That game is Yanya Cabillista City Skater from Koei. Yanya is different for several reasons, not the least of which is its insane plot and the fact that it uses a little skateboard controller to control the game. In a plot that seems to have been pulled from a completed Mad-Libs page, it seems that San Francisco has been taken over by aliens. It seems that these aliens are so powerful that even the military is not able to rid the city of the invaders. But wait! Theres hope after all! If you are able to do tricks on your skateboard in front of the Gawoo (aliens), theyll disappear, its that simple. Try not to think about this too hard, itll just make your head hurt.

At first glance its easy to confuse Yanya with Jet Grind Radio on the Dreamcast. Both are cell-shaded, with cartoony characters, large cityscapes, and people skating around. Action mostly takes place in the streets, playgrounds, and on or around buildings, but sadly, the cities are gray and rather bland when compared to higher profile titles. In addition to looking bland, the draw distance in the cities is rather poor. As you skate around you can look off in the distance and watch buildings pop-up and draw themselves in.

The character models are nice looking, but they seem to be lacking in detail. The Gawoo that populate the city are cute, and not really menacing looking, so its kind of tough to figure out why you are in such a hurry to get rid of them. The games not horrendous looking, but the more time you spend with it, the more problems youll begin to notice.

Old school electronic music plays as you skate your way to greatness in Yanya Cabillista. If youre even a semi-frequent importer, youll quickly recognize the style, and just as quickly turn the volume down. Sound effects are average, with the only thing really standing out being the screams of the Gawoo if you perform a big trick in front of them.

The gameplay found in Yanya is quite simple, but its made difficult by the fingerboard controller, which is a nice concept, but a real pain in the neck to maneuver. The board has two rubber cups on the bottom of it, and they are designed to be put over the analog sticks on the Dualshock2. The board fits snugly, but after a few rounds, it does have a tendency to come loose. You can pause the game to put the piece back on, but for some reason, pushing down on the sticks un-pauses the game.

The premise of the game is simple: Do tricks in front of Gawoo, and they leave. Youll start in an area of the city, and one by one you have to locate the different Gawoo and then trick them to death. This might have ended up being fun, but there are only a few different tricks you can do, and youre forced to combo these moves endlessly to progress. The blandness is exacerbated by the miserable control that the board offers. The board is kind of slick, so you constantly have to reposition your fingers, its tough to position it correctly to pull off certain moves, and sometimes it just doesnt respond.

If you try and play the game without the skateboard piece, things get a bit easier, but the controls are still lousy. Good controls with an awkward controller are one thing, but a crappy controller with crappy controls is a recipe for disaster. If you can grasp the controls, the game can be fun, albeit for a very short length of time.

Theres a challenge mode were you can try and accomplish certain moves and combos, but its not terribly exciting. A poorly designed training area is also included to try and teach you the basics, but if you take the time to go through training, youll likely be too frustrated with the game to even attempt the real gameplay. At one point Yanya Cabillista had some potential to be a decent game, unfortunately it fails to execute any aspect well. The graphics are shoddy, the sound is lame, the gameplay is fatally flawed; rent it if your curiosity is killing you, but dont buy it.