HOT CORNER

A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

What: ESPN X Games Skateboarding for PlayStation 2

Publisher: Konami

Price: $49.99

ESPN X Games Skateboarding has a very clean look to it, thanks to the ESPN license’s contribution and some very nice work on the part of those who designed and programmed the opening menu interface, but once you make it out of the menu system, the fun evaporates.

It has severe engine difficulties, questionable decisions as far as level design, and a stiff control scheme.

To begin with, the first stage (Los Angeles) is poorly designed and has terrible resolution and framerate slowdown. The Museum level has some visual fun, including giant dinosaur skeletons you can skate in, but that is really the only fun level in the game.

As far as gameplay goes, the X Games mode re-creates the street competition from the real-life event, without pausing to think whether this would actually be fun in a videogame context. In case you’re wondering, it isn’t.

The street course is too small and the halfpipe competition is tedious, as all you do is roll back and forth.

Wow. Someone wake me.

It doesn’t help that the controls demand too much from the player. The trick commands aren’t responsive and the camera angles used make it hard to keep track of what you are doing.

Stay away from this game, and buy a selection from the superior Tony Hawk series instead.