720°

Developer: Tengen	Publisher: Mindscape
Release Date: 1989	Also On: None

I've decided to mix this site up since I've been on as Master System reviewer for quite some time. Now I need to even out the score a bit, so let's start it off for the NES with the numbers. During the time this title was released I was really into skateboarding, even though I could never really do much of anything and my brother and I ended up just sitting on the boards and going down the hill hitting each other off onto the asphalt. The sport had a different feel to it then, with words like "gnarly" and such attached to it and moves to pull off like "boneless." Pretty sure they don't use these words anymore and it's become such an industry now there's nothing to compare it to the early days when it was just picking up. There were a few skateboarding games released for the NES back in the day, some in combination with other games, and others just stand alone. 720° is an earlier title, released around the same time as Skate or Die, the skating game that normally stands out for anyone who remembers the NES. It was actually based on an arcade game by Atari a few years prior to its debut for Nintendo fans, and mimics the gameplay fairly well. It's not perfect, unfortunately, and nearly reaches the position of simply being terrible.

Graphically, I have to say Tengen could have done a bit more with the programming. Skate or Die had plenty of detail and a good usage of the NES' color capabilities. 720° jumps at you with a mediocre, crummy looking title screen and then jumps right in to the game proper. Your skater is animated well, though he looks a little too childish, and the skate park itself is nicely organized with a decent amount of variety and things to look at. Some of the obstacles/enemies look odd, but they fit the "cartoony" style of your character, so I guess they're somewhat permissible. Different than the arcade, but I suppose they follow the theme throughout. Still, the color scheme on most enemies is pretty bland.

For the events the backgrounds tend to be pale blue to represent water, which you wouldn't realize until you fell in. Otherwise it looks almost incomplete, but this is surprisingly close to the arcade, in fact. The ramps you descend upon on certain levels are fairly well designed, no real problems there. One of the events is the half pipe, here called the "ramp," and the graphics are a bit strange. The half pipe is basically just there in the middle of what almost looks like an earthquake fallout. Crumbled brick walls, pipes, indiscriminately placed green areas I suppose are grass and broken windows, all arranged in an MC Escher kind-of-way. I'm not sure how else to explain it, it looks strange. I suppose the background isn't important since this is not where the main action is, but the organization could have been better. Overall, the graphics are decent, but there was plenty of room for improvement. Some great ports of arcade titles were made for the NES, such as Toobin, but here Tengen doesn't seem to have done their job. What job would this be? To make a great looking game instead of pulling a cheap one.

720° is not too strong in the sound department either. The opening thing, nothing else to call it, at the title screen is pretty much awful. They try to use some very basic, bland sounds in such a way that it seems as though they're forcing this "extreme" theme out of it. The main theme for the skate park as you move about is a little too cheery, very reminiscent of "Paperboy," which is no surprise since the same people designed it. I'm not sure what the arcade music was like. If it's the same, I suppose they ported it well, but still, it just doesn't make me ready to skate. I think I'd rather have a picnic listening to it alone. The only interesting theme I found that created a nice mood was the one you hear when you look at the skate park map.

For the events themselves, they actually reuse the title theme for two, which is lame, and then throw in another that's more upbeat. It fits the concept better and is probably the best programmed song in the entire game, but it does have this odd "space alien" sound to it near the end and at the beginning. It's very strange. Sets it apart from the action in a way, but I did find it a decent fit. Sound effects tend to be very bland and almost nonexistent. The "crash" sound when you fall is simply awful, it sounds like someone striking a piece of sheet metal with a hammer and then they simply adjust this sound a bit for when you fall in the water. Could have done more with the effects, I was pretty disappointed with them. Plus, they use the same odd crash sound for everything that strikes you including frisbees and bee swarms. What? I never knew a swarm of bees sounded like Kraftwerk until I played 720°.

The gameplay is interesting in construction, but does not play out very well. Basically, you move your happy skateboarding lad around a skate park, referring to the maps if you're lost, and you have to compete in four events for each level to pass to the next. The four events are the jump, the ramp, slalom and the downhill. In addition to these are four skateboarding equipment stands where you can purchase one of four items which will increase you character's responsiveness and maneuvers. They are boards, pads, shoes and helmets. You purchase these by scoring high on the events and getting money for your efforts.

Sounds good enough right? Well, the controls are pretty responsive, I'll give it that, though at times you seem to misjudge where exactly you are during certain parts because they use this quasi-three-dimensional organization where everything is kind of at an angle. During some of the ramp events, you can tend to mistake where you're going to land. It's easy to get the hang of however. Still, the main problem is though 720° starts out strong, it ends weak. The jump consists of you moving your character down a set of ramps and making a jump when you get to the parts that are sectioned off from the lower one. Do some spins, get some points and then get a higher score. The ramp is just a half pipe where you can do different tricks to score points. The slalom is like the downhill minus the breaks in the course and, obviously, you have to go through flags to get a high score.

On the downhill you just move down a ramp to the finish line, falling and landing correctly from each section break to score points. Later in the game, in order to get into these events, you have to score points in the main part of the skate park to get tickets. Without the tickets you cannot enter the events. The best and only way to do this is through spins, thus why this game is called 720°. You can do a 180, 360, and so forth, more points given for more spins. With ramps around and such you can get some pretty decent height and a ton of spins once you get the controls down. Some additional moves would have been nice, but I guess they stuck with the theme till the end.

So where's the problem? Well, first off, you don't have to get a bronze, silver or gold medal to pass each "class," of which there are four total. You simply do what you can and if you make it you make it. After dying three times the game is over, which can only happen if the bees get to you in the skate park, but you can continue infinitely and start right back where you were minus your score (oh no, please don't take that away from me), so it doesn't matter how much you screw up, leaving no room to want to improve.

In addition, there is hardly any difference between the class other than some graphical color swapping and a few adding flags here and there or an extra part of the ramp on the downhill. That's it, and it's really disappointing. I was thinking each event would get a bit harder or would throw something else at you but they don't. It's the same game for each class and even when you complete the fourth one, regardless if you score perfectly or not, it just stays there and keeps repeating. I'm not sure what happens in the arcade version but I assume there was originally some type of ending. With no ending in sight and an endless experience ahead of you, you'll eventually wonder why you're playing in the first place. Great concept, poor organization, that's all you can say in this category.

I will give this game a pretty high score for creativity. Though it is an arcade port and I tend to despise ones that strip too much down while trying to stay the same, this was a pretty interesting game for its time and a definite precursor to games like the Tony Hawk series. Don't take that as a reason to purchase an NES and play it, I'm just saying you can see some early features of later titles here. The skate park idea is pretty cool and I like the point gathering feature in order to access the events. 720° isn't too shabby in its creative features, I just wish they organized it all a better.

I do play this game now and then, but really only for nostalgia. The lack of a two-player feature really makes it lame to play with friends since you have no way of competing and aside from escaping into my childhood I can't see any reason other players may want to come back to this after finding that Class Four never ends and it doesn't matter how well you do in any of the events. The length would have been good had the levels been more difficult, but as it stands it's not very long. You can completely screw up all of the events and it would take you approximately twenty minutes to go through everything. Technically, since Class Four is endless, I guess I should score high here. I mean, if a game goes on into infinite, who's to judge it doesn't have an enormous amount of length? If only, but for now poor 720° gets yet another low score.

In conclusion, I'd have to say there really isn't a reason to own this game. If you're an NES fan and happen to be looking for another skateboarding title, give this a go I suppose. Or, if you have fond memories and want to relive them a bit, go ahead. However, if you're actually looking for a well-designed skateboarding title that's strong throughout, stay away from 720°, you'll just end up disappointed. I must admit, I was quite disappointed. I never played it too much when I was younger because I didn't actually own it. I always assumed there was a lot to be had in the later classes and when I actually found out for myself I just wanted to cry and curl up in a ball, howling occasionally. Why most so many of my fond memories be crushed? Why? I guess it's my curse for actually playing these games thoroughly.

Graphics:	6
Sound:	4.5
Gameplay:	3.5
Creativity:	8
Replay Value/Game Length:	2
Final:	4.8
Written by Stan	Review Guide

Share |

Game Freaks 365 is not responsible and does not endorse the comments posted above from registered users. We reserve the right to screen, refuse to post, or remove user-generated content at any time and for any or no reason in our absolute and sole discretion without prior notice. Items that may be considered inappropriate to post are those containing profanity, hatred, vulgar, unlawful or threatening comments.

Read 467 times.