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Title: Skitchin
Author:Electronic Arts
Rom Player: KGen
Reviewer: R. Brown
Synopsis: On a cold and lonely night a few years ago, I contacted a friend in an attempt to alleviate some of the boredom I was experiencing. The friend soon proved to be useless in achieving such an end, so I enquired as to his recommendations of Sega Mega Drive roms (As for some reason, Sega decided that Australians would rather buy something called "Mega Drive" than "Genesis", and thus gave the Australian console the different name. This theory later proved to be incorrect when Australian Mega Drive sales flopped). My friend fervently insisted that I must download a game called "Skitchin". "Skitchin?!" I scoffed. What kind of a stupid game was that? However, I knew my friend to be wise (if not particularly interesting) and so I downloaded the rom...
Wow. What a fucking cool game. Excuse the language, but... no. Skitchin is not just cool. It really is fucking cool.
For the enquiring minds out there, "skitching" itself is a hybrid of skating and hitching. You know that bit in Back to the Future when Marty is on his hover board and he grabs onto the back of a car and it pulls him along? It's like that. Only in this game, you're on rollerblades. Yes, they're a little outdated, but we're talking 1994 here, people. I had "blades" back in 1994. I had blades and a fluro orange Stackhat and I went to a roller rink where the walls were covered with orange shag pile carpet and they played Guns 'N Roses tapes... but I digress.
Skitchin is actually rather unashamedly very similar to the motorbike racing game Road Rash. And why not? EA were on to a good concept (take a normal video game like motorbike racing and add lots of unnecessary violence) and they were smart enough to stick with it. But don't be deceived; Skitchin isn't just a second-rate rip-off of Road Rash. In fact, it's far superior. The game is still a race between people with names like Jackal and Rabid, but instead of just riding like in Road Rash, in Skitchin you can skate or, naturally, you can skitch. Skitchin also offers a far nastier range of weapons. Road Rash has a few planks of wood and various metal bars, but in Skitchin you can assault your competitors with electric cattle prods, nunchucku and chains, as well as the standard range of baseball bats and a crowbars.
In addition to the violence, one of my favorite parts about Skitchin is the tricks. Instead of just grabbing a bit of air like in Road Rash, you can perform about 8/9 different tricks off ramps, broken street signs, and fallen opponents. Ok, so it's no Tony Hawk, but they score you extra points at the end of each round and frankly, I find the tricks far more interesting than the racing itself.
All up, Skitchin is a really cool, really addictive game. I have a short attention span, but on that cold and lonely night, my boredom was shot to buggery through the entertainment provided by downloading the mindless carnage of Skitchin and digging up some old Guns n Roses tapes...
Best Cheats: On the "Don't try this at home, kids" bit, press B, A, Down, A, Start, Start. Then go into the Pass word bit and type:
ARMOR (top equipment)
MONEY ($2000)
THRASH (best three weapons)
Speed (three nitro bursts)
Game Play: 10
Graphics: 10
Music/Sound: 8
Originality: 7
Overall Rating: 9
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