Skate or Die!


Skate or Die! is a skateboarding game released by Electronic Arts in 1988 for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Atari ST, Apple II, Amstrad CPC, and IBM Compatibles running MS-DOS. It was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System by Konami, and published by Ultra Games. The Atari ST conversion was contracted to Codemasters, who contracted Kinetic Designs to do the work.

Gameplay

In the style of the Epyx "Games" series, players can compete in five different skateboarding events, either individually or sequentially. When the events are challenged sequentially, up to eight players could sign up to participate. The original Commodore 64 version was created by Michael Kosaka, Stephen Landrum and David Bunch. This group of programmers had previously been at Epyx and worked on the early "Games" titles. The idea for the game came from Producer Don Traeger, who had been inspired by a coin-operated skateboarding game from Atari called 720°.
The game featured two ramp events - the freestyle ramp and the high jump, two downhill events - the downhill race and the downhill jam, and the pool joust. The pool joust, downhill jam, and the downhill race were all head to head, while the ramp events were single player. The joust, which was a hand-to-hand knockout competition, all of the event winners were decided by a point system.
Four characters were featured in Skate or Die!: Rodney Recloose, a wild man with a purple mohawk and a Marine Corps tattoo who runs a skateshop in the game, and his son Bionic Lester, an even wilder kid with a green flattop, who the player character was able to take on in the joust and the downhill jam. In the joust, Lester and his two cronies await the skater. Poseur Pete challenges beginners and Aggro Eddie takes on intermediate players, leaving Lester with the advanced pros.

Reception

The game was popular with both computer and console owners.
The C64 version of Skate or Die! was also well liked for its introductory music, a catchy rock-flavored tune with digital samples that took full advantage of the SID chip's capabilities. Composed by Rob Hubbard, it has become a popular tune among modern fans of SID music and remixers of such tunes. For the NES port, Konami produced an arranged version of the tune for the NES's Ricoh 2A03 sound chip.
The game sold just over 100,000 copies between its release date and the end of the NES era.
The game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon #132 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 2 out of 5 stars.

Legacy

In 2007, the NES version was re-released for Nintendo's Virtual Console service in Europe and Australia.
A winterized sequel, Ski or Die, was released in 1989 for the Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, PC, and NES, and a true sequel, Skate or Die 2 was published in 1990 for the NES. Ski or Die retained the multi-event format while Skate or Die 2 veered into "adventure" territory. Both games featured Rodney and Lester.
In 2002, Criterion Games, creators of the Burnout series, was working on a Skate or Die remake or sequel for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. However, due to Criterion having issues with Electronic Arts, the game was cancelled in 2003 in favor of . It was in development for 12 months before it was cancelled.