with a "T" and ends in a "ony Hawk's Pro Skater." The controls mimic the uber-lordly game almost to a pin. But Razor feels clunky compared to the Hawk, mostly because of the changes they made to not be the same as aforementioned game. Like the most aggravating change, having to HOLD down the grind button to grind for a continued amount of time. This seriously gets in the way and makes performing combos an absolute cumbersome hassle. Also, the manual system in the game is the same way, having to hold down a button to perform it and while performing it, you can't move side to side.. Stuff like that is totally unnecessary, especially in a game you're aiming at a younger demographic that MAYBE can't do stuff like that well. If you're going to rip off something, at least do it right!

But even with that....it's still somewhat fun to play. It's really hard to mess up a game like this unless you go intentionally looking to do so. Which makes you wonder about some of the other skating games out there...

The level design is actually pretty good. Lots of places to grind and secret areas do make up the stages, so it's not like like you're confined to a bench and a rail. Also, in a good and bad innovation, by performing tricks, you build a meter on the side of the screen that when full, earns you an additional 10 seconds towards your clock. The bad part of this is that it seems like some of the level goals (especially the 30 wheels goals) depend on you getting lots of these bonuses which is hard as is. But if you're good, it helps like nobody's business.

Graphically, the game isn't going to win any awards, but it isn't crap. The backgrounds are pretty clean and there really isn't any slowdown or popup. The characters themselves are conveyed as eerie looking children (which most of who ride these things are). It's nothing spectacular, but nothing you're going to go, "Bleargh! What the hell is this? My 3 year old nephew could have drawn this better!"

Sound is mostly punkish sounding tunes from several no name bands. Nothing ear-scalding, but nothing ear-grabbing either, even though there are 1 or 2 songs that are standouts( I just had to like a song from a band calling themselves the "Sloppy Meat Eaters"....) Sort of a disappointment. The sound effects themselves aren't too bad, though, as they actually vary quite a bit and try to be as varied and interesting as possible, but still come up a little bland.

Gameplay, as stated, is Tony Hawk Pro Skater with a buggy control scheme. Although, unfortunately, with only 3 levels (albeit it nicely designed levels) and 6 small secret levels and very little in the way of bonuses, gameplay isn't exactly going to stand the test of time. Oh well, it's still light-years better than MTV Skateboarding featuring Andy McDonald for the DC.

Here's where it stands. Basically, Razor Freestyle Scooter is a rental at best, because even you kid brother's not going to want to play this for long and they'll be back to screwing up you THPS2 saves in no time flat. It's not a horrible game, as the levels are pretty fun to hop around, but you could do loads better with.....well, y'know.

The Reverend Mofat Jones waiting impatiently for THPS3 like the rest of humanity. Soon, very soon.

-Mofat

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