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The Simpsons Skateboarding

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The Simpsons Skateboarding
Developer(s)The Code Monkeys
Publisher(s)Fox Interactive/Electronic Arts
Platform(s)PlayStation 2
Genre(s)Extreme sports
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The Simpsons Skateboarding is a video game released for the PlayStation 2 in North America on November 13, 2002. It was developed by The Code Monkeys and published by Fox Interactive and Electronic Arts. In the game, 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. The game received negative reviews from video game critics due to poor graphics, sound, and music, lack of skateboarding tricks, poor controls, and bad in-game dialogue. It currently has an average of 38% at Game Rankings.

Gameplay

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. 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

The Simpsons Skateboarding was developed by The Code Monkeys, and published by Electronic Arts (EA) and 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, which was released in 2001. There were no mention of a console in the advertisement and no gameplay details were revealed. In December 2001, EA representatives said they were not ready to comment on the product.[2] On May 16, 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]

Reception

The game received negative reviews for its poor graphics sound and music, lack of skateboarding tricks, and poor controls. The in-game dialogue got mixed ratings. It currently has an average of 38% at Game Rankings. Andrew Reiner of Game Informer wrote: "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. After spending a significant amount of time with this product, something that I wouldn’t even unleash on my worst enemies, I came to the realization that Simpsons Skateboarding manages to do everything, even the simplest of things, completely wrong. So how downright awful could this game really be, you ask? Well, at one point, I actually found myself contemplating whether or not the developer took it upon itself to create gameplay, or if the action that I was controlling was a strange glitch or bug. Was the testing department on strike? Did EA accidentally ship the early Alpha build? I don’t know what happened exactly, but the outcome is nothing short of a resounding d'oh!"[9] Kevin Murphy of GameSpy wrote: "The Simpsons Skateboarding should be a case study in bad game design. I've played lots of bad games in my life, folks, but Simpsons Skateboarding has got to be one of the absolute worst. It's among the worst of all The Simpsons games, which is no small feat in and of itself, especially considering that distinction puts it among Bart's Nightmare and The Simpsons Wrestling. There's so much that this game gets wrong I'm amazed that Sony allowed it to be released in the first place."[10]

References

  1. ^ a b "Shred and Grind Springfield in the Simpsons Skateboarding". Business Wire. November 12, 2002. Retrieved 2009-03-14.
  2. ^ "The Simpsons Go Skateboarding". IGN. November 27, 2001. Retrieved 2009-03-14.
  3. ^ "The Simpsons Skateboarding Preview". IGN. May 17, 2002. Retrieved 2009-03-14.
  4. ^ "The Simpsons Skateboarding for the Playstation 2". GameRankings. Retrieved 2009-05-17.
  5. ^ "The Simpsons Skateboarding (ps2:2002=)". Metacritic. Retrieved 2009-05-17.
  6. ^ "The Simpsons Skateboarding Review for the Playstation 2". Gamespot. Retrieved 2009-05-17.
  7. ^ "IGN: The Simpsons Skateboarding Review". IGN.com. Retrieved 2009-05-17.
  8. ^ "Simpsons Skateboarding Review". EuroGamer. 2003-01-01. Retrieved 2009-05-18.
  9. ^ Andrew Reiner. "Worst Game Ever!". Game Informer. Retrieved 2009-03-04.
  10. ^ Kevin Murphy (2002-12-02). "The Simpsons Skateboarding Review". GameSpy. Retrieved 2009-01-04.

External links

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