Sinclair ZX Spectrum

Skate Crazy

Pull on your skates and get down to the local car park where your prowess on eight wheels is put to the test in the 'Car Park Challenge'. The player grooves his way around one level of the car park which has been turned into a multidirectionally scrolling arena for the gladiators of roller racing. Kick cans over, litter to collect and obstacles to avoid in the shape of cones, ramps, sand, bouncing balls, flying frisbees, mazes of tyres and rocks, and even other skaters. Finishing each level is a battle against time to negotiate a series of gates in a set order, the next gate being signified by a row of dots which flash between its flags. To complete rounds successfully, though, suitably impressive stunts and tricks are carried out to appease a set of four judges. Each have a card which they periodically display at the bottom of the screen, notifying the player of his progress. When the player's energetic jumping skills have gained enough points to qualify, he skates through the finishing gate and has his performance rated. Failing to qualify forces the player to skate around the car park against the clock, picking up a set number of pieces of litter. Beating a level allows the player to skate to the level's exit ramp, from where he chooses to move up to the next level or leave the car park and move onto the next part of the game, 'The Skate Crazy Championship Course'. This section of the game is a race against time over four horizontally scrolling cityscapes of platforms and ramps, with the player building up speed on his skates using a paced joystick waggling movement. Ground level obstacles and gaps in the floor are crossed with leaps of controllable strength and items at head height are avoided by judicious ducking. Birds and other creatures also spell doom for the heroic skater, unless he is able to avoid them or throw things at them. Points are scored in this section by picking up extra skating paraphernalia, such as pads, clothes, skates and litter.