720

Copyright : US Gold | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

720 is one of the first skate boarding games to hit the home computer and was created way before those we see today, the idea of the game is to become the best skate boarder around and try to complete the various tasks armed only with your skateboard.

If you go to slow or you don?t pick up enough points you?ll be forced to Skate Or Die and unless you skate like crazy you could be on the news before 10pm and not for a good reason. US Golds 720 was released on a variety of home computers including the C64 and Spectrum so how does the CPC version hold up? lets see.

Graphics

720 may not be the most colourful game on the CPC but it?s better than some we have reviewed before it. There are various objects to jump over and avoid which include other skate boarders, muscle men and people at work (not to mention fences, ponds and various other nasties). Everything in the game is fairly well drawn depite the lack of serious colours, the playing area is quite small but this is more to do with the GUI than limitations in the CPC itself. It does look like the ZX Spectrum version in many cases but it plays better and doesn?t slow down as dramatically.

Sound

US Gold added a pretty slow but cool intro tune to the start of the game and like most serious developers they didn?t stop there, although the ingame sound is a little on the quiet side there are plenty of them to be heard. We suggest you turn your speakers up because you might miss them in low volume.

Gameplay

As for gameplay, well if you like your skate boarding titles you?ll more than likely love 720, it can be a little tricky at first but there are plenty of spins to keep the player happy. Skate Or Die!! is a particularly nasty feature of the game because unless you get to the Park before the wind catches you then you loose a credit and take a nasty fall, providing you stay active and don?t play in one area of the game over and over again you should be able to avoid this.

The control system is the only major fault in this otherwise okay skate boarding classic but we are sure that if you use a joystick to play the game (not a joypad or keyboard) you shouldn?t have any problem controlling your character and performing some neat tricks.