SUPARBEST!
The main levels were actually very easy. Alarmingly easy, especially as I’m sure I found it frustratingly hard when I played it last year. There were a few difficult goals to get, such as the get-all-the-cameras one in Moscow, and a skitching one in San Diego, but on the whole they were pretty easy.
Moscow was a bit odd though, what with the Skate Theft Auto girl-collection car bit, and the Tony Hawk’s Splinter Cell goal, which was totally stupid and annoying. Why do games have to do this? It’s a skating game. Why drive cars and have stealth sections? I was expecting a crate puzzle next, but thankfully it never came. I don’t mind a cheeky poke at another game in games, but not when they’re mandatory things to complete. And certainly not when they’re stealth missions. Gah.
Anyway. Things all went a bit wrong after the “final” level. I set up my own skate team, and then you have to pick 5 really bloody hard goals from a list of about 8 or so. Each takes place in a city you’ve already been to. A couple of them were really easy (the get-the-8-gaps in San Diego one, for instance), but some are too hard. There’s one where you have to get all 28 icons in 10 combos. I kept wasting combos by bailing or bumping into things. There was also a spine-transfer and do tricks one in Noo Joyzee, which was bloody difficult too. Eventually managed my 5 (including the “retro THPS” one, where you do four combos, one after another, each one removing things you can do now you couldn’t in previous THPS games – the last combo meant no manuals, reverts, wallplants, and all sorts).
Then. The final level. Evil Eric (as the story made him out to be) skates around Noo Joyzee and you have to follow him and collect tokens. After $hilariouslylargemadeupnumber attempts, I finally did it. And completed the game!
That unlocked quite a few things, not least a Kiss concert in the desert. Skating round as Iron Man, I triggered a performance by the clown-faced freaks. Bizarre. Then I got stuck in a lighting rig, so turned it off.
