With the new millennium, a sense of danger and expressionism found its way into the purview of modern sports. This rise brought some underground pursuits to the forefront and obscure terms entered the vernacular, it was thanks to simulations of these sports, such as the Tony Hawk series that turned the skater into a household name. In 2002, The Simpson family found themselves in their own skateboarding game, bringing the skateboarding prowess to the franchise a couple of months before Tony Hawk did, in The Simpsons Skateboarding.

The annual skating tournament is hitting Springfield, and all the citizens have caught the fever. You start once again with the Simpsons family and one level, unlocking more as you progress. With its gameplay inspired by Tony Hawk, you spend each level completing certain tasks to advance, you rack up cents by pulling off skilled moves and completing challenges, that can be used to upgrade your skater, as he or she tries to become master of their craft.

A cartoon is a surprising fit for skateboarding game; Springfield has never had a fixed topography, and the levels allow some of the show’s iconic buildings to appear while their cartoon origins allow for reality-bending geometry, making unique and varied skate parks for you to explore. I would imagine the link of skateboard enthusiasts and Simpsons fans would be very close, though there is still going to be some who are complete novices to skateboarding. There is a modest selection of skateboarding tricks the player can perform, not a lot that the experience becomes overbearing to newcomers, but not so limited as to leave players wanting. Though the game features plenty of tutorials to initialise any greenhorns, and ways to improve your characters skating ability through cash.

Though it moved to a more powerful console, a lot returns from The Simpsons Wrestling. Christopher Tyng’s genre-mashing tunes have a homecoming here and match the independent spirit of skateboarding most of all. The stellar cast is also on hand to provide character quips as they perform tricks and complete tasks in abundance, you can often bump into recognisable Springfieldians on the street and Kent Brockman will commentate on the moves you perform. It makes sense that with the added space on the D.V.D. there is a lot more content for fans to experience.

The Simpsons Skateboarding is a tautological experience, more geared towards comedy than any sense of realism the sport could promise, in games like Tony Hawk. It does exactly what it says on the case, and shows enjoyable to traverse around Springfield in the same way that we have seen Bart do it, in countless episodes, and the challenges are varied enough to provide adequate challenge to all levels. It is the added content that makes The Simpsons Skateboarding shine, like the abundant music and the catalogue of dialogue, with a profusion of new material for regulars to take in, I am sure that if you give it a while, it is an experience any fan should get on board with.

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