The Simpsons Skateboarding

To me Simpsons Skateboarding is a guilty pleasure game, I know it's awful but I can't help but get some nostalgic feelings out of playing it. This was one of the first games for the PS2 i bought with my own money as a kid and wow did i make a bad choice, however i was half decent at Tony Hawk and a lot of the mechanics in this game are the opposite of Tony Hawk. For instance, In TH if you grind the same rail node more than once in a row your balance is penalised, however in simpsons skateboarding it actually stabilizes your grind balance. There's a big but unclear emphasis on the stats page, you can't do shit on flatground without upping your stats, eventually when your speed and ollie stats are above 70 you can start doing the 360 flips and 360 shuv moves on flatground without eating the pavement. This isn't really communicated to the player that well and the importance of the Skillz Schools is understated, making most people put this game down before they even beat the first level, due to having low stats and not making the necessary upgrades.

The truth is though the controls suck, the physics suck, the use of the show's material is really poor, the one good thing is the level design isn't all too bad. The control scheme and physics are so wonky, it feels like im turning a tank when I play as homer, the controls can be overcome with some patience, learning that holding X doesn't accelerate in this game is a big one to overcome, instead you have to push up on the stick/dpad, alternatively you can ollie over and over for speed, because P H Y S I C S

Shit game, but i kind of love it.