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The kid in this game is obviously sick of kerb hopping, and has discovered the most amazing use for his skateboard. Instead of jumping on it, or carrying it like some designer handbag, he has discovered that you can go forward on it if you push off with your foot.

This effect, perfected by Peralta and others in the mid 'seventies, allows him to contend for the bronze, silver and gold skateboards.

To get these pretty but impractical boards, one must collect the tokens left lying about by the aforementioned benefactor. To get a new bit for one of the boards, the tokens S, K, A, T, E must be collected by hopping over them.

Ramps have been left in all the right places to allow this. Flying things have been left in all the wrong places to ensure that you won't achieve it.

Various other bits of urban paraphernalia are present to add atmosphere and something to steer around.

To prove your dude's capability, you must perform your civic duty by cleaning up an old lady's garden. This must be done on your board, and all the junk given to the old lady at the end. This bit has obviously been put in to show that skaters aren't all bad.

After doing your bit for the inner cities, you must race the local top dude over an assault course. The dude can be lost in the first couple of seconds, giving plenty of time for you to wipe out in peace.

The whole landscape does a fairly neat vertical scroll over a narrowed screen width. Although the action is pseudo 3D, the movement is definitely 2D, with the obstacles having no thickness. The graphics are very crude; they do what they're meant to do, but with little or no style. Skateboard Kidz seems a rather desperate attempt to cash in on a current trend. Who knows, we may get Filofax Kidz or Mountain Bike Kidz for the higher end of the market.

As one who remembers the original skateboard days - oh how I wished for a G&S - this brought back no memories.

Strictly functional graphics, and no sound beyond tunes that Erik Satie and Philip Glass would reject as irritant, condemn this game. I couldn't for the life of me collect more than two tokens, and that with a lot of practice.