Skate City Heroes - Just Bad Games 

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I gotta admit, I kinda like Virus's character design, and the basic concept of a robot built for a casino busting loose and playing a twisted game. If only there was a good story or game to give with him..

Developers pulled a Poochie at the end, had everything short of "Note: Virus died on the way back to his home planet."

For real, I'd TOTALLY play 'Tony the Hedghawk's Jet Set Adventure'.

Picked this game over Mario Galaxy when I was young. Thanks for reminding me of a haunting memory.

The character design of this game is clearly that of someone who has never worked with anime/manga-style, but was hired to do so.

10:23 They couldn't animate Jalice's face... but they gave her jiggle physics...

I love how the game just randomly brings back our kidnapped friend because the designers couldn't be bothered to animate another character doing the tutorial demonstration. This game does what a lot of bad games you cover seem to do: they copy and patch together different successful gameplay mechanics hoping that they will bring players in, but as the old saying goes, "Too many cooks spoil the broth," so instead of complimenting each other, the game just becomes a mess of half-baked ideas that don't fit.

Gotta love how the developers half assed everything, but took the time to code boob physics.

30:57 OMG I called it! When meeting the "fire-flies" I was joking about not being able to wait to see the "water-flies" 😂

This game is what happens when you have a giant, free-wheeling, no-bad-ideas brainstorm session and then somehow use all the ideas.

Please keep bringing back "That's how Shane dies". It's somehow funny every time

They may have had static expressions, but they had jiggle physics. The developer had priorities. Not in any sane order, but they had them.

the "laser" ability seems more like Just Cause than Pursuit Force, since you are essentially using a grappling hook.

Their entire budget went into the characters jiggle physics

This really looks like a game that could've been a cult classic if the execution was better. It's derivative, but it has style and some cool ideas. Stuff like wall riding then jumping to get up a wall, using the lazer grapple, especially if you could release it mid-pull for a speed boost like when skaters hold on to the back of a car. And mixing skating with combat could be cool. But sometimes games just aren't made to their full or even half potential for many reasons. Oh well, at least it made for a fun JBG episode.

You know. I would actually like to see a spiritual successor to this game that has some time, effort, and budget put into it. A lot of actually cool ideas and concepts for a fun game in the making.

To be fair, the Wiimote's roll sensor (what it seems you use for balancing on rails in this game) is super precise and consistent. That's how a game like BIT.TRIP BEAT is possible.

The patience you guys have for these games is legendary.

"huh?" "heh!?" Rerez. September 2023.

I had to look the devs up because of some words I noticed. Zeroscale is (was?) a German developer with HQs in Berlin. The term "Jump'n'Run" is the German name for the genre "platformer", and in game, the word "adrenaline" in the top left is written as "Adrenalin", the German spelling for it. At 32:37 it seems like a very literal and primitive translation, word for word, from German. I recognize some German sentence structures.

The reason that dialogue at the end is so jank is because they didn't expect anyone to get that far and you two are probably the first people to ever see it.

Holy crap I still own this game and remember literally none of it. EDIT: Fun fact that I think some of you will find amusing: my parents got me this game for Christmas, and unless I'm mistaking it for something else, I'm pretty sure it came with this skateboard accessory that you attached to your balance board for more "realistic" feeling skateboarding. So yeah, that's probably just sitting in one of my closets somewhere, collecting dust. Fun.

I think Shane and Adam need to do a special episode for terrible skateboarding games like they did for racing games

Some of the designs in this are actually pretty rad

No one talking about the jiggle physics

23:07 How can this be done? How can you make motion controls SO BADLY to the point where a guy that's probably in his mid 20's broke into tears?

14:24 Props to you guys for bringing up Pursuit Force. Played that so much when I was younger. Had a lot of fun with it! Just wish that mechanic was used in a better game than this.

To be fair, many ideas in the game looks very interesting and I would love to see an indie developer give this a new chance. It looks like it could be so much fun if done right!

I think I was expecting a new Rerez episode much more later but it's hella appreciated.

Her chest wiggles and jiggles and yet it's rated e for everyone, nice.

You mentioned Jet Set Radio and Sonic Adventure. This honestly does look like a Dreamcast-era shovelware game made only to rip off those two games and ride the wave of their popularity at the time, but was shelved and forgotten by Sega because the company recognized it was hot garbage. 😂

You know, in the hands of a better studio that didn’t just churn out crap, this game could’ve made a pretty decent spiritual successor to the Jet Set games. The template is there, but good god is it unpolished… At least we have Bomb Rush Cyberfunk to scratch that itch

If I had a nickel for every time Rerez reviewed a bad ripoff of a Tony Hawk game where the villain was a robot who kidnapped kids for absolutely no reason, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's strange that it happened twice.

Zoo did actually publish some pretty banger games, I have several of their GBA published titles: Wings (a WWI flight "sim"), Payback (top down GTA clone with 3D graphics, particle effects, and very impressive physics), Smashing Drive (a pretty linear 3D taxi racing game with power ups and crazy level design), and Big Mother Truckers (a truck "sim" with 3D textured polygons in an open world with full traffic). Course with nearly 200 games published in just 8 years, a few being good just by accident was bound to happen.

honestly this look like a kind of game i'd love to play when I was a kid

The devs clearly had their priorities in order. They spent much more time on the jiggle physics of all the girl characters instead of making the game good.

“No Friction Pushie-Haltie McWaitStay” absolutely killed me 😂

I really appreciate how you guys play through the entire game. Thank you for your sacrifice lol. It must be so hard to continue playing after the first hour or so. I'm so glad this series is still going on!

Y'know, sometimes I expect these games to be good, but then I remember what show I'm watching.

When I was a teenager, my youngest sister use to watch me and our brother play THPS a lot, but it was a little too complicated for her to get the hang of. Later, when we got a wii, she begged us to rent this game for her when she saw it on the shelf, thinking it would be for kids her age. She literally refused to play video games ever again after that 😂

I'm sure this game must've had an amazing development story.

Oh wow, a game I actually had as a kid! I don't remember a lot though, probably because of how I didn't get too far.

I had the PSP version of this and enjoyed it. The fact it has really exaggerated tit jiggle physics is still hilarious.

Virus looks like a retired bionicle in a wheelchair without wheels

Love to see these! Probably the only good thing about my entire day!

So it's a skating game where you WORK for the corporate overlords? That's a twist...

Don't forget that Zoo is also tangentially connected to the 4 DDI games (eg Ninja Breadman) through the Zool demo. Given their output, it's kind of amazing they turned away DDI.

Always happy whenever new episode of ITS JUST BAD drops

This almost feels like a game where, if it were just refined for a couple months before release, it could've actually been pretty alright. Motion controls aside, the style is unique enough, there are some neat ideas, and an action-based skating game isn't a terrible concept. But it was rushed out before there was ever a chance of it finding an identity of its own.

That money ghost and Solid Snake appearance caught me off guard 🤣🤣🤣

This is just bitterly ironic, because skating games with the balance board was some of the most fun I had with my Wii. Motion controls were fun for a lot of games, I swear. They just also shoveled out garbage like this in huge piles too.

They give you a "laser" that "allows you to fly" but what it functionally is... is a freaking grappling hook. wow

There is yet another possible inspiration that you may have missed: AirBlade. You are thrown into a map, you are given a time limit, and need to complete a series of objectives where you gotta basically vandalize stuff by means of your cool futuristic hoverboard skate. Usually the objectives simply being either destroying certain objects, or knocking out goons. And at the same time, you gotta try doing it as "stylishly" as possible with all sorts of cool skateboard tricks and acrobatics. I feel like that, in part, this is also something they possibly were trying to do here, but of course failed miserably at.

This game gave the guys eMOTIONal damage.

I'm genuinely curious as to how the drones handle in the PS2 version. The physics look entirely busted in their own right, even without the motion control aspect, but I can't say for certain without firsthand or secondhand experience.

I found Metroid Prime 3 to have fantastic motion controls.. you could flip switches and press and pull down switches.. appealed to that part of the brain that loved flipping switches... I loved it

Instantly hit with a wave of nostalgia from yall flashing Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam box art lol. IDK what the consensus was for that game on wii, but I remember loving the heck out of it! My brother owned it and we'd play it together, one of the few times he'd let me play a game with him lol

this is one of my all time favorite episodes, just feels like everything I like about rerez is in here!!

To be honest, I would be interested in a platforming, action-skating game, if done right.

I suspect that all the effort that didn't go into making the characters emote went into the really weird-looking jiggle physics instead.

i am kinda surprise they did not try torturing themselves playing this game with the wii motion board

Is it any surprise that the characters look perpetually pissed at the world when the world they exist in is...this?

Miming pushing off with your skateboard perfectly without actually moving should be a trick, lol.

This feels like Jet Set Radio but on a budget. Jet Set Radio had easy-to-pull-off tricks and the game wasn't so botched. I've played through it and I loved every second of it (despite me raging at the Jet Crush levels). From the music to the visuals to the overall vibe that JSR and JSRF gives off. This however has Rerez's worst enemy: *M O T I O N C O N T R O L S.* I feel like it's a staple in episodes featuring Wii games to have terrible motion controls.

I was gonna say "this title is actually interesting and underappreciated", but I thought it'd be the same as the ps2/psp version. Oh God, these motion controls 😂

The fact that this game has jiggle physics technically makes it a spin-off from the Dead or Alive games.

I can't be the only one who got Razor Freestyle Scooter vibes from this, right?

I love the series. You guys are great. Thanks for not begging for likes, comments, and subs. This is why I do these three things for you! You are both hilarious. Keep 'em coming!

I seem to remember ocarina of time had blinking character models in 1998. We appreciate all you guys go through for our entertainment 😂

Gasp!!! I was just watching old episodes of this series because I was missing it!!! Perfect timing!!!

This review is just golden. Whatever crimes against gamers this title has committed, they have been absolved by the cosmological brilliance of everything presented here in or out of context. I found myself cracking up uncontrollably a couple times just really taking in all of the insanity: the casino robot, the beautiful, stoic skaters in their futuristic purgatory bludgeoned by the concrete and by the hard-hitting one-liners delivered by the reviewers. It all came together for this video.

I think those things on Jalice's arms are casts due to how often she gets hit by a car.

7:36 made me laugh a lot 😂😂😂

You're telling me this game has a power up called "the laser" that isn't a weapon, but the game tells you it makes you fly...but actually it's a grappling hook. Genius!

It's always a pleasant surprise to see a new JBG episode yo. I often find myself going back and rewatching old episodes and cracking TF up like it's the first time I saw it. Thanks Rerez for the laughs, y'all.

I get way too excited when I see a notification for a new episode of Just Bad Games. I immediately stop what I’m doing every time! Lol

It's pretty nice of the referees to keep you from drowning.

If the final letter in the name of the secondary character was changed almost all of this entire video would end up in a VanossGaming compilation... doesn't help they used sans-serif font either. Keep up the good work though; always excited to see a new Rerez video.

I needed a new rerez video to watch on never-ending loop, thanks Rerez!

This game feels so much like a Data Design Interactive game that you'd swear it was made by those guys under a different company name.

Shane's feelings toward motion controls are exactly how i feel about online multiplayer. Great review as always guys, every time i think y'all can't possibly find a game worse than the one you played before you prove me wrong. Also: Money Ghost plush finally on the way, can't wait!

Damn this one is SO CLOSE to being a good game (at least mechanically and visually, the story would need some major tweaks to be even decent) but Zoo just refuses to put any effort into their games even when they're taking ques from other AMAZING games! Like you said, with all this inspiration: "HOW IS THIS NOT A BETTER GAME!"

These dudes have me on the floor with every video. I don’t know how long I’ve been watching these dude, but I’m confident that I every video twice.

Jalice has probably either the best or worst RBF I have ever seen on a video game character 😂

This is my favorite series on RU-vid! Thank you very much

I love how in level 2 when the character locks up they gain points for that

Love that little nod to JSR/F, especially after going back and playing them recently after remembering how much I loved Future as a kid. Still love them, but BOY you can really feel the age in the controls with JSR, Future is a bit better though

I've been feeling like crap today. Thank you for the pick-me-up

Unrelated but: I would love to see a Just Bad Games episode on Forspoken, Gollum, RedFall and/or Saints Row 2022!

as a fan of jet set radio, i love the mention of the series, great job on this video :]

Oh god i had this game when i was a kid i remember having good memories about it though

Wow this is probably the most positive episode in the series.

Considering how the kidnapped character was free in another scenario, I feel like the game has a very "Sonic Adventure" approach to storytelling where there's some connection and the "final battle" happens when you beat all scanarios

So many of these level designs remind of jsrf, the first one is shibuya terminal, and the waste factory is the sewer.

So this game didn't bring the noise, it was close but no cigar and did not make you feel like Superman. Also, the return of Doofus Snake in this episode!

Don't know why a skateboarder like Ching would give up freedom to continue living inside the magicians hat, but I'll just go out on a limb and say that it has decent wifi.

I wasn't just imagining that. The Robertsons have jiggle physics.

I think this is one of your best episodes so far, unfortunate that it is not getting the views it deserves. Stay safe my dudes, and give the one who broke into tears some vacation

One of the funniest gaming channels on RU-vid, period.