Evolution Skateboarding

Featuring Pro Skaters

NA release: 17th November 2002
JP release: 12th December 2002
EU release: 21st February 2003
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
NGC Magazine Review: 78%
Platforms: GameCube, PS2
Version Played: GameCube

The GameCube never got a port of a Castlevania game, so the only Castlevania content on the system was a couple of appearances in other games – and Evolution Skateboarding (which was also out on PS2) was the only one released outside of Japan. It’s a fairly naff Tony Hawk’s clone featuring some cool settings for levels and some unlockable characters. One of these is called “Vampire Killer” and resembles Simon Belmont.

There’s no unique special moves, so the whip is just for display – the Tony Hawk had fun special moves for its bonus characters, but this is just a skin with no personality. There’s also three “Castle” levels based on Castlevania, one near a church (complete with clock), one in a jail cell and another in a coliseum. They all seem like part of one large level, but gates are closed so you can never explore it all at once.

The one thing that sets apart Evolution Skateboarding’s objectives from Tony Hawk are the boss battles, and the Castlevania levels house two of them. One of them is against a giant spider and you need to grind on its web to knock it into lava and the other is against Dracula himself. Except he just spawns ten skeletons for you to trick into, and then he just bursts into flames

The Castlevania stuff in this is very mild – when I played this for my GameCube playthrough I didn’t realise the Castle levels were supposed to be Castlevania related, plus to need to complete the entire game before you can use the bonus skins (or GameCube, use a cheat code) and it’s just not worth. It. The only thing this was good for was providing an amusing minigame in the original Metal Gear Solid 2.

Fine

The main USB (Unique Selling Point, marketing jargon fans) is the fact that Solid Snake is an unlockable character and the Plant level from Metal Gear Solid 2 is the first playable area. A nice gimmick, but us thirsty, sweaty-palmed areas demand more!
Tom Mayo, NGC Magazine #79

Remake or remaster?

Not much for this.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to get Evolution Skateboarding.