Skitchin' (1994)

History:

Can't say I've ever heard of this game before. My complete history with this game extends to me turning it on long enough to the get the title screen snapshot, which was just long enough to transport me back to the early 90's...

Expectations:

Not sure what to think about this game, but I loved Road Rash II back in the day and this is from the same people. Also the amazing 90's vibe I'm getting from this game is making me a tad more excited than I probably should be...

Day 1:

First of all, it sure is nice to see color again. Second of all... this game is okay.

The complications started with the controller. The first 6-button controller I used was registering button presses, but not holds, making skating impossible. The next 3-button controller was just plain wigging out, not letting me do anything. Finally, the third, different 6-button controller worked just fine, and I could actually play the game.

Once that was settled I could finally take the actual game in and, wow, it's style oozes out of everything from the title screen, to the shop, to the... well... look at this!

Splink? Fester!? This game is downright RADICAL! It's also kinda hard... While it does feel like Road Rash I don't think it's anywhere near as fun, and that has a lot to do with the actual gameplay. It's not terribly friendly, and doesn't teach you any of the mechanics. It only took a few races for me to figure out how to slingshot off of cars, integral to succeeding, but I'm still figuring out the jumping, or more specifically the landing, mechanics, and the timing to actually grab onto a car is all over the place.

Once you fall into a nice groove it can be a lot of fun, but as soon as you lose it the frustration sets in. It may just be that I'm not very good at this game, but once you fall behind there doesn't seem to be a very good way to catch up, and if you're in the lead and you falter for even a second, the rest of pack will wiz right by you every time.

Later...

Because knowledge is power!

I sat down for another play session with Skitchin' and it didn't do much to change my opinion of it. I did manage to have a pretty bitchin' run on the first course, but accidentally letting go of the ride I was skitchin' sent me from 1st to 5th... Still enough to get me to the next course.

I actually made it all the way to the third course, San Francisco, before finally getting knocked out.

The above image basically sums up my time spent in the game: Brief bursts of fun broken up by punishing frustration. The following image sums up how I'm walking away from the game...

Conclusion:

I really wanted to like this game, and honestly I can see how it could have been well received for its time. The controls are inconsistent and the difficulty can be pretty unforgiving, and bad luck with cars can just lead to a bad time. That said, this games attitude is excellent, and it managed to draw out a lot of laughs from me. I actually like everything about this game that isn't related to gameplay so much, it's kind of fun to love to hate Skitchin'...

Liked:

- Rockin' 90's attitude made the game more enjoyable than it deserved to be.
- When the gameplay was fun, it could be really fun.

Disliked:

- It was often not fun...
- The controls felt very inconsistent, making improvement feel impossible. As soon as you though you had a handle on things you'd get steamrolled for no apparent reason.
- I still don't know how scoring works...

Personal Score: