Grind Session
- May 26, 2000 00:00 AM PST
Sony hits the extreme scene with a new skateboard title that is nearly a clone of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and that's not necessarily a bad. Grind Session for PlayStation looks and plays great in the midst of a recent onslaught of skating titles.
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Big Boards for Big Boys
Noting the success of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, numerous companies have released their own versions of videogame skating, but none have even approached the depth and fun of T. Hawk�until now.
Grind Session is the first skating title to offer the Birdman's masterpiece competition, and for obvious reason -- the games are nearly identical. Grind Session is a lot of fun although it lacks the excitement and originality of T. Hawk.
Where Shall We Slash Today?
The levels represent various locations around the globe including San Francisco, Burnside, NYC, and several indoor parks including one in London. Each level is interesting and full of enormous ramps, cool rails to slide, gaps to ollie, and ridiculously high rooftops to launch from. The possibilities for high-scoring trick combinations and air-to-grind-to-trick-to-grind lines are endless, giving the game a solid replay factor. Progressing from a grind to a flip trick isn't always that easy, due to the care needed to maintain balance on a rail, but it adds a nice challenge to the game. The control is intuitive and responsive allowing for some really cool trick combos.
Skateboarding fans will easily recognize all the pro skaters thanks to the clean graphics. Willy Santos is the normal dressing normal body type skater. Daewon Song is the muscular hip-hop-clad ripper. Cara-Beth Burnside is the female representer. Pigpen is the shirtless tattooed, "mommy that man smells funny" slasher. Ed Templeton is the tall, trucker-hat-wearing blunt-slider. And John Cardiel is the chain wallet, button-up shirt, and cut-off Dickies shred-dog. Characters have special moves you can unlock after performing well and completing difficult trick combinations. Each character has a brief bio that covers everything from blood-type to "In a sentence, what advice would you give to someone who wanted to skate like you?"
Grind Session far surpasses T. Hawk in its gameplay options which include Tech Challenge (each player performs their highest scoring trick within 10 seconds), VS Play (head to head competition), Teamplay (up to 16 players in a tournament), and C.H.U.M.P. (a skating version of the basketball game H.O.R.S.E.). As you progress through the game and unlock new stages, new tricks will also be unlocked and the commands are presented for you to write down, memorize, or for the forgetful, added to the trick table of contents which can be accessed at any time during gameplay by pausing the game. The soundtrack is hot including Dr. Octagon, Black Flag, NOFX and GZA from Wu-Tang.
Don't Grind if I Do
Skateboarding is showing no signs of declining in popularity which means Grind Session should be among the first of many skating titles coming to consoles. If you enjoyed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater then more than likely you'll like Grind Session. If you though Tony Hawk was too far-fetched and want more realistic sim-type action then keep looking because this game is all about 1080-360-flip-mute-grabs. Keep the combos comin'.
