I remember Skate or Die! as one of the first video games I ever played. I had fond memories of it, specifically the half-pipe where you could do the most damage to your skater. When I saw Skate or Die in a local retro game store, I was ecstatic.
I took it home and plopped it in my NES, but it was quite different from what I remembered. It wasn’t that the game hadn’t aged well or that my tastes had changed. No, the problem was that I misremembered something very important.
The game I played as a kid was the sequel, Skate or Die 2.
I was disappointed and shelved it for about a decade. Last year, played through the original. It was okay. It’s got a neat 80s skater-bro style to it, but overall there’s not much to do in it. It’s just a handful skating related minigames and lacks the sequel’s amazing title screen song.
I still haven’t played Skate or Die 2 since creating those original memories. It probably doesn’t hold up any better.
