As featured in Retrogaming Times Monthly issue #71, April 2010.

After an extended hiatus, NES'cade is back and while many of the previous entries have covered some truly excellent NES conversions, gamers of the era know that was not always the case.  The grandfather of all extreme sports games, 720 Degrees drops the player into the sneakers of a typical skateboarder if the late 1980's.  The core objective is to gain admission into skate parks to compete in events, winning medals and cash.  Skate parks require tickets for entry which are earned through meeting point thresholds which increase as the game proceeds.  While points are earned for competing in the skate park events, a big part of racking up your score takes place out in Skate City.  Skate City acts as a hub between the four skate parks serving as an open area where the player can pull off tricks for points, scoring higher for more complex maneuvers over hazardous obstacles.  In addition to the four skate parks there are also four shops at the edges of Skate City.  Cash collected or earned through events can be spent in the skate shops on better gear and boards that increase your skater's stats.  While all this is going on, a timer is constantly tickling down.  Once the timer runs out, a swarm of killer bees are dispatched to hunt down the player.  The only way to survive the attack is to hurry to a skate park with a ticket and begin an event.  After the event is completed, regardless of the player's performance, the timer is reset once again.

In addition to the unique extreme sports concept, the arcade machine itself was one of those grand original designs that made the game really stand out.  The cabinet itself had an unusual shape that allowed a large unobstructed area for the control panel, with plenty of space on each side for the player to stand.  The machine also housed a large monitor with the marquee above it styled after a boombox which contained the speakers.  To add even more uniqueness to the game it used a very nonstandard control system - a circular rotating joystick.  Imagine a joystick mounted atop a spinner at an angle;  rotating the position of the stick rotates the direction your skater faces.  The special joystick setup worked out great for rapidly cranking the stick around to perform tricks and land insane jumps.  Aside from that there are a pair of jump buttons and a pair of kick buttons (used to gain momentum on your board) one set of each on each side of the joystick.

Sporting unique controls, beautiful high resolution visuals and outstanding sound it would be a tall order to bring 720 Degrees into the home.  There were a few different versions released on home computers of the day but Mindscape ended up handling the NES version.  From the moment the game is turned on one may assume they have a bootleg copy with how barren the splash and title screens are.  It honestly looks like there's something missing, like text or graphics have been hacked out, it doesn't set a pleasant tone for the game that follows.  Once the game begins you're dropped right into Skate City.  There isn't a starting area with giant speakers and a beginning difficulty selection like in the arcade, the game just starts.  So you attempt to maneuver your skater with the directional pad and he bounces around, seemingly out of control.  It takes a little while to come to grips with the controls but after a couple moments basic movement isn't too much of a problem.  You have to think of the directional pad being used as that circular rotating joystick, rotating your thumb around the directions in a circular motion.  Using a joystick such as the NES Advantage can make things a little easier for some but the control just never feels tight or quite responsive enough.

The NES version of Skate City might as well be an empty wasteland of concrete with a little water here and there.  It's a pretty sharp contrast to the beautiful and lush skating environments that were seen in the arcade.  There really isn't even much in the variety of terrain on the NES, the whole city looks like a work in progress more than a finished game.  Everywhere you turn the city is dark and dim rather than colorful and vibrant, something the original is remembered for.  I suppose at least the skater is a nice big sprite but he too looks muddy and poorly colored.  Yet the biggest problem with the game makes itself blatantly apparent the moment you attempt to pull of a simple jump on the way to your first event.  Gone is the fluid motion of rotating the joystick, instead spins are a messy combination of pressing jump, then a control pad direction different than the current one, then pressing the original direction again before landing.  You're going to fall - a lot.  Each time your skater wipes out a crash sound is played that sounds more like a car accident.  The removal of the kick button means your speed is always constant, so it's hard to control your skater's momentum.  All these factors stack against a control system that is far from perfect to begin with, making it a chore to get from one place to the other and even more difficult to earn much needed points.  Even with fully upgraded gear things don't become much smoother.

The four skate park events are the same as they were in the arcade for the most part.  Jump, Slalom and Downhill function as slightly reworked versions of the arcade events.  The Ramp event is displayed from the side rather than the isometric perspective the rest of the game, as well as the arcade version of the event, is displayed from.  This part of the game actually looks pretty decent and features more color and detail that the rest of Skate City or any of the other events.  As with the halfpipe events in other NES games such as California Games and Skate or Die, reading the instruction manual will be critical to pulling off tricks on the ramp.  I can't fault the game for being overcomplicated in this mode, it's simply part of skateboarding games.  I will say however that the animation is much more fluid and the controls are more responsive in the Ramp event although both are still nothing to write home about.  There's a decent attempt at bringing the music of the arcade onto the NES and while it's a little different, I still find it close enough and in the same style given the hardware restrictions.  The sound effects on the other hand are flat out horrible.  There are barely any to begin with but what is there is either barely audible or extremely overpowering and out of place, the skate crash sound being the biggest example.

After awhile the muddy sound blends with the muddy controls and the muddy graphics and the whole game simply quits resembling anything remotely entertaining.  That being said there is absolutely no reason anyone should suffer through playing the NES version of 720 Degrees.  Some arcade games should stay in the arcade and this is one of them.  720 Degrees is really only fun when you're standing at the cabinet, putting your body into spinning the joystick and pulling off tricks on the proper hardware.  When all those things come together at the machine, 720 Degrees is an awesome experience unlike anything else, one of the coolest arcade games ever conceived.  None of that transfers to the NES hardware.  It's really no surprise that Skate or Die was the runaway skateboarding success on the NES, and while that game isn't perfect either, it's a far better choice for your NES skateboarding fix than 720 Degrees.  As it stands, the only way to play this game right is to play it on the arcade hardware.
 

"InsaneDavid" also covers all types of video gaming at http://www.classicplastic.net/dvgi

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