Evolution Skateboarding: Konami's Answer to Pro Skater! - Square Eyed Jak 

With all the brilliant Konami cameos in this game I was half expecting a club level with Dance Dance Revolution music.

I’m not much of a skateboarding fan but as a big Metal Gear fan, seeing Solid Snake skateboard through Big Shell and ES puts a giant smile on my face!

Now this is the wacky stuff I love from 2000s skating games. Simon Belmont and Frogger shredding through Big Shell and taking down a runaway truck.

Honestly I'm surprised this Konami Skateboarding game is as good as it is, like man this was definitely worth a watch to see a possible hidden gem on the PS2 that slaps.

I love how you gave every game it’s own separate episode and go more in depth with them. Caddicarus has already covered a lot of these games but these reviews definitely show me a lot more info related to the game rather than trying to squeeze a bunch of jokes in.

The incredible metal gear solid theme remix was enough to justify this game's existence for me.

I can't believe we haven't seen the deck sticker placement tool since evolution. It was a nice touch.

I remember playing this as a kid and I honestly loved it! I would actually switch between THPS4 and Evolution skateboarding quite a bit untill THUG came out. It’s honestly cool seeing you go back and reviewing these forgotten gems. Love the content!

Hoping you get to the skate series at some point, but for now great hawktober so far! the first I actually get to watch as they come out. Thanks for the great vids jak!

It's nice seeing Jak enjoy a lot of this game. I'dve definitely enjoyed finding the castlevania boss fights if I had this game back in the day.

DUUUUDDDEEEE!!!!!!!!! I remember this game, but never knew there was a Castlevania themed level, and A Belmont to unlock!!! Definitely gotta find this!!! Excellent video as always 😁

Can’t wait for the final episode!!!

i had this when i was younger. saw it at the store for only $10 and it caught my attention due to me being a massive tony hawk pro skater fan. i flipped the box to view the back, and to my surprise saw solid snake and the base level and i was sold. i was also a huge metal gear fan. this game was always interesting to me because i never heard anything about it or anyone mention it. i also found it by chance.

I played a good amount of that MGS2 demo & always wanted to play the full game, now I *really* want to!

I know about Snake skateboarding, but a Belmont too? And he gets a skateboarding boss fight against Dracula!? This game needs to be known!

Definitely gonna pick up this game now, I’ve been on the fence for a couple years. Thanks for your recommendation jak

majorly underrated! love this game please do aggressive inline, it's one of the highest quality non-thps extreme sports games out there and incredibly fun

I remember playing the demo version that came with MGS, loved the pop punk theme so much that i downloaded it on limewire and put it on my n-gage, that's peak mid 2000s 😂

Underrated gem I still own it and it's extremely fun to play every few years

This game had been sitting on my shelf for like 10 years before I finally played it last year. The controlls are janky and slow, but I think it's suprisingly alright, I definitely enjoyed the pros going to differnt levels as a means to give more replay value.

I lowkey think THUG got a lot of inspiration from here... Even the bail with the knee slide

It's nice to see I'm not the only one who likes this game. I always appreciate an extreme sports game that tries something different. I should mention for those who don't know that there was also an Evolution Snowboarding too and if you can believe it, it's even MORE insane and weird than Evo Skate. I really don't hear a lot of people talk about it as much as it's skateboarding counterpart. Essentially, they took their X Games snowboarding games and added combat to it. I'm not kidding, you actually have to fight enemies as you glide down the slopes. You can even use spin and flips that shoot lightning at enemies for a range attack, it's kinda wild.

Didn't expect the words Konami and best to be used together in the year 2022. Great video and series. 👍

Ah Solid Snake, Doing the Impossible. Pun Intended.

Another game that has a similar feel with the combo system as the Tony Hawk games is Free Running, a parkour game. While is not perfect is an interesting game to check out.

Damn the character and clothing design looks kinda cool also with the way the baggy clothes move through the wind, if only the gameplay was a bit more fastpaced

Seeing myself at the end was totally sic! Thanks for sharing that :)

Vampire Killer is actually name of the whip that Belmont clan uses. MGS2: Substance was first released on Xbox as exclusive before it was later ported to ps2.

I love how Jak gives games chances regardless of how good or awful they are. This man sits through both, the pain and glorious moments just to give us a damn honest review. Awesome video as always Jak, hope all is well brother!

I like how the best alternative to Pro Skater still only managed a 6/10, it shows the level these games are on lol

Great video Jak. I too have also played Evolution Skateboarding and had fun playing it.

So many people had been telling me the MGS2 Substance skating game was all they needed, but having now seen this review, I wholeheartedly disagree. It does a lot of things right that make it a solid competitor in its own right, not to mention the Castlevania tie-ins I'd never even known were here until now! Also... was that Skate or Die music at the end there? Super stoked for tomorrow's episode. 😗

Honestly I think you are on the ball with this one, this game always felt in this weird middle zone, not better than tony hawk, but yet very innovative in a lot of ways. If they had polished out the controls/phyiscs and some more of the wonky things like those truck and tank boss fights, I think it could've held up to the same level as thps, but the fact its even this far in quality is pretty good given how most of these rip-offs and clones go.

this series is amazing. wish i wasnt late too the party. ive played just about everyskateboarding game in exisitence.

I find it hard to believe this gets a six. Your review felt like a 7 or 8 was incoming.

Awesome to see a proper in-depth review of this game! Most of the other reviews I've seen just follow the beaten path of "this game sucks but hey at least you can skate Big Shell as Snake" lol

I literally checked at 6 turned on notifications and I’m 30 mins late this is the game I’ve been most excited for you to talk about😭

Big W for playing splatoon 3 music at the start of the video

10:57 didn't expect that word

I didn't realize that this is where the Metal Gear skateboarding level came from. I remember playing it in Metal Gear 2 but thought it was a bonus made just for the game.

I've never actually heard of this game, I'm definitely going to give it a try. I know it's an arcade skateboarding game like Tony Hawk, but I think the skating in it looks a little more realistic to me. Obviously the levels don't look very realistic but they look pretty cool. Game looks solid.

It's my birthday today! Thank you so much for uploading

I know what to put on my Christmas list next

@13:30, cmon now, you fought a tank!

Love how you remain so positive when reviewing a 6/10 game. Great video!

It's honestly amusing to see just how many skateboarding games there were back there - some good, some bad and some that are just well "Skateboard Madness" really.

Would be cool if you had a boss fight with Fatman on the heliport like in MGS2 since he already moves on rollerskates, and maybe collect bombs within a time limit as well.

No matter of talking will convince me that you gave Snake a skateboard, Konami.

Goddammit, Jack! You can't access the other areas of the 'oil rig' cuz its from metal gear solid.... Subscribed!

How cool would it have been to have Fatman as a secret boss

it’s great that we can customize our deck size.

I remember thinking this game was so bad ass. Skateboarding? Boss battles? Also, they used some pretty obscure pros which I really appreciated. Too bad the game played so weirdly. I was too used to combos in THPS4

Pro Skater 4 Pro Challenges didn’t include unique areas but the unique challenges were some of the best. Then it was limited in Underground. But you at least had that. Trigger really?! Amazing.

Wait…there was a demo for this in metal gear solid 2 and you played at the big shell

Part of this games engine was used by Hideo Kojima in MGS2 Substance

13:35 It's kind of hilarious THPS 4 doesn't let you play as the gorrilla from the intro and just gives you "gorrilla mode" as a cheat, but this game has a REAL gorrilla lol.

Hawktober is my favourite time of year

4:58 "...sometimes with entirely unique locations": shows Big Shell Too bad you couldn't unlock Fatman's rollerblades in this game lol. I remember one of MGS2's releases included a demo of this level you could skate as Solid Snake. Edit- OK my bad you end up mentioning most of this. Suggestion- play MGS1-V.

Now that we know that Square eyed jak knows of ps2 Frogger, he must play The Great Quest

The structure suspended at sea is the base from metal gear

Vampire Killer is my favourite vampire killer!

Oh man, you’ve gotta play the Metal Gear Solid games sometimes, especially 2 and 3: Snake Eater!

Had this game growing up. It was pretty good, easily the best of the THPS alternatives. Main beef was the rather clunky controls.

Maybe that’s why the skateboarding mode in Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty was removed in the og Xbox version and the HD collection just like they did for the Snake vs Monkey mode in Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater it’s not in the HD collection and the Nintendo 3DS version

Haven’t started the video yet but I’m so excited to see your reactions to the boss fights.

Games like this are why im glad i picked up a ps2 again, never knew this game existed back in the day, the level design is superb & ive never seen anything like the castle level spider boss fight in a skating game before, its a nice change from the tony hawk series, the only major downside for me is the controls in this game are pretty clunky, still an absolute hidden gem for the ps2, the fact they added castlevania is absolutely nuts, this is why the ps2 is so great

5 bucks says that tomorrow will be Go Go Hyper!

Let's go back with another video with the funnyman Square eye jack

Vampire killer was actually the name of the megadrive castlevania game in japan

I had this good I had totally forgotten the name, thanks for reminding me

I give this game credit where credit is due they straight up threw a tank from metal gear solid in as a boss.

I loved this game as a kid

Aww I just made and subbed to your patron so I don’t miss out again, cuz I wish I wish in the credits of this review. Thank you for finally telling people that this game is decent and not trash! The best tony hawk clone

I loved disneys extreme skate adventure so much fun

KONAMI made Disney sports titles with Disney characters in it

Oh my god. I thought this game was just a fever dream I had as a kid....My sister got me this game fro Christmas when I was a teen (i'm 28 now) and I remember HATING it lol The only thing I remember was a map with a giant spider you had to kill by grinding on it's legs...very weird

I genuinely had fun with this game, wasn't close to being pro skater tho. At the end of the day, back when we had these games, we played what we had available so even though a game might suck in retrospect, it could have been fun to play at the time anyway. I think that should be taken into account when giving a rating

I'm eager to see if the next game can top this, and I'm hoping it's the game I've been thinking of since the start of this Hawktober.

Next year, step up to flavor and review Yanya Caballista: City Skater, complete with the custom analog fingerboard!

If it had exclusive boss battles for the unlockable characters, acknowledgement of Simon Belmont instead of being labeled as a generic vampire slayer (I mean, come on, they even put his signature whip on him!) and replacing Frogger and the other filler unlockable characters with others from Konami IP's like The Contra Guys, Yugi from Yu Gi Oh, James Sunderland from Silent Hill 2 and even Hideo Kojima himself, easy solid 8 just for that alone.

That’s my favorite splatoon 3 track!

vampire killer is castlevania on the msx in japan

10:56 i think this is the horniest Jak has ever been in a vid 🙂

Thank you for this video

You know what this game’s missing? James Sunderland and Heather Mason from Silent Hill 2 and 3.

What a gem. Might pick up if it’s not outrageously priced

you gotta play the Skatepark tycoon games that came in packets of Nutri-Grain for next hawktober!

You gotta try out the Street Sk8er series next

10:56 "I don't care how breedable he looks in that little man skirt"

Yo that vampire boss fight looks fire af! 🔥🔥

its official im ordering this off ebay

Battle boss characters?! Ooooh I think I remember this game from a demo disc! If I recall correctly it was just a trailer and I remember seeing the giant spider. I'm intrigued for this

You could edit your own specials in THPS2, although primitive, but it let you edit the speed animation of the trick in question. For instance, if it was a kickflip to indy, you could make the flip really slow, or fast, depending if you wanted it for big vert air or for stair slapping.

Aussie accents make everything 17% more entertaining.

god i love this game so fucking much. also im glad to see a more positive review of this

@ 0:36 Mickey Adventure 2

You played Aggressive Inline too? It rocked.

I'm definitely going to get this and stream it on twitch. I had no idea that Castlevania was included and now I am psyched.

Now this is more like it with a skateboarding game taking creative liberties, as the cross-over content is really interesting and so much more than just "putting the character in the game" and no more, paying tribute to the source material with its own dedicated level is really cool, not to mention that having boss battles in a skateboarding game can lead to something pretty inventive and fun, but couldn't quite reach that potential here. Unfortunately, we really missed the opportunity to see Solid Snake destroy a Metal Gear with sick skateboarding tricks, but perhaps it is just as well, as that would have been _too_ cool.

I enjoyed your outlook on this game I really thought the castlevania boss fight was pretty fucking hype really cool to see a boss fight in a skating game