Extreme Boards & Blades

Extreme Boards & Blades Genre: Extreme Sports Platforms: Microsoft Windows Release Date: May 19, 1999 Game Engine: Genesis3D Developer: Silverfish Studios Publisher: Head Games Publishing Franchise: Extreme Sports Next Game: Boards & Blades 2

Extreme Boards & Blades is a 1999 skateboarding game developed by Silverfish Studios and published by Head Games Publishing for Microsoft Windows. The game was sponsored by Runnin' Tough, Mountain Dew and PowerBar. It has players skating around skateparks to get high scores in the most "realistic" way imaginable. Like so many other things in life, this is a lie.

Why It Sucks

1. False Advertising: The game promises to be the best skateboarding simulation, yet the quality of it shows that it is far from good. Also, the promised ska soundtrack does not sound like the reggae offshoot. Instead, it is generic alternative rock and techno music.
2. The controls are really poor because there are not only far too many button combinations, they are also all over the place. Some are sensitive, some are not responsive enough and some don't work at all. Even if you do get the hang of the controls, your character won't always act like a real skateboarder.
3. The physics are unrealistic because the character will speed up too fast and slow down and stop instantly, collision detection is spotty and using skateboarding tricks can be a displeasure to realism.
   • When you get off the skateboard, not only do you jump the ramps the same way as riding on it, but you will run really fast until you hit a wall.
   • When you use your skateboard, the best way to get a high score is to do tricks on one spot over and over again. This completely defeats the purpose of challenge since you can just keep on jumping until time runs out.
4. The sound effects are subpar such as the jump effect lacking any substance.
5. The graphics and character models look real low-quality due to the low polygonal count and muddled textures.
6. There were people who worked on quality assurance of the game, but the actual quality leaves a lot to be desired.
7. The whole game plays and feels like a poor man's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, which came out later in 1999 and plays much better than this travesty.

The Only Redeeming Quality

1. The soundtrack, while a complete lie, can be catchy, if you can get over the bad singing and abysmal musical riffs.

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