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I'm a sausage. There I was, thinking There's something a wee bit odd about the controls on this one matey,' and I was playing in the ridiculously silly 'goofy foot' mode all along. What an embarrassment, eh?

Perhaps I'd better explain. Skate Or Die is a skateboard sim, and whilst you're groovin' along on your wheels you can execute your moves using two different sets of controls - the 'regular foot' option which means the board goes more or less the way it's meant to, or the 'goofy' one that makes it all a bit more wibbly. This oddity apart, you'll find that this is actually very much along the lines of last year's 720'.

You start in Rodney's skate shop where you sign in. Then it's off to the town square where you must choose the event you wish to take part in. Do this by skating down the right path. But beware you don't always end up playing the 'deadly' downhill race which is very easy to select if you're not paying attention.

You have a choice between playing the events in a set order, or going to whichever you prefer and plugging away at that. I've outlined the various events in the box to the side, so I won't go into too much more details here, except to say that unlike its rivals this seems to rely more on a sort of violent 'knock the other guy over' gameplay than on executing neat tricks all the time. Should you not have a pal at hand, you can always play the machine which provides three villains - Poseur Pete (he's easy to beat), Aggro Eddie who's a pretty tough customer and shop owner Rodney's little lad, Lester, who's one mean mutha.

And that's basically it really, except to point out Skate Or Die's particular strengths, the biggest of which is the colour - certainly. when compared to the monochrome 720' - it's a riot of seasonal brightness.

A rather addictive and very playable game then, as these things tend to be, even if it adds nothing to what 720' and the bonza roller-skate game Skate Crazy have done before.

Competent and absorbing new skate sim, but no better than 720' and not as good as Skate Crazy.