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The end of the Dreamcast's life has Crave Entertainment concentrating most of their original development creations on other platforms, while Sega's dying console settles for ports of year old games. The latest in this trend is Razor Freestyle Scooter, a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater rip off that was released on the PlayStation and Game Boy Color in the fall of last year. Unlike other copycats, though, Razor Freestyle Scooter was actually a decently fun game, making its existence worthwhile. On the Dreamcast, Shaba Games has sadly done little to differentiate the game from its PlayStation predecessor.

Oddly, there's actually a plot to Razor Freestyle Scooter. Why? Maybe to try and appeal to the younger demographic the game is after? Who knows! Norton, a badly programmed robot, has gone on a rampage and abducted Daryl, Hector and Brittany and four others from the Razor Crew. It's up to Chad and Ami to make their way from sky fortress to sky fortress before having the chance to free a member of their crew, who then becomes a playable character in the game.

In the months that this conversion has taken to happen, there have been no real changes made to the game. As expected, the visuals have been upgraded for a solid 60 frames per second frame rate (the game is pretty simple looking - don't get too excited), with no apparent slowdown of any kind. The PlayStation version was enough to get by on, so the Dreamcast's extra power does really help Razor Freestyle Scooter in not falling too far behind the curb.

Razor Freestyle Scooter emulates Neversoft's title even in terms of control - but this is a good thing. A leaps the character into the air, holding B and a direction on the d-pad is a holdable trick, X and a direction is a non-holdable trick. The key to amassing points is linking together tricks, but there has to be a stricken balance; the longer you hold a single trick in the air, the more points. Every time that trick is used, though, the point value decreases, so the game encourages that you constantly mix up your strategy. Razor Freestyle Scooter seems to be a bit lenient on allowing you to land tricks no matter how many you link, as I was able to freely button mash and come away with positive results many times.

The game's soundtrack is comprised of punk bands, and it's obvious the bands were chosen because they were cheap to license. The result is an assortment of music that sounds more or less the same each time. There are a few standouts (such as Sloppy Meat Eaters? Brand New Kind Of?), but as a whole, Razor Freestyle Scooter's music is entirely forgettable. Considering the age group that the title is aimed at, it would seem to have made more sense to pull together more mainstream music (I can just imagine scootering around to Weezer's 'Hash Pipe' - booyah!), but since the title is selling at $20, the lower production values likely prohibited this.

Now that Dreamcast game prices are rapidly falling in price, the $20 price tag on Razor Freestyle Scooter isn't all that appealing compared to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, a far superior title, which can be picked up for nearly the same amount. Dreamcast owners who won't have a machine that will play Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 when it arrives this fall might some enjoyment in Razor Freestyle Scooter, but otherwise, it is best to leave it to the kids.