Genre: Skateboarding
Developer: Electronic Arts
Publisher: Ultra
Year: 1988
Basic Idea: Skate and die.
Review: I admit the nostalgia for this game is higher than its actual quality. The controls are counterintuitive, but when you’re young, you get used to them. At least enough to enjoy the game, especially while competing with a friend. I loved the downhill events, and the joust was decent as well. And at least when you’re with a buddy, someone gets enjoyment out of you crashing into a fence.
The sequel has a laughable, hammy action/adventure game that is horribly designed and almost unplayable. But there’s a half-pipe game that is pretty damn awesome. The controls here are intuitive, and it’s existence helps propel this game into the countdown. Cheating perhaps, but I’ll often play both games at the same time.
As an aside, the Gameboy game, Bad ‘n Rad, is insanely difficult. It’s an action game that has some wonderful elements but is just too damn hard to really stick with.
Death By Troggles 
I never played this because I thought skating seemed like the most boring thing ever as a young kid. Then, when I was in high school, I was a total skate rat. Ahem.
I remember the complaints about these controls.
so you weren’t gleaming the cube back in the 80’s?
Heh. By the time I was gleaming the cube, nobody was saying “gleaming the cube” anymore.
The half-pipe game was awesome. I got the worst blister of my life playing the high jump in the first game.