Not quite, but close. Obviously inspired by the Tony Hawk games, EA's second Simpsons outing for PS2 features five modes of play (Freeskate, Skate Fest, Trick Contest, Skillz School and H-O-R-S-E) and nine playable characters. EA is promising lots of unlockable stuff and a wide variety of moves for skate freaks and Simpsons fans alike.

The Simpsons Skateboarding is an extreme sports video game based on the animated sitcom The Simpsons. It was released for the PlayStation 2 in North America on 11 November 2002 and Europe on 6 December 2002. The game was developed by The Code Monkeys and published by Fox Interactive and Electronic Arts. The story and dialogue were crafted by writers from The Simpsons, with all character voices supplied by the actual cast.

This game has been given largely negative reviews and is considered one of the worst games ever made.

Gameplay

Springfield has been converted into a skate park for the Annual Skate Tour, full of skate-able objects and landmarks from the television series. Players are able to choose one of the nine characters available to compete for the grand prize. All of the characters' voices were recorded by the actual voice actors from The Simpsons. Each character has over forty unique moves. Players can test their skills in either a two-player head-to-head skate off, or in one of the fast and furious modes: Freeskate, Skate Fest, Trick Contest, and a game of skateboard H-O-R-S-E, unlocking additional characters, locations, and skateboards. Players can also choose to learn all the skateboard moves and tricks before they begin the actual game in the Skillz School mode.

Why it Sucks

1. Extremely weak plot; the prize for winning the skateboarding contest is $99. Which is a small amount of money when you think about it, because how are you supposed to buy a Ferrari? Or pay for a month's rent? Even the easiest objective in THPS2 pays more than this!
2. Every time you pick a character, you have to wait for that character to finish talking to show his/her stats.
3. With almost every challenge, you get rewarded with only $0.10 initially.
4. Clumsy controls don't fully copy what Tony Hawk's Pro Skater does, making the game extremely frustrating to players used to the controls in that series.
   • The worst offenders are the left analog stick used for forwarding movement which just doesn't feel natural nor even comfortable, and the L1/R1 buttons used for spinning which doesn't even work most of the time. Instead of being tight and responsive, the controls just feel slow and sluggish. The physics also don't help the least bit.
5. Poor level design that does not take combo potential into consideration. Going back to Tony Hawk, the levels had set pieces that were subtly integrated into their designs and they felt natural as a result; here though, rails and ramps are randomly plastered throughout the map with very few combo opportunities.
6. Only a handful of tricks that you can perform; there's no wallride or reverts here to extend your trick combos in any way, for example.
7. Grinding is far too easy as the balance meter will stay at the dead center as long as you don't move to the left or right while you're actually on the rail.
8. The ollie height is very inconsistent, making even simple flatland tricks hard to pull off.
9. Lengthy load times that almost veer into Sonic 06 levels (no pun intended) of long.
10. Many unoriginal goals. Like getting Ralph's golf ball out of the water.
11. Many bugs and glitches such as passing through rails.
12. The game's overall tone tries way too hard to be hip and cool, including pluralizing everything with a Z (as Caddicarus said: 'Make it more hip')
13. Kent Brockman never stops talking. For example, he constantly says the name of every trick you do. Some of his other lines are unfunny (ex. 'Somebody get a really big band-aid!')
14. Very poor graphics, comparable to an early Dreamcast game. Jet Set Radio looked better than this!
15. Poor lip-syncing.
16. No GameCube, Xbox, or PC versions exist despite the other 6th gen Simpsons games being multi-platform, not that they are missing anything from this game!
17. Recycled voice clips from Road Rage.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The voice acting is good, backed up by the actual Simpsons cast.
2. Good soundtrack.
3. You can turn Kent Brockman's voice off.
4. You can upgrade your character's stats from the Pause menu, something that even Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 and 3 didn't allow you to do.
5. Easily the best out of all of The Code Monkeys games, as at least this, along with Shrek: Treasure Hunt, is at least playable (even if it's broken) and slightly enjoyable compared to theirlater'games'.

Videos

Comments

Hayden B.

The Simpsons Skateboarding is an extreme sportsvideo game based on the animatedsitcomThe Simpsons. It was released for the PlayStation 2 in North America on 12 November 2002 and Europe on 6 December 2002. The game was developed by The Code Monkeys and published by Fox Interactive and Electronic Arts. The story and dialogue were written by writers from The Simpsons, with all character voices supplied by the cast.

The game was widely panned by critics and is considered one of the worst video games of all time.

Gameplay[edit]

Springfield has been converted into a skate park for the Annual Skate Tour, full with skate-able objects and landmarks from the television series. Players are able to choose one of the nine characters available to compete for the grand prize. All of the characters' voices were recorded by the actual voice actors from The Simpsons. Each character has over forty unique moves. Players can test their skills in either a two-player head-to-head skate off, or in one of the fast and furious modes: Freeskate, Skate Fest, Trick Contest, and a game of skateboard H-O-R-S-E, unlocking additional characters, locations, and skateboards. Players can also choose to learn all the skateboard moves and tricks before they begin the actual game in the Skillz School mode.^[1]

Development[edit]

The Simpsons Skateboarding was developed by The Code Monkeys and published by Electronic Arts (EA) under license from Fox Interactive. Before EA made an official announcement about The Simpsons Skateboarding, an advertisement for the game was featured on the back page of the instruction manual for The Simpsons: Road Rage, and on in-game billboards, which was released in 2001. There were no mention of a console in the advertisement and no gameplay details were revealed. In November 2001, EA representatives said they were not ready to comment on the product.^[2] On 16 May 2002, a few days before the E3 Media and Business Summit, they released the first information about the game.^[3] All of the characters' voices were recorded by the actual voice actors from The Simpsons.^[1][4]

Reception[edit]

The Simpsons Skateboarding Pc

The Simpsons Skateboarding received 'unfavorable' reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.^[5] It was criticized for its chunky graphics, poorly recorded sound and music, lack of skateboarding tricks, and poor controls whilst the in-game dialogue were mixed.

Andrew Reiner of Game Informer said: 'Never before have I seen a developer put forth such an effort to secure the Worst Game of the Year award. I'll even go as far to say that this may very well be the worst PlayStation 2 game on the market.'^[9] Kevin Murphy of GameSpy said that 'The Simpsons Skateboarding should be a case study in bad game design.'^[11]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abc'Shred and Grind Springfield in the Simpsons Skateboarding for the PlayStation 2 From EA and Fox Interactive'. Business Wire. 14 November 2002. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
2. ^IGN staff (27 November 2001). 'The Simpsons Go Skateboarding'. IGN. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
3. ^Smith, David (17 May 2002). '[The] Simpsons Skateboarding (Preview)'. IGN. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
4. ^'Here's a nostalgia inducing list of skateboard games'. Magneto. 8 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
5. ^ ^ab'The Simpsons Skateboarding for PlayStation 2 Reviews'. Metacritic. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
6. ^Marriott, Scott Alan. 'The Simpsons Skateboarding - Review'. AllGame. Archived from the original on 14 November 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
7. ^EGM staff (January 2003). 'The Simpsons Skateboarding'. Electronic Gaming Monthly (162): 176. Archived from the original on 14 May 2004. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
8. ^Taylor, Martin (1 January 2003). '[The] Simpsons Skateboarding'. Eurogamer. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
9. ^ ^abReiner, Andrew (December 2002). 'Simpsons' [sic] Skateboarding'. Game Informer (116): 123. Archived from the original on 12 January 2008. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
10. ^Davis, Ryan (26 November 2002). 'The Simpsons Skateboarding Review'. GameSpot. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
11. ^ ^abMurphy, Kevin (2 December 2002). 'GameSpy: The Simpsons Skateboarding'. GameSpy. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
12. ^Valentino, Nick (24 November 2002). 'The Simpsons Skateboarding - PS2 - Review'. GameZone. Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
13. ^Smith, David (19 November 2002). '[The] Simpsons Skateboarding'. IGN. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
14. ^Rybicki, Joe (January 2003). 'The Simpsons Skateboarding'. Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine: 132. Archived from the original on 29 March 2004. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
15. ^Rubenstein, Glenn (25 November 2002). ''[The] Simpsons Skateboarding' (PS2) Review'. X-Play. Archived from the original on 25 November 2002. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
16. ^Boyce, Ryan (25 October 2002). '[The] Simpsons Skateboarding'. Maxim. Archived from the original on 24 November 2002. Retrieved 20 August 2016.

External links[edit]

The Simpsons Road Rage

• The Simpsons Skateboarding on IMDb
• The Simpsons Skateboarding at MobyGames

The Simpsons Skateboarding Ps2 Rom