The board is powered by four AA batteries (supplied) and can be used on carpeted or wooden floors – non-scratch pads are supplied to prevent the board’s underbelly, smooth as it is, from damaging floorboards – but no matter where I used it, the board slipped about all over the place each time I performed a trick.
Slip slidin' away
As I got deeper into the game I became more annoyed by the board’s slippery nature. Sometimes the board shifted so far to one side that I couldn’t see the on-screen display. A nudge to the board with your foot easily corrects this, but I couldn’t help but feel that a bundled non-slip mat would improve things.
Making the on-screen skateboarder replicate basic moves – such as ollies - is easy. Thankfully, though, you don’t need to physically flip the board over for your character to do the same because they perform more complicated tricks in response to your board’s tilts and twists.
Nonetheless, learning how to pull off more complex tricks is hard work and after 45 minutes of continuous play, I’d worked up quite a sweat. According to publisher Activision Ride has over 100 tricks to master to keep you busy.
Board communication with the videogame isn’t faultless, though. Ride occasionally makes you cycle through on-screen menus by tilting the board from side to slide and select options by raising its nose. This method is a real pain because raising the board’s nose often caused me to select the wrong choice.
Bored game: Are we nearly there yet?
An oversize ‘Start’ button on one side of the deck can be used to select menu options instead of raising the board’s nose, we should point out, and the button’s location makes it perfect for nudging with your rear foot.
COMMENTS
He was much funnier when he just did comedy...
I wish he'd give up on the skateboarding and do some more stuff like 'Round Ireland with a fridge'...
(What do you mean he's a different bloke?)
Indeed...
The review states many things that are bad about this; the annoying tilt to select, the overly sensitive start button, the neck pain when in Vert mode, the slippery board, reverting back to controller mode without warning and it still gets 80%??? Also, what is with the blatant promotional shots of the guys in their living room, and the horrible CG image of the boxed product? A terrible, terrible review. Poor show.
late and overstates how BAD this game is
the garphics are terrible, the response from the board is erractic to say the least. This is a tragedy in game making more frustration than fun and still not worth the bargain basement prices you can get it for? 80% you are having a laugh - 40% is more like it.
AVOID like a shitty stick. Seriously just don't buy this tosh.
Why did you do this review reg? Someone throw you a freebie or did the reviewer owe some marketing muppet a favour?
I had to...
... check on metacritic to make sure this was the same game that was released waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in November and has a metacritic score of 46% (which compared to the readers score of 29%) is generous.
What next? Manic Miner?!
