Enviro Boarder

Skateboard through an urban obstacle course and avoid taking a spill. In Enviro Boarder, from Clever Media, you get to do this while collecting recyclable trash from the street and depositing it in the nearest recycling bin.

I had a great time playing this game. It reminded me of a Bart Simpson skateboard game I used to play when I was little. The graphics, music, and anecdotal sound effects were great, and the game was fun yet challenging.

What's the real deal with Enviro Boarder? You're a teenage kid aboard a speeding skateboard. You can use the arrow keys to speed up or slow down as you ride away through the city streets. Your goal? Pick up cans, papers, and bottles and put them in the bin before your sixty seconds are up. You can only pick up five of each kind before dropping them off. Each item you deposit earns you more time on the clock, and if you get fifteen in at once, you earn a cool 75 bonus points.

So what's preventing you from easily winning this game? There's stuff everywhere - big men reading the paper, little old ladies shuffling down the street, dogs, buses, cards, billboards, you name it! You can either skate around these obstacles or jump over them, but the crowd is pretty thick - you may jump over one thing to find yourself careening into another. Every time you take a spill (or get hit by a bus!) you lose a life. Lose all four lives, and the game ends.

Not only that, but it's a bit harder to focus on grabbing every piece of trash when you're swerving and hopping for your life. If you run out of time before reaching a bin, you lose the game altogether.

Definitely check out this game. It's absorbing, entertaining, and challenging all at once.