There are a few certain rules in life that you can always rely on - things whose regularity is a comfort in our variable world. Like, for example, that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, or that beautiful young women only marry rich pensioners so they can hump their way to a heart attack and all that inheritance. One that should be familiar to most gamers is the following gem: games released straight to a budget price are bad.
It's a good rule to live by. But if you place faith in the idea of omens, start worrying, because hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunami are no longer signs of a forthcoming apocalypse - the real worrying omen is that Skate Park City, a budget game from a no-name developer and minor publisher, is good. Better than good, in fact - it's awesome.
Siliconera: "Skate Park City has a touch of Jet Grind Radio's style with its visuals, but inline skates aren't welcome here. Everyone in this futuristic setting has skateboards. Similar to the Tony Hawk game you do tricks, but the goal is to rescue a kidnapped friend from someone called Virus. It's like Skate or Die for a new generation."
It's actually a solid game and....fun.
It reminds me of the first 2 tony hawks games, it's not really frustrating like most skateboarding games if you mess up a trick it doesn't take you out of the action (having to stop), you just don't get the points and you pretty much carry on skating like nothing happened.
The only thing that annoys me is the music...its the same thing over and over, i'm sure there's something you can do about that with custom firmware but i can't be bothered to try.
Seriously its actually good.
Pocket Gamer reports: "It's a strange situation that while everyone and their little wheels is piling into the urban jungle that is making skate games for DS (Activision has just announced a serious overhaul to its Tony Hawk series, while EA is releasing its Skate It onto DS), the PSP has only had one skate game – Tony Hawk's Project 8 – released almost a year ago.
Midas' budget Skate Park City is unlikely to match the marketing or quality of that particular title, of course, but done with sufficient style and accessibility, the £20 title could fill a gap which is certainly not niche."
