Radical Retrospective: Go! Go! Hypergrind

By now, this column has established that Japan had a large presence in the skateboarding game genre, but by 2003, the space had diversified in a big way. Tony Hawk’s series had over a half-dozen titles published, Disney, Nickelodeon, and The Simpsons had grabbed for a slice of the pie. MTV and Thrasher magazine released divisive titles in the genre (more on those in the coming weeks), and EA was only a year away from beginning development on the now-legendary skate. series.

2003’s Go! Go! Hypergrind from Persona-publisher Atlus and Ren & Stimpy creators Spümcø dared to explore what would happen if Japanese and American design were smashed together, and in the process created one of the weirdest, dumbest, and most surprisingly playable games in the genre.

In the world of Go! Go! Hypergrind, animation studios in the “Real World” have access to a place called the “Toon World”, not unlike Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The Toon World’s economy is in disarray thanks to the rise of CGI, so in a neat slice of meta-humor, they partner with Spümcø to produce a skateboarding cartoon called “Hypergrind.” Auditions are held at a new training center, where your chosen character mutilates themselves in front of a violently deranged director for the chance to land the lead role.

Now, when I say mutilate, I mean it. Viewers of Red & Stimpy should know what to expect, but for the uninitiated, the game features deliberate beheadings, height-reduction by way of anvils and giant bosoms (this comes up in every review), garbage-fire initiated dynamite explosions, and a whole lot of potty humor. You’re awarded bonus points when you get eaten by giant plants or impale yourself on conveniently placed spikes. One gag involves getting electrocuted, complete with a cartoon X-Ray effect. Another involves crashing into a porta-potty and coming out covered in…well, you can probably guess.

The humor went over well with most reviewers, with Play Magazine saying, “…perhaps the year’s weirdest game… What could be sillier than entering stunt school and competing for fame […] by garnering negative reactions and appeasing your abusive director? I’ll tell you what: doing it on a skateboard, playing as a deranged animal, infant, or thing, shredding among giant mammaries, or being spat from fatality to fatality, linking moves that dismember your character. Ren & Stimpy would be proud!” Other reviewers weren’t as impressed, with GMR Magazine saying, “In its attempt to be zany, Hypergrind overdoes just about everything. In one stage, a skater can get accordioned by a set of gigantic, flapping mammaries.” I said the boobs would come up again!

If the gameplay focus in this column seems like an afterthought, that should give you an idea of what to expect from the game itself. While the game’s structure isn’t wildly different from Pro Skater‘s two-minute runs, the focus on combining tricks (confusingly called appeals) falls apart when you realize you can basically play the game with a single button, linking the various mutilating obstacles. The game’s movement feels slightly off with extremely floaty gravity and physics-defying in-air movement. It’s not unfun, and the multiplayer modes provide more replayability than you’d think, but it’s hardly a mold-breaker.

The reason the game was moderately well-received wasn’t because of its gameplay, but despite it. The game’s humor and animation were so good that they couldn’t be held back by subpar music and voice acting or simplistic gameplay. There was real talent behind the scenes, driving this oddity into something greater than the sum of its parts.

On Atlus’s side, most of the lead team members came from and went on to other games in the genre, including Cool Boarders 2, Shaun Palmer’s Pro Snowboarder, and Rippin’ Riders, as well as working on multiple entries in the long-running Dance Dance Revolution series. John Yamamoto, Atlus’s Executive Producer on the game, is now the European CEO of Square Enix, Inc. Spümcø’s A-Team worked on the game’s look and story stateside. Ren & Stimpy’s controversial creator, John Kricfalusi, produced the game for Spümcø, while animators Jim Smith (Mighty Mouse, Batman: The Animated Series) and Gabe Starr (Animaniacs, Yo Gabba Gabba) worked on the set design and character design, respectively.

Go! Go! Hypergrind was released exclusively on the Nintendo GameCube, and due to the game’s off-color humor and John Kricfalusi’s involvement, it will likely never be rereleased. On top of that, used copies go for a lot more than you’d expect, fetching upwards of $1,000. Thankfully, it can be easily emulated, and the cel-shaded graphics look unbelievable with upscaling. If you find yourself smitten with the game’s early-aughts vibes, explore the surprisingly deep lore at its dedicated Fandom page.

Nintendo Power Ad – 2004

Ultimately, Go! Go! Hypergrind is an oddball, an unforgettable cult classic, and it will continue to be remembered more for its loud personality than for its lackluster gameplay. It is an imperfect relic from a time when a game’s outlandish style and abrasive humor could overshadow any shortcomings in gameplay and mechanics. More than two decades later, it stands alone; beheaded, squished, exploded, and covered in questionable liquids.

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