Right from the start it is noticeable that the approach in Thrasher: Skate or Destroy is not the same as the whole button-mash-until-your-fingers-bleed that Tony Hawk works so well with. While learning the specific tricks in Tony Hawk can help in earning higher point totals, it is not a necessity. Thrasher, however, basically requires that you sit down and memorize various stunts in order to get anywhere in the game. Of course, there are certain moves that are easy enough to pull off with relative ease, but once you start to get competitive and it becomes a matter of point totals and trick scores, that is when it is time to start memorizing. This is where most players will find themselves at a crossroad: continue on and learn the tricks (which look extremely cool when mastered) or decide that it is too daunting a task and give up.

Picking the former will require you to put in some time and effort into practicing what is at your disposal and learning where to use them in the right situations. Having a good knowledge of the surrounding environments doesn’t hurt either. A friend of mine has taken the time to really dig deep into the depth found in Thrasher and watching him play is mind boggling at times. Stringing together combinations that seem impossible and pulling off trick after trick with an almost eerie precision.

Somewhat disappointing in Thrasher is the fact that there are no real life characters that can be played. Instead, the developers opted to create their own up, but they are so generic and lifeless that it becomes obvious how much a good couple of added licenses could have helped the game in the authenticity department. Characters are given such names as “Axl” and “Cyrus”, but despite this, the gameplay in Thrasher is so addicting that the fact that the personalities are boring is forgotten quickly.

The one main advantage that Tony Hawk Pro Skater has over Thrasher is in the visuals department. While Thrasher is none too shabby, it also is not something to go writing home about. The environments that you skate through aren’t the most detailed, though there are some subtle touches that help make it interesting, such as the occasional truck or birds flocking away when you come near them. Otherwise, the atmosphere is mostly static, but since the overall gameplay is more slower paced, you become immersed in pulling off the correct moves at just the right moment, and will likely forget mostly about the environment for the most part. Conversely, there are many areas found throughout Thrasher that are hidden in places that are specifically placed there so that only more experienced players can find them. Take, for example, an emptied out pool in one of the stages. It is only accessible by finding the right ramp and hitting a jump correctly to get over a large wall.

Already a terrific single player game, Thrasher is only enhanced by the inclusion of a multitude of multiplayer modes that are varied and a ton of fun to play. A particular favorite of my friends and I is one where the object of the mode is to see who can receive the most damage from any given fall. So, we all start hurting ourselves in odd positions trying to see who can rack up the most damage points. Some of the falling animations that Z-Axis has created are simply hilarious, and I found myself laughing out loud more than once at how my character had fallen. There are other modes in the game that are also about or near as entertaining, and helps to increase the replayability.

An odd part I found in the game was during the time that the player misses pulling off a trick and the game switches to having the character fall to the ground. At times it runs at the normal speed that it should, but other times it can run into some major slowdown for seemingly no apparent reason. Granted, this actually exaggerates the falling of the character (and can make it even more funny), and does not really hurt the game in any way, shape or form, but it is a bit of a downfall, nonetheless.