By completing all four challenges in a hub, the player moves to the next hub until all four hubs have their challenges completed.Each hub has maps players can skate over to see the entire current area, and they can see specific locations like stores, parks, and the place the player currently is at the moment. The hub is also littered with a lot of structures that can function as out-of-challenge obstacle courses the player can try to earn money on so they can upgrade their gear or buy tickets admitting them to the skateboard parks and challenges.There are four types of challenges in the game, such as one that involves half-pipe skating, where the player tries to gain the highest heights possible and succeed in their stunts to score the biggest scores allowed by the time limit in this event. The downhill challenges involve the player skating down a series of hillsides as they try to hit the goal line, with points awarded for remaining time left. The Slalom event has the player skate between yellow sets of two flags across the field with the timer increasing with each pair skated through until the player reaches the goal, and the time left is translated into points upon completion. The jumping event has the player leap from one ramp to another as they try to strike a target located outside the player's viewing field with ramps subtly hinting at where the target is. The event is over if the player reaches the level goal or the time limit expires first. The game later was released on systems such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Amstrad CPC, the ZX Spectrum, the Game Boy Color, and the Commodore 64. It is also seen as part of Midway Arcade Treasures and later in Midway Arcade Origins.
Tropes:
- Afraid of Needles: One of the formations made by the killer bees as you keep evading them happens to be a gigantic syringe, complete with a needle.
- Don't Try This at Home: The game displays this warning message at the start of a new game:ATARI GAMES CORPORATION WOULD LIKE TO STRESS THAT THIS GAME DEPICTS SOME SKATEBOARDING TECHNIQUES WHICH MAY BE HAZARDOUS IF ATTEMPTED IN REAL LIFE. WE WISH TO URGE ALL SKATERS TO SKATE SAFELY, AND TO ALWAYS WEAR PROPER PROTECTIVE GEAR.
- Drop-In Nemesis: The "Skate or Die" killer bees will chase you down and try to kill you after the timer expires.
- Endless Game: In the NES, Class 4 repeats indefinitely until you get a Game Over from the "Skate Or Die" bees.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: Police on scooters, bodybuilders, lugers, breakdancers, frisbee throwers, recumbent bikers, cars, other skateboarders, and rollerblading skeletons are all out to slow you down and inhibit your escape from the killer bees that appear when the timer runs out.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: The Ramp Park
theme grinds to a halt when the timer expires. - Muscles Are Meaningless: Despite the player being a skinny skater, they can knock muscle-bound men down with one hit.
- Nameless Narrative: No character has been referred to in-game by a name.
- Run or Die: The narrator sceams "SKATE OR DIE!" when your time meter on the overworld gets depleted completely and you get chased by bees out to give you a game-ending sting. They go away if you manage to get into park you've paid entry to.
- Scary Stinging Swarm: The announcer says "Skate or Die!" when the game's timer runs out. Take too long, and then a swarm of killer bees appear, and if your skater gets hit by the bees, then it's an automatic game over. The longer you run from them, the more their speed increases, until they inevitably catch up with you. They will also start to form menacing shapes as they speed up, such as a pounding hammer, a skull and crossbones, a pair of scissors, and a hypodermic syringe.
- Shear Menace: One formation the killer bees form as they try to cut your life short is a pair of gigantic scissors.
- Shout-Out: The game has a variation of the 12-Bar Blues in the Slalom theme.
- Skeleton Motif: One of the Synchronized Swarming formations of the "Skate Or Die!" bee swarm is a skull & crossbones.
- Stalked by the Bell: The game had a persistent swarm of bees (which come from an earlier Atari game, Paperboy) that would show up if you took too long in getting into a skate park, and get faster the longer you evade them, thus they will eventually catch you unless you enter a park. "SKATE OR DIE!"
- Synchronized Swarming: The killer bees will, as you keep evading them, start making scary formations such as the skeletal Jolly Roger symbol, a scissor set, and a syringe used in hypodermic treatments.