Thrasher: Skate and Destroy

[Boris Magee]

Hey everyone,

In a debilitating fit of nostalgia, I purchased a PS2 along with the following games:

-Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (PS1)
-Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (PS1)
-Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (PS2)
-Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX (PS1)

So, I need some advice from you guys. No, not to pick up Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (that will be on the way soon ), but about a game that I have seen a few of you guys play.

Thrasher: Skate and Destroy.

I have seen a few videos of it (eternalREWIND and Demzilla posted some I think) and thought it looked awesome, but didn't have the right hardware.

Also, the cheapest copy I can find on eBay is about $9.5 USD (disc only), followed by a complete version (manual and all) for $13 USD. I couldn't find any on the Australian eBay, so importing a PAL copy from ebay.co.uk looks like the best best.

Do you think I should pick this up? Should I get the disc only, or the one with the cover and manual (I am a little strapped for cash at the moment). Any things I should know about it going in? I have hundreds upon hours in Skate 1, 2 and 3, so will I enjoy this game?

Thanks everyone!

[Roccityroller]

I think it is a super fun game to play. you don't really need a manual cuz all the controls are in the menus.

you will 100% get your 9.50 out of it. be warned tho, it is a bit difficult to get used to at first.. kinda like the first time playing skate.

[Boris Magee]

Thanks for the reply Roc, on closer inspection the 'disc-only' version isn't in as good of condition as the boxed one in terms of the actual disc, so I may end up just going with that.

And i'm looking forward to learning all the little nuances of the control system - just like with Skate. I have been wanting that first experience of learning everything about Skate again, so hopefully this will suffice!

Your reply is greatly appreciated.

[Roccityroller]

yea then once you learn everything you can turn up the difficulty with the addition of a "catch" button. You'll figure that out

[PoppySquidJr]

get it get it get it get it <3

[Boris Magee]

Hahaha thanks guys, I did end up picking up the boxed version. It will take a few days, but if I remember I will post here telling you guys how I like it. Thanks!

[Legba]

SUCH an AMAZING game!

I hoped for a sequel for sooooo long!....then skate. came out lol.
But it's definitely a terrific game well worth hours of play, even nowadays.
Good choice!

[Boris Magee]

All of these glowing recommendations are reassuring me that I made a good purchase. Thanks!

[pawnluvguitarist]

It really is a great game. If you've ever Played Dave Mirra its the same engine
There is a pretty steep learning curve, especially on hardcore, for some tricks you'll have to hold multiple buttons on take off. With the combination of the landing button and having to balance grinds, there can be a lot going on.

[replicant]

Thrasher: Skate and Destroy was the best skateboarding game before Skate hit the scene.
It's still worth every moment you get a chance to play it these days.
The complexity it has like PLG pointed out is pretty crazy till you get it on lock.

Also, throw away Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX while you have the chance.
It is an absolute piece of garbage. Grab Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2 for a much better version of that series.
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 1, Remix, and 2 I'd recommend buying as well because they are the best BMX games to date.

[Boris Magee]

Pawn, did you make some Thrasher videos at some point or am I making that up? And yeah, complexity of controls being high in this game just gives me more creativity.

And Replicant - yeah, I am really looking forward to Thrasher.
About Matt Hoffman - I really do love Matt Hoffman's Pro BMX 1, I played it as a child and even as a slightly older child and loved it. So, I bought it. I remember always wanting a PS2 so I could play Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2, having loved the first so much. Can anyone else comment on Mat Hoffman 1 vs 2? I may look into it now that you said it was better Replicant (although we do have vastly different opinions on the first game).

And about Dave Mirra - I spent a LOT of time with it on PC, never really played it seriously for the campaign but only for free-ride. I was looking into buying the first one for PS1, but never really looked into the second. I may have to give it some time hahaha
Also, because I'm lazy, could you tell me about the 'Maximum Remix' edition? If I were to pick up Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 1, it sounds like this version of it would be the way to go. How much does it add to the game, in an objective and subjective sense?

Thanks

[pawnluvguitarist]

Yeah I made a solo a while back

http://skatefluckit.com/showthread.php?t=10573

[agusbmxarg]

Boris, the Maximum Remix version has more maps than the regular version (Carnival, one great minimarket nighttime map, and a few more).
The difference is only that one I believe, and a few different songs. Oh and somehow, the cheats do not work on the Maximum remix version (actually this version was the only one available here at that moment, the only cheats tha work are the ones that unlock maps and bikes).
But maybe that was because I don't know one single person in my city that had the PS1 running with original game copies.
How much does it add? Well, more maps = more fun, more lines, more spots more hype, and that nightime map I named was the one I used to play the most.
DaveMirraMaximumRemix was welded into my PS1 system, so were thrasher and some other classics, but not as much as dave's.

edit: I'd give my left nut to own a ps1 system again, with my favorite games, every PS1 memory I have involves great, funny, unforgettable moments, either by myself, or with friends.

[EternalRewind]

Also in dm max remix the dm1 levels are changed alittle bit..

[Boris Magee]

Thanks Pawn, that should help tide me over until the game arrives.
And agus - hmm, sounds interesting. The removal of cheat codes ensures that I will play the game properly and get the most out of it, so after I give my bank account a courtesy cooldown period I will get right back into buying games again and that will be one of them. And you should look into buying a PS1 off of eBay - I was originally going to do that, but I thought why not make the extra step to PS2 and give myself access to thousands of more games.
And Eternal - yeah, I am definitely intrigued in maximum remix hahahah. Also, thanks for your Thrasher montages - I have watched them to death in anticipation of the game coming in the mail.

[agusbmxarg]

I'm from argentina, buying stuff from eBay is very complicated. But I will some day check for used systems in the local market.
About the cheats, I totally understand you, but for example, my case, I already completed the game 100% several times when I was a kid, if I get the game again, I will use cheats to unlock all the maps, cuz freeride is what I like the most (like free skating), and cheating wont make me play unproperly.

[EmmitBrown]

get it....i love that game

[Boris Magee]

I had some complications with the PS2 - the disc drive got messed up in the post and wouldn't spin anything, let alone read it.
So I am sending it back for a refund.
This morning however, I just walked down to my local EB Games (Australian version of Gamestop, just way more expensive) and got a preowned PS2.
It worked great, and is actually the latest model of the console before they stopped producing them. I have played the crap out of Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX - as it is the only game that has arrived.
And I am anxiously waiting for the arrival of the other games hahaha

Also a question for anyone who knows anything about it - 'Grind Session'. Apparently a lot of people like it more than THPS1 and THPS2, do you guys have any experience with it?

Thanks

[pawnluvguitarist]

Grind session was a decent game. Not as good as Thrasher but worth the buy.

[Boris Magee]

Yeah, Grind Session looks pretty good but I have higher priorities at the moment.

Thrasher: Skate and Destroy arrived! I have only spent a little bit of time with it so far, but am really liking it. I am impressed with how many possibilities for lines and stuff there are. Unfortunately, the massive speed boost you get when pushing makes it a bit of a pain to get the speed you want, but apart from that its great. Can't wait to spend some more time with it. May do it right now in fact hahaha

[agusbmxarg]

Grind session was a decent game. Not as good as Thrasher but worth the buy.

^^

I might be wrong, since its been more than 8 years since I last played that game but, didn't it have very clean, crispy sounds? (both skate and enviroment sounds). Good audio makes me like a game even more.

[Boris Magee]

Yeah, still looking into it.

Although, I am so deeply engrossed by THPS1, THPS2 and MHPBMX at the moment hahahahah
so so much more fun than tony hawk hd

[bunnybcitu]

Sorry, I might come off a bit biased but whoever said Thrasher was the best skating game before Skate is retarded. Yeah, it's good, it's a cult classic even. The learning curve was high but the difficulty is what people liked. However, as a full game, you gotta be kidding me, not even close. THPS2 alone was 10x better then Thrasher not counting the other additions to the series. Grind session is fun, but it's THPS without the star power or features, not really much difference.

If you're looking for some old playstation Extreme sports game nostalgia here's some of my favorites people don't really pay attention too.

Razor: Freestyle Scooter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZlbi...eature=related
Like Grind Session with scooters. I had fun with it.

Aggressive Inline
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Uos-GBOT4
More well known but it still falls short on peoples memory.

Disneys Extreme Skate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6V0u...eature=related
One of my favorites. THPS4 engine with Create-A-Skater and fun levels/characters. Loved it.

X-Games Skateboarding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHSstRe67Dw
I was in the minority of people who actually liked this but I really did enjoy it and I have fond memories.

Evolution Skateboarding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE2yd...eature=related
If there was a skating game that had potential it was Evolution Skateboarding. It was the first game introducing create-a-trick and the gameplay wasn't horrible. It was fun and I enjoyed it a lot as a kid.

Honorable mention:MTV Snowboarding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUEUx...feature=relmfu
I don't know if you like snowboarding games, the obvious winners are SSX but this game was one of my favorites growing up. I liked the fast paced gameplay and it felt smoother/easier to pick up than any other ps1 snowboarding game available.

Dishonorable mention: BMXXX
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMO9Vr32d6A
Since everyone is mentioning Dave Mirra, remember this crappy gem of art? This was suppose to change the way we look at video games as adults forever, haha. No.

[replicant]

Dear bunnybcitu, Thrasher was and still is the best skateboarding game that came out before the Skate series. If anyone is "retarded", then I nominate you for recommending half of the shit in your post. THPS while a fun series of games was nothing more than a platformer game disguised in a skateboarding motif in most of its iterations. What people liked about Thrasher was that it actually was about skateboarding, presented itself in a semi-realistic progression of becoming a Pro Skater, and the complexity in it's controls related to the complexity of actual tricks. It was a skateboarding game made for skateboarders and not specifically aimed at gamers like THPS was.

Razor was a shit game made by a terrible fucking dev team. Shaba sucked ass.
Aggressive Inline was a fun game for the fruitbooting arcade crowd.
Disney Extreme was a weakass kids game. It also did not use the Apocalypse 3.0 Engine like THPS4, but they were similar.
X Games Skateboarding was trash made by another terrible dev team. Konami Hawaii sucked ass.
Evo Skateboarding did have potential, but the game was shit nonetheless. It was another Konami Hawaii suckfest.
Mtv Snowboarding was trash. If you recommend old snowboard games then the best choices are ESPN Snowboarding or 1080 Snowboarding. SSX is only for arcade crowd.
BMX XXX... It was suppose to be Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 3 until Todd Robinson and the fuckwads at Acclaim screwed us over by making us add the Jackass crowd shit.

And no, you didn't come off biased. You just came off like a dumbass.

[pawnluvguitarist]

Glad I refreshed again before typing haha

What Rep said

And 1080 is by far my fav snowboarding game

[Noodlezer]

Wow

I'm amazed when i see so much people knowing this game! Here in France, nobody knows about it!

It was one of my favorite back when I was a kid, and I recently recatched it for my PSP, and I got stoked seeing how cool it still feels more than 10 years later!

few reasons why its a super cool game:

- best skateboard atmosphere ever
- its ugly, yeh...but damn it has style!!!
- AWESOME soundtrack that really fits the style of the game. Even if there's not so many songs (maybe 10?13 max?)
- the gameplay adds a kinda realistic feeling to the game: in max difficulty its hard to do and land tricks, so you really have the feeling that you're skating and completing goals is a real challenge (but not a boring challenge like those in th games)

its typically the game that people who dont like skateboarding wont like (whereas they can like THPS), but people who like skateboarding will love it and should be trying to finish it 100% with all characters!

I dont have an original copy anymore, but don't hesitate to buy it man...Its like a piece of collection to me

[SpadedOne]

Sorry, I might come off a bit biased but whoever said Thrasher was the best skating game before Skate is retarded. Yeah, it's good, it's a cult classic even. The learning curve was high but the difficulty is what people liked. However, as a full game, you gotta be kidding me, not even close. THPS2 alone was 10x better then Thrasher not counting the other additions to the series. Grind session is fun, but it's THPS without the star power or features, not really much difference.

If you're looking for some old playstation Extreme sports game nostalgia here's some of my favorites people don't really pay attention too.

Razor: Freestyle Scooter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZlbi...eature=related
Like Grind Session with scooters. I had fun with it.

Aggressive Inline
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Uos-GBOT4
More well known but it still falls short on peoples memory.

Disneys Extreme Skate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6V0u...eature=related
One of my favorites. THPS4 engine with Create-A-Skater and fun levels/characters. Loved it.

X-Games Skateboarding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHSstRe67Dw
I was in the minority of people who actually liked this but I really did enjoy it and I have fond memories.

Evolution Skateboarding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE2yd...eature=related
If there was a skating game that had potential it was Evolution Skateboarding. It was the first game introducing create-a-trick and the gameplay wasn't horrible. It was fun and I enjoyed it a lot as a kid.

Honorable mention:MTV Snowboarding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUEUx...feature=relmfu
I don't know if you like snowboarding games, the obvious winners are SSX but this game was one of my favorites growing up. I liked the fast paced gameplay and it felt smoother/easier to pick up than any other ps1 snowboarding game available.

Dishonorable mention: BMXXX
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMO9Vr32d6A
Since everyone is mentioning Dave Mirra, remember this crappy gem of art? This was suppose to change the way we look at video games as adults forever, haha. No.

You should be castrated if you think you can get away with saying that any of those games are better than Thrasher: Skate and Destroy.

Razor: Freestyle scooter?

Disney's Extreme Skate?

I was a young person when the PS1 was kicking and I was still way too old to bother with Disney's Extreme Skate.

They made a game off of the kids movie about surfing penguins called "Surfs Up." Sounds right up your alley

[EternalRewind]

Hahaha Disney Extreme

[Boris Magee]

Hey guys,

I have played the game a bit more and have unlocked China Banks. Its getting a bit difficult hahaha

So I decided to just freeskate around like i would in EA Skate, then remembered that there was an expert mode. So I turned that on. What does it do? I can't notice anything different

[pawnluvguitarist]

Hey guys,

I have played the game a bit more and have unlocked China Banks. Its getting a bit difficult hahaha

So I decided to just freeskate around like i would in EA Skate, then remembered that there was an expert mode. So I turned that on. What does it do? I can't notice anything different

You sure its on? You should be getting sloppy landings all over the place and have to use the catch button.

[Boris Magee]

Hm, maybe it wasn't on. I will go back and try again a bit later.

As for the best skateboarding game before skate, in my opinion that it is Tony Hawk 2. Thrasher's campaign mode isn't fun in my opinion, and it is rife with weird glitches. Although, as far as realistic freeskate goes, thrasher is definitely the best for that before Skate came out from what I can tell.

Also, when do you unlock the manual? Every once in a while I will be skating around there will be a perfect obstacle to nose manual (as my Skate instincts tell me). But I don't have it. Or do I? :S

[pawnluvguitarist]

Not sure man. I didn't actually beat the game. Just used cheats to unlock everything, switched to hardcore mode, saved, and never looked back. It's all about the freeskate anyway. There's a trick list in the pause menu. Sadly you dont balance manuals in this game though, the one thing it's missing from the Dave Mirra engine.

[PoppySquidJr]

Hm, maybe it wasn't on. I will go back and try again a bit later.

As for the best skateboarding game before skate, in my opinion that it is Tony Hawk 2. Thrasher's campaign mode isn't fun in my opinion, and it is rife with weird glitches. Although, as far as realistic freeskate goes, thrasher is definitely the best for that before Skate came out from what I can tell.

Also, when do you unlock the manual? Every once in a while I will be skating around there will be a perfect obstacle to nose manual (as my Skate instincts tell me). But I don't have it. Or do I? :S

If I'm not mistaken, only one or two characters can unlock the manual. I'm not positive on that though. I'm pretty positive the blonde hair dude can't do it though.

[SpadedOne]

Everybody gets one exclusive trick.

The manual is available to everybody.

L1 + square + up or down.

[pawnluvguitarist]

As far as characters go, I'm always Scab. I think that's his name, with the brown shirt. He has the worst "technique" which through trial and error I've discovered it affects the difference between your lowest pop and full pop. He also can't land some tricks on flat which I like.

[PoppySquidJr]

As far as characters go, I'm always Scab. I think that's his name, with the brown shirt. He has the worst "technique" which through trial and error I've discovered it affects the difference between your lowest pop and full pop. He also can't land some tricks on flat which I like.

I love Scab but he pushes way too fast for me to deal with.

[pawnluvguitarist]

I love Scab but he pushes way too fast for me to deal with.

Yeah I found it tough at first, but I found his low pop too good to pass up. You just have to work at it a bit to control the speed, it's like THPS, controlling the speed is half the battle and a fun challenge when trying to skate realistically.

[Demzilla]

cyrus...
fakie impossibles all day....
wife beater or hoody.....
washington sq...


heaven....


what noodlerz said....
thrasher is so fucking sick in so many ways its almost stupid..
atmosphere....
graphics...
tunes....
fucking spots...


i remember everyone hated the story mode but i loved it...
easy numbers....
cops...
dogs....
i can beat that game in about 20mins...



still need a dongle to use my controller on the pc.

[PoppySquidJr]

cyrus...
fakie impossibles all day....
wife beater or hoody.....
washington sq...


heaven....


what noodlerz said....
thrasher is so fucking sick in so many ways its almost stupid..
atmosphere....
graphics...
tunes....
fucking spots...


i remember everyone hated the story mode but i loved it...
easy numbers....
cops...
dogs....
i can beat that game in about 20mins...



still need a dongle to use my controller on the pc.

I just use a wired xbox controller. My emulator recognizes it, so I don't have to use any external programs either :P

[bunnybcitu]

Just because Thrasher was harder to play didn't make it a more realistic and better skateboarding game, sorry. I don't need to play a skateboarding game like it's street fighter to make me feel like i'm doing something worth while. THPS2, or even THPS1, while having easier gameplay was a lot smoother and defined as a video game. Sorry, but Thrasher just wasn't even in it's league.

I didn't say they were better than Thrasher, I listed some fun old games I tried when I was a kid along side Grind Session and Trasher. I wasn't attacking your favorite video game, I enjoyed it too. Now pick up your ball and walk back home.