720 Degrees

You race a timer through a skatepark hunting money, gear, and score routes while avoiding hazards and wipeouts. Getting better isn’t about button-mashing—it’s about learning where to go next and keeping speed without losing control. Once the park layout clicks, it becomes a satisfying loop of planning and execution.

Grab your board, hit the pavement, and skate your way to glory.

720° drops players into a sprawling skate park where speed, precision, and courage are everything. As a lone skater, you’ll race through ramps, half-pipes, pools, and obstacle-filled courses, pulling off dangerous tricks and collecting tickets to prove you’ve earned your place among the pros.

Fast, unforgiving, and packed with attitude, 720° challenges players to master movement and timing in a world where wiping out is always just one mistake away.

720° blends action, racing, and skill-based movement into a structure that was highly unusual for its time.

Core Mechanics
Top-down / angled skateboarding view

Momentum-based movement

Tight turning and acceleration control

Limited time to complete objectives

Movement is everything. Players must maintain speed, line up ramps correctly, and approach obstacles with precision. Poor positioning or hesitation often results in crashes—or worse, being caught by threats roaming the park.

Trick Challenges
To progress, players must collect event tickets by completing specific skating challenges:

Jumping over barriers

Clearing water hazards

Navigating narrow paths

Hitting ramps at just the right angle

Each successful event opens access to more areas and tougher challenges.

Constant Pressure
Time is always working against you. If you linger too long or fail to complete objectives quickly, the game responds with escalating danger.

Most famously, the Grim Reaper appears—an unstoppable force that hunts the player down, instantly ending the run if caught. It’s not subtle. It’s not fair. And it’s unforgettable.

720° doesn’t tell a traditional story. Instead, it creates a goal-driven journey through an exaggerated skateboarding fantasy.

The setting is a massive, open skate park filled with ramps, bowls, tunnels, and hazards. Progression isn’t about narrative—it’s about reputation. Each completed challenge proves you’re worthy of advancing, culminating in the ultimate test: landing the legendary 720-degree aerial spin.

The story is skill. Survival is the plot.

Originally released in arcades by Atari Games in 1986, 720° was one of the earliest games to treat skateboarding as a core mechanic, not a gimmick.

The arcade version used a rotary joystick, allowing players to spin and steer with incredible precision. Translating that experience to the NES was extremely difficult, and the home version reflects that challenge—maintaining the game’s intensity while adapting to a standard controller.

Atari Games – Developer
Known for pushing arcade hardware and control schemes beyond the norm.

Atari Corporation – NES Publisher
Brought the arcade experience to home consoles during a competitive era.