Razor Freestyle Scooter (PSOne)
This is one of the more ridiculous concepts for a console game in a long time. Instead of being the brainchild of an adept developer, the idea for this game was probably given birth to by a marketer in a board meeting. Then again, why not? Kids eat this type of stuff up and marketers know that. Put a 6 year olds favorite toy into a video game, the child's second favorite toy, and sell that game at a price conducive to budget minded parents, $19.99. Then, add the word freestyle and release/promote the game just before Christmas. Two words: absolute genius. Rushed production, recycled engine, and rehashed gameplay aside, Razor Freestyle Scooter isn't a bad game.
Scooting is not an extreme sport, and this game highlights why it shouldn't and never will be. This game is as slow as molasses on a cold day, but I guess it was meant to be that way in order not to frustrate young children. It's almost impossible to mess up a trick and the scooters can even land while facing backwards. Playing this game -- much like doing a "no hander" or a "one footer" on a Razor -- takes almost no skill. Whether that is positive or negative attribute or not is up to you.
What respectable kid's game would be without a story? Razors' story, like the rest of the game is short, and to the point. A giant, evil robot has kidnapped the Razor scooter kids and it's up to Ami and Chad, the remaining kids to rescue them from the robot's clutches. A bit cliché, but then again, the kiddies love those whole killer robots and this game aims to please.
Replay value suffered as a result of the game's probably rushed production. Only three levels are available in the entire game, all the scooters included differ only in color, and the riders have only cosmetic differences. The only incentives to keep playing are 5 special challenge levels, skate parks suspended in midair, that only become available after beating all of the previous levels goals. It is in these levels that you attempt to rescue your kidnapped cohorts from the clutches of the robots, while making sure you don't fall off of the platform to your death. For the first few times seeing your little character fall off the edge of the platform can be quite amusing, but as amusement wanes irritation sets in which could lead to you putting the game down for weeks.
The Bottom Line: Seeing these trendy little scooter mutants fall on their faces is enormously satisfying for some, but for everyone else I don't recommend it. This game is definitely for the 10 and under set.
SOUND: 6/10
- The music is a fusion of inofesive pop/punk, without all of the swearing and naughty lyrics of other soundtracks.
GRAPHICS: 6/10
- The levels are well designed but the textures are muddy and the riders look like mutants.
CONTROL: 6/10
- If you've played any other extreme sports game you will have no problem controlling Razor.
REPLAY VALUE: 4/10
- You won't want to play this one again after an hour or two, then again, little kids can watch the Teletubbies for 5 hours straight so they might find some joy in this.
FUN: 5/10
- Not much, but for 19.99 what do you expect?
OVERALL: 5.4/10
