As you skate tossing tapes through windows, hopefully into mailboxes, and dodging traffic like Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver or the cast from DuckTales, you collect points and coins trying to meet up with your girlfriend Jessica in the park. It’s a simple game but hardly an easy one. The characters showing up in the intersections and along the sidewalk that you have to avoid crashing into can become quite distracting. Often, I care more about knocking out all the CareBears than I do moving out of the way of the sedan coming up behind me and killing me.
I find this game infuriating. My best runs are ridiculously short, yet I can’t stop wanting to play. I keep coming back and going again and again. One of the nice things about this is how the developers keep a running tab for you so that no matter how awful you are (as I am) you can still save up enough coin to purchase avatar outfits. Currently, I’m embracing the Marty McFly-ness of the game using “The Slacker” skin. Point is, this little aspect adds just enough to keep you returning to ‘git gud.’
My only negative criticism of the game is that playing on my laptop the keyboard control is hyper-sensitive leading me to crash into more than a few things with surprising force. However, it’s a quibble. Even if we ignored the nostalgia gimmick, this game’s low cost and seemingly endless play makes it enticing and addictive. The Videokid is just fun.