Go Go Hypergrind is one of those games I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with. In some regards, it's a great game with a fun way to do skateboarding. For example, I'd say the cast in the game is pretty good overall. Characters like Penny, Piggy Sue, Decker, Vert and even Sally are among my personal favorites. The others? Eh, they're not bad, but I don't care for them. A shame the game doesn't share alot about them since some I found fascinating and wanted to know more what made them tick.
My personal favorite thing about this game is how you score points by mutilating your character in a cartoony way, from flattening them, decapitation, setting them on fire and even turning them into cubes. Being a big fan of this type of thing, it was very fun to see all the different ways you could rack up combos from cartoony antics. Even the way some cartoon characters take the pledge after becoming champion was interesting. My personal favorite of that was Penny since I could swear she was getting off to it when describing the mutilation she would go through as part of her contract, as if she loved the thought of it. Heh, that would make her all the more sexy if that were true. ;)
Sadly, that's as far as I can give the game praise as the rest of it is either too repetitive and mundane or flat out irritating. The game modes are very bare bones unfortunately, so after awhile, even the cartoony mutilation of the character you're playing as got old quickly. I mean, yea, I still enjoy doing it every now and then, but it's like once you've done it 10 times, it's the same shtick over and over. There's not a lot of ways to mix it up.
And then we can get the parts that can go die as far as I'm concerned, which is the races and battle mode, which IMHO are the absolute worst part of this game. Sure, they're not hard to figure out, but oh my goodness, are they frustrating to pull off, especially the races. Could it get any more random? You have no idea how to get the red, blue and yellow stars, or even give your opponent a disadvantage. It's all luck of the draw, so you're at the mercy of it whether or not it decides to favor you or brutally punish you. What a joke!
That goes double for the battle mode. It's one of those modes I cringe at playing because there are times you can win at ease, and other times the CPU kicks your butt six ways to Sunday. That's the worst part. It's not like you can learn and master this. It all depends if the game decides to let you win or not. Again, it's a total joke this mode and the game would have been better off without either of them.
All and all, Go Go Hypergrind is not a bad game. Far from it, but it's also not a great game either. It's one of those novelty games that can be fun for a little bit, but then the appeal of it wears off quickly, which is why I rated it a 6 out of 10. It has its moments, but then falls off a cliff too, so I guess my best suggestion is if you're in the mood for some silly skating antics, pop it in the GameCube and play it for a bit or even do storymode if you can stomach its awful parts.
A shame this game didn't get a sequel since I think with some polish and tweaking, this series could have been really good. Oh well... that's life for ya I guess.