Hundreds of years from the present, earth shattering events have caused the world to have to rely on hovering technology that allows cities to rise above the flooded cities that have been overrun with water. Utilizing the hover technology, an underground society have created a deadly new sport called hoverboarding. Soon the main governing body, the OCW (One World Confederacy), becomes interested in this underground sport and turns it into a mainstream tournament. They created the Velocity Pro Tour and it has been running ever since. Now in its 49th year, those who win the tournament are given the opportunity to become the mayor of the city of their choice.

There are a lot of graphically appealing Dreamcast titles, but TrickStyle has to be one of the most eye pleasing. The first time that you see TrickStyle in motion it just makes you sit there wondering how this is only a first generation game. Fog isn’t found at any point in this game to cover up a poor engine, but there are points where the frame rate likes to skip around. At times it will be just clipping along nicely at 40-50fps, but then it takes a dip when a few more players enter onto the screen or you enter a particularly large area. This can be an annoyance at times, but compared to the tradeoff of having straight 60fps with no competition to race against (aka Cool Boarders Burrrn) or multiple racers with a slower frame rate, I’m going with the latter.

TrickStyle’s title wouldn’t make a lot of sense if there wasn’t a major involvement of actual tricks. According to Acclaim and Criteron Studios, there are around 400 tricks that can be allocated and used. While I’ve yet to personally amass that high of an amount, I will say that there is a huge amount of variety in what types of tricks can be pulled off. Similar to UEP Systems’ Cool Boarders, players leap into the air with the simple press of a button and then string together other button combinations to pull off moves that can earn them high scores.

If you saw the before mentioned 400 moves and thought that those would all be available at the start, think again. The developers are upping the replay value of TrickStyle by only making a few tricks available at the beginning and to utilize others, the player has to complete certain challenges that are offered. Only by successfully completing those can the multitude of other tricks be used. Challenges can also unlock secret boards (one that concentrates on speed, one that concentrates on power, etc.), and other hidden bonuses. The more complicated tricks have to be earned through extra difficult challenges that can result in frustration during the attempts at successfully completing them.

There is a lot to do in TrickStyle, and it will take a while before everything is completed. And, even then, there is still mastering of the tricks to do. A good portion of the time is likely to be spent in the normal race mode, where tracks take place in Japan, UK, USA, and more. There are bits and pieces of tracks repeated in future tracks, but that becomes near unnoticeable when racing around pulling off tricks. Pack in a practice mode (to master your skills) and a 2-player mode, and you’ve got yourself more than enough to keep one busy for a few weeks.

So far it seems that TrickStyle is all good, but, unfortunately, after playing for a while, a few problems shine through that do not at all ruin the overall experience, but are enough that they still nag me while I play. Firstly, there are road blocks scattered on the tracks that you supposedly either have to avoid or destroy with a spin move. Interesting, though, is that some road blocks allow the player to just run through, while others can stop the hoverboard right in its tracks. Sounds like something that slipped by during the development rush to get the game out in time for the console’s launch. Another problem that came up more than once was what determines how you land on the ground without crashing out of control. It is possible to sort of position the board for a landing while in the air, but multiple times I set it up seemingly the same way, but ended up crashing to the ground and falling back a spot. Other times, though, I would land just fine, even when the hoverboard was bent at an obscure angle. Annoying, to say the least.