@3By: US GOLD  Year: 1987  Price: £8.99  Memory: 48K/128K @1

@3 720'@1 is an immensely playable game.
The gameplay incorporates four  very  simple  controls. You can rotate
left and right, kick and jump.
  The beauty of @3720'@1  is  that  you  can  combine these moves into
wonderfully complex sequences  which  will  be  awarded  bonus  by the
computer.
  The screen is laid out in  isometric  3D, and everything in the play
area is  either  black  or  yellow.  No  worries  here attribute-wise,
although your  character  is  a  little  non-descript  in  the  facial
department.
  You begin the game in the  centre  of Skate City, an enormous tarmac
plane incorporating skate-ways, ramps, jumps and pools of water.
As the name suggests, you  can  skate  anywhere  in Skate City (except
through pools of water). At each of the  four corners of the city is a
Skate Park; a sub-game  where  bonus  points  and  cash  prizes can be
earned for performing tougher feats on the board.
  There's slalom park where you've got  to weave your way through sets
of flags descending on a pretty steep ramp.
Jump Park forces you to perform  spine-jarring leaps while not falling
into the water.
Ramp Park involves skating  through  a  half-pipe, reaching higher and
higher each time.
Downhill Park is simply a race, er, downhill.
@3  720'@1 is a race against time from start to finish.
The aim is to perform enough tricks  to  win a ticket to a skate-park,
before the timer runs out. And once  you're  in the park, you've got a
limited number of seconds to rack up as many points as possible.
  In order to gee you  up  a  little,  and to prevent smart-alecs from
simply performing jumps in extremely  safe  areas, scoring more points
than they're really earning, a swarm of killer bees has been created.
As soon as the ominous message 'Skate or Die' flashes onto the screen,
you know you're in  trouble.  A  couple  of  seconds later the ghastly
swarm will appear, and proceed  to  chase  you around the screen until
you either give it  the  slip  or  become  enveloped  and get stung to
death.
  Being a fairly Bohemian sort of  place,  Skate City has dollar bills
lying around on the floor. You  can  collect the bills by skating over
them. Once you've collected enough  money,  you  could  do a lot worse
than glide over to one of  the  shops  in  the  park and picking up an
accessory. These come in  the  form  of  pads,  helmets, shoes and new
boards. Each will help  you  along  the  way  to becoming the slickest
skater in the city.
Boards offer higher speeds,  shoes  -  better  start  times and higher
jumps, pads mean you can get up after a fall slightly more quickly and
helmets will permit more dangerous aerobatics to be attempted.
  You are not altogether alone  in  @3720'@1.  There  are all sorts of
weirdos who inhabit the  city  -  muscle-men,  idiots on unicycles and
utterly derranged bikers. All of these will cause you to come off your
board and graze yourself with varying degrees of seriousness.
Wipe your chops too many times on  the old concrete hanky and it's off
to intensive care for you.
  The joy in the game is in the way you can perfect your moves.
You  can  spend  ages  just   fiddling   around,  not  doing  anything
particularly useful, just getting the feel  of  the board and having a
great time.
  Once you've got the hang of  scooting  around on the training level,
you can try out the more advanced level.
  Here things get a little more  sticky. Bees crop up more frequently,
and there are more lunatic bike riders, body-builders and the like.
  @3720'@1 is the epitome of a  Classic.  It's  got every element of a
great game.
The graphics are interesting,  the  action  is  pitched at exactly the
correct level and its got playability of astonishing flexibility.
  Did we flip over it?  You bet!
@4
  Rating: Classic  Reviewer: Jim Douglas @1
  Diagnosis: Virtually flawless arcade game.
             Addictive, smooth and  slick.
             Easily @5 US GOLD@1's finest hour.
             Don't miss this one.

 @2              Software Ratings
 @1              ================
 @4        1/10  Avoid this game under all circumstances.
           2/10  Poor and/or massively overpriced.
           3/10  Dull and uninteresting, if not actually awful.
           4/10  Fairly average. Nothing to get excited about.
           5/10  OK but nothing special.
           6/10  Not bad, some good points.
           7/10  Pretty good. Worth a look.
           8/10  Good stuff.
           9/10  Very good indeed.
          10/10  Brilliant.
        Classic  The best program of its type.