Video Game / Go! Go! Hypergrind

"Celebrity Deathmatch, save me a spot!"

Do you have what it takes to become the next SPUMCO action film star?

—Back-of-the-box description.

Go! Go! Hypergrind is a cel-shaded skateboarding game co-developed by Team Poponchi and Spümcø, Inc and with signature music by Grizzly. It is a late entry to the peri-2000 extreme sports video game boom, seeing release on November 18, 2003. Despite being produced in Japan, Atlus only published it in North America and furthermore only on the Nintendo GameCube. Of the four video games Spümcø has contributed to, Go! Go! Hypergrind is the last, and despite Team Poponchi's in-game message to keep an eye on their future work, Go! Go! Hypergrind has stayed the team's only product.

The setting of the game is the Toon World, where cartoon logic and cartoon physics apply. The Toon World and the Real World are connected and every so often the Real World asks the Toon World for help in the production of cartoons. Artists in the Real World can draw them, but the residents of the Toon World can also film themselves and send the recordings over. With the rise of CGI, the animation company Spümcø is looking for a smash hit to bring back interest for cel-animation. What they have in mind is an antic-filled series about skateboarding called Go! Go! Hypergrind and rather than drawing it, they want actors from the Toon World to perform it. The game covers the auditions for the lead star of the show.

The playable cast comprises nine default skaters and two unlockable ones, each with a uniquely animated moveset. In terms of gameplay, these skaters are distinguished by their 1-to-10 rating on six different stats: ollie, air, rail, manual, lip, and reaction. Respectively, these are how high a character can jump, how long they can stay airborne, how well they balance while grinding, how well they balance on one set of wheels, how well they balance while lip-sliding, and how long they can hold their negative reaction.

Negative reactions are a key feature of Go! Go! Hypergrind and part of its Show Within a Show angle. Skateboard tricks are referred to as appeals because any trick performed is an attempt to appeal to the audience. Appeals come in the variations grind appeal, manual appeal, air appeal, lip appeal, pole appeal, and skitching. The first four have multiple tricks to them, most of them shared, but always six wholly unique to a given character. Appeals can be linked by performing them immediately after one another, with the sum of the appeals that make up a link being used as the score multiplier. Easier it is to link appeals by entering the aforementioned negative reaction state, because then links aren't finished until the timer on the negative reaction runs out. Negative reactions are started by performing a negative appeal, which is done by interacting with a gimmick that injures or bothers the skater. An example of a gimmick is a cactus, which causes the puncture negative appeal and thereby either starts or refreshes the negative reaction state. The only drawback is that a skater cannot perform their special appeals while a negative reaction is ongoing.

Negative appeals and negative reactions owe their terminology to the idea that Moral Guardians would not approve of the violent or gross stunts. Around 2000 was a period in which controversy for controversy's sake was big in the West and Go! Go! Hypergrind can be seen as the principles of Jackass applied to a Zany Cartoon, although it's overall tamer than its marketing purports it to be.

Not counting the tutorial-exclusive gym, there are eight stages available for use in three play modes. These are Story Mode, Freeride Mode, and VS Mode. Story Mode is the meat of the game, the auditions for the Go! Go! Hypergrind lead role. A full run of Story Mode consists of five preset rank matches per stage. Rank matches come in six variants, divided in 2-minute time limit challenges (Appeal Champ, Simon Says, Mini Game) and accomplishment challenges (Battle, Race, 1 Link Appeal). Respectively, the challenges are to score high, to perform negative appeals on command, to perform an action on repeat, to fight an opponent, to out-appeal an opponent, and to keep an appeal link going. Battle and Race are championship matches and continue for multiple rounds with a maximum of four until one contestant is the match's winner. 1 Link Appeal takes two rounds and the round that scores highest counts towards the overall score. Next up, Freeride Mode covers three sub-modes: Single Session, Free Ride, and Tutorial. Single Session Mode is a 2-minute time limit challenge to find all targets hidden in a stage. Free Ride is the purely recreational mode and Tutorial is the tutorial. Lastly, VS Mode offers six multiplayer options: Appeal Champ, Simon Says, Battle, Race, and Push. The first five are adaptations of Story Mode's rank matches while Push is unique to VS Mode. In Push, the players perform appeals to push the bar that splits the screen towards the opponent's screen in an effort to push them out of the game.

Although Go! Go! Hypergrind is unrelated to Spümcø's earlier video games, it does share a noteworthy similarity with the Yoake no Mariko series in that their respective casts are all actors and the games are divided in stages according to film genres. There is even a reference to the Yoake no Mariko series in the form of a voice that exclaims "Excellent" after the winner of Story Mode signs their contract.

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Go! Go! Hypergrind contains examples of:

• Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Freddy rotates his arms in full spins alongside his shoulders during his special air appeal Laser Beam. This isn't abnormal because he's a robot. Kevin too can perform Laser Beam. This is disconcerting because Kevin is not a robot.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Vert's katana are well-maintained and ridiculously sharp. While relaxing in his room, a leaf may breeze by. If that happens, he gets up, slashes at it once, and the leaf breezes on split in two as if it didn't just receive a blow.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: One of the marketing taglines for the game goes "Crude. Crazy. Constitutionally protected."
• Alien Abduction: Aliens roam around in Act 8: Hong Kong Night and one particular UFO makes its rounds around the city beaming people up, leaving them with the puncture negative appeal, and then discarding them wherever. This is the stage's secret gimmick and it is activated through a satellite dish on the restaurant's roof. If switched up, it sends a message into space that draws the UFO.
• All Love Is Unrequited: According to his profile, Bob likes Gigi, but Gigi likes Vert, who is solely focused on the contest. Popular as she is, Penny still mourns over a lost love she was "supposed to be happy" with. She may like Freddy and Freddy definitely likes her, but he's way to shy to do anything with his feelings.
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: In addition to the people of Toon World, there are also animals that don't look too different from the animals that live in the Real World except for their colors. For instance, the horses in Act 2: Western Film are blue and green and the gorillas in Act 6: Jungle are purple.
• Ambiguous Situation: Character stories are told through a profile, an event cutscene shared with another character, a photo cutscene, and a victory cutscene. With relatively little to work with, some matters are left unclarified.
  • What happened between Penny and her ex-boyfriend? She says that they "were supposed to be happy together," but whether they broke up or if he disappeared or died is left open.
  • How and why did the third Johnson Bro get separated from the other two? All the audience is told is that the first and second brothers are desperately looking for him and that there is a possibility that the third brother is hiding from them on purpose.
  • The two Johnson Bros are looking for their missing third brother. They do not find him during the events of the game, but the Story mode begins with a report by Toon World News delivered by one James Johnson. Is that the missing third brother?
  • Freddy possesses a gold key in addition to his silver one. The gold key is evidently not compatible with because Freddy is badly affected every time he uses it, so the question is with what or whom it is compatible.
  • Kevin's profile mentions one Chief Walt as ostensibly the contest's organizer and that's all that is known about him. Because Kevin doesn't have any personal cutscenes, no image exists of Chief Walt either.
  • It is doubtful that Bob really wants Gigi's money in their event cutscene, because he's incredibly wealthy and there's no indication that Gigi has any significant sums to her name. Wanting her money also does not explain why he enthusiastically jumps at her when he's done with his curse. On the other hand, according to his profile he likes her while she's not at all interested in him. A lot of what Bob does makes more sense if he were trying to bully himself near her.
• Amusing Injuries: Hurting and trashing the contestants is half the purpose of the game. Injuries are divided by the physical effects they leave the skaters with, the negative appeals, which are paint, pinch, puncture, decap, lightning, fire, bomb, flatten, box, cylinder, and accordion. There are two variants of cylinder, namely V(ertical) cylinder and H(orizontal) cylinder, which decides whether the contestant takes the shape of a can or a can on its side, but doesn't influence gameplay. There's also a negative appeal called fallin', which can only be activated when reaching the end of a rail that goes nowhere, but unlike the others fallin' does not have a physical effect of its own. Rather, it leads to another negative appeal, usually cylinder because the contestants end up falling into a tube. Fallin' and fire, which does have its own physical effect, are the only negative appeals that lead into other ones. Like fallin' usually leads to cylinder, fire is usually needed to get bomb.
• Animate Inanimate Object: The koi that live in the pond of Act 7: Ninja Village aren't actual koi but flags, as confirmed by their gear equivalent being called Carp Flag. Despite being objects, not only do they swim around in the water, they may bite a skater who jumps in in the butt too.
• Ash Face: Skaters that get blown up by a bomb gimmick are just fine except for being covered in soot and ash. Also, in their event cutscene, Penny gets caught in the radius of Freddy's malfunction and is left coughing with ash all over her.
• Asleep in Class: Johnson Bro #1 is asleep during Kevin's class. It goes unnoticed because Johnson Bro #2 is paying attention and they share one outfit.
• As You Know: During the classroom cutscene, Kevin explains to the contestants, all of whom inhabitants of the Toon World, that there are two kinds of cartoons: those drawn in the Real World and those filmed in the Toon World for viewing in the Real World. Kevin opens his explanation with "I'm sure you all know", which the contestants indeed likely do, but it's convenient for the player to get this information.
• Awkwardly-Placed Bathtub: During both her manual appeal specials, Re-lax and Rubba Dub Dub, Piggy Sue manifests a bathtub for her to unwind in and provide her audience with a little bit of fanservice even though she doesn't have the looks for it. She also awaits the announcing of the winner at the award ceremony while seated in her bathtub. Kevin's manual appeal special Kickin' Back is based on Piggy Sue's Re-lax and so he too spawns a bathtub on the spot.
• Ballet: Piggy Sue is trained in classical ballet and entwines its principals into her skateboarding style. She has an elegant jump back onto her board if she falls of and for her special grind appeal Prima Ballerina, she dons a tutu with a swan's head to dance to music from Swan Lake. Kevin's special grind appeal Dark Ballerina is based on Piggy Sue's Prima Ballerina and so he too dresses up in a tutu to perform in. Only, his music is all wonky and instead of a swan's head his dress sports a vulture's head.
• Bathing Beauty: Piggy Sue loves relaxing in a bath, possibly because she's a pig. For both her special manual appeals, Re-lax and Rubba Dub Dub, she busts out a bathtub to take a dip in. She does consider it something that is appealing for the audience, but the truth is that her appearance leaves something to be desired, so while she believes herself to be a bathing beauty, she's only a bather.
• Bat Out of Hell: Bats reside in the tunnels of Act 2: Western Film and Act 4: Haunted Night. If a skater uses these tunnels as pinch gimmicks by entering them, they'll leave with a number of bats swarming around their head for the duration of the appeal.
• Bear Trap: There's a wildly snapping beartrap present as a decap gimmick in Act 6: Jungle.
• Benevolent Architecture: Every stage is chock-full of structures to perform appeals on and gimmicks to get negative appeals from. They're also put together nicely, with bombs and dynamite always being located near a source of fire or with the presence of gimmicks that launch skaters upwards with enough power that there's ample time to decide where to land.
• Big Boo's Haunt: Act 4: Haunted Night takes place in a haunted house. There are gravestones and carved-out pumpkins in the garden. There are skeletal fishes swimming in the pond. The moon has a creepy face. The cars and tram that drive by are ghosts. A giant functional mouth resides in the library. And there's an opportunity to summon the Grim Reaper on the roof for those who are so inclined.
• Bishie Sparkle: Penny and Piggy Sue hang out together during the opening cutscene. When Decker and Vert pass by, each of the women winks at them while the background gets filled with ethereal bubbles and sparkles. It's sincere in Penny's case, but meant ironically in Piggy Sue's case. Kevin also has a sparkle moment when he tells the class of contestants that they need style to become the lead of Go! Go! Hypergrind. Here, it doesn't mean that Kevin himself is appealing, but that the contestants have to mind to be.
• Bloodless Carnage: The contestants have to be decapitated, punctured, flattened, eaten, shocked, burnt, and so on, but because they are toons, there is no blood. In fact, there is such a lack of blood that the color red isn't available for the paint negative appeal in any level whatsoever. Yellow, blue, purple, green, orange, brown, and white are all present in the game, even if some are rare, but pointedly red is not.
• Bones Do Not Belong There: When he gets zapped with electricity, Freddy has bones just like everyone else. This is highly unlikely because he is a robot.
• Boob-Based Gag: There are two near-identical billboards in Act 1: Toon City, one reading "Drink Milk" above the milk shop and one reading "Strawberry Juice" above the grocery store. Their design entails a woman with humongous mechanized dimensional breasts that flop up and down. Those breasts are accordion gimmicks the skaters can hop on, which also bounces them up sky high. Incidentally, the bounce is energetic enough to make it over to the other billboard.
• Bookworm: Sally loves to enrich her life by reading books and is very studious. She doesn't wear glasses normally but will don a pair of reading glasses when she cracks open a book. Even her special lip appeal Speed Reader is about her need to read.
• Bowled Over: Decker knocks the large terrestrial globe from the robot's hands in the opening cutscene. The globe neatly rolls over to the other ten skaters that are following behind Decker and sends them all flying.
• Butlerspace: If Bob wins the contest, when he gets up on stage two handmaidens appear out of nowhere to shower him in rose petals for extra prestige.
• Butt Biter: The ponds in Act 4: Haunted Night or Act 7: Ninja Village are pinch gimmicks. Respectively, skeletal fishes or koi flags chomps down on the skater's lower cheeks if they jump in. There are more cases where creatures are the cause of the pinch negative appeal, but those target the head. In Act 3: Fantasy Studio, hitting a small carnivorous plant causes it to bite the skater's head and hold on. In Act 5: Factory, entering an assembly line tunnel causes a robot head to chomp down on the skater's head. And in Act 6: Jungle, jumping into a pond nets the skater a crocodile on the head.
• Cactus Cushion: There are prickly succulents to be found as puncture gimmick in Act 2: Western Film and Act 6: Jungle.
• Camera Abuse: The contestants are viewed through the lens of an in-universe camera. Piggy Sue, Vert, Kevin, and Mr. Smith all have moves that damage said camera. When Piggy Sue flirts towards the camera during her special air appeal Impish Wink, the lens breaks. When Vert or Kevin perform their special air appeals Samurai Style, they cut the lens to pieces with a katana. And Mr. Smith, during his special lip appeal Pick-a-Winner, digs into his nose and flings the sizeable sticky boogers at the lens.
• Cartoon Bomb: Cartoon bombs can be found in a few stages as bomb gimmicks. There are also single and double bomb effects that can be found during a Race rank match. Whoever is targeted by these bomb effects loses as many coins as there are cartoon bombs.
• Chromatic Arrangement: The three Johnson Bros are identical except for the numbers on their foreheads and their eye colors. Bro #1 has blue eyes, Bro #2 has green eyes, and Bro #3 has red eyes.
• Clockwork Creature:
  • Freddy is a frankenmonster-shaped clockwork robot as evidenced by the silver wind-up key sticking out of his back. He also carries a gold wind-up key with him that he uses for his special manual appeals Shutdown and Overheat. In both scenarios, the gold key causes him to malfunction.
  • There's a large frog with a wind-up key in its back in Act 7: Ninja Village that functions as a h-cylinder gimmick.
• Company Cameo:
  • Spümcø, Inc is outright part of the in-game story. The Toon World is in trouble because of the increasing popularity of CGI, so its leaders join forces with the Real World studio Spümcø to produce a "major action-packed cartoon featuring extreme skateboarding" to put cel-animation back on the map. The game covers the auditions for who gets to be the star of the new show.
  • Spümcø billboards using the "George Liquor" logo and Poponchi billboards using "STRONG FORCE FROM FAR EAST" logo are set up in the Spumco Gymnasium.
  • Several Spümcø billboards using the "George Liquor" logo are set up in Toon City.
  • There's a billboard using Poponchi's "STRONG FORCE FROM FAR EAST" logo near the restaurant in Toon City. The name Poponchi is also written on the bowling pin billboard decorating the bowling alley and on the theater billboard behind the giant robot.
  • A huge Nintendo GameCube analog stick spins around in the control room of Act 5: Factory.
  • Poponchi's "STRONG FORCE FROM FAR EAST" logo is depicted on a series of flags in Act 7: Ninja Village.
• Cosmetic Award: There are a lot of unlockable goodies for completing Story Mode and for getting various grades in Single Session Mode. Some of it is useful, but most is just there for fun. For starters, there is unlockable concept art. One piece of art is awarded for each rank from C- and up in Single Session Mode for a total of twelve pieces per stage that combine to 96 pieces for the entire game. Another cosmetic award are the movies, which are the cutscenes shown throughout the Story Mode. They're unlocked when a cutscene is watched for the first time for a total of twenty-eight. The third encounter of the cosmetic kind are figures. Each of them depicts one of the skaters in their normal palette, their alternative palette, and a gold variant. These are won by getting first place in Story Mode's rank matches #12 and #27 and by playing the credits mini-game. Winning the alternative palette figure also unlocks the alternative palette for the skater.
• Covered in Gunge: One of the negative appeals is paint, which is brought about by dunking a skater in sticky liquids. There are at least two colors of sticky liquid per stage to choose from. In Act 1: Toon City, the choices are white milk that pours out of a bottle-shaped billboard and brown poop found in the porta-potties. In Act 2: Western Film, the choices are purple whiskey that pours out of bottle-shaped billboard at the saloon, brown sludge that pours from a pipeline at the goldmine, and dirty green water that leaks from the water towers. In Act 3: Fantasy Studio, the choices are polluted white water that leaks from a pitcher pump and buckets of blue stage paint left open. In Act 4: Haunted Night, the choices are orange vomit spewed around by pumpkin heads and purple paint sprayed around by the ghost tram. In Act 5: Factory, the choices are brown sludge leaking from its container, green soap water sprayed by a sweeper truck, or blue paint sprayed by a conveyor belt's robot arm. In Act 6: Jungle, the choices are brown poop obtained by being run through the digestive track of a hippo, orange nectar found inside rafflesias, and suspiciously blue water from a fountain. In Act 7: Ninja Village, the choices are green tea distributed by the tea robots or leaking from vats and blue paint inside a kettle hanging up high. In Act 8: Hong Kong Night, the choices are yellow soup left to cool or flowing from a broken pipe and dirty green water pouring from a set of three dragon-shaped fountains.
• Creative Closing Credits: The credits consist of two halves. The first half is the usual scrolling text against a black screen, but with the twist that the names of those involved crawl to their spot in the list as if they were caterpillars. The black background is also periodically livened up with concept art. The second half is a shooting gallery mini-game.
• Cuckoo Clock Gag: The train station in Act 2: Western Film features a town clock that's actually a disturbingly big cuckoo clock. Every time the cuckoo comes out, it's randomly yellow, blue, red, or black. Jumping over to it when it pops out sends a skater flying with the puncture negative appeal.
• Dance Battler: Both Piggy Sue and Penny incorporate dance moves in their specials. For Piggy Sue, her special grind appeal Prima Ballerina relies on ballet. For Penny, her special air appeal Passion Flower relies on flamenco, her special lip appeal Aloha 'Oe relies on hula, and her special manual appeal Cheerleader relies on cheerleading. As far as catwalk strutting can be considered a form of dance, her special grind appeal Penny Strut relies on it too.
• The Darkness Gazes Back: Many pairs of red eyes gaze out from the utter darkness of the tunnels in Act 4: Haunted Night. It is the only stage in which there are eyes peering out of the tunnels, but just like all other tunnels, walking into them gets the skater the pinch negative appeal.
• A Dick in Name: The Johnson Bros are two identical brothers with large noses. During the contest, one stands atop the other while they wear a single tracksuit with a face window for the brother on the bottom. As a result, the Johnson Bros look like one guy with his penis — in another word, his johnson — hanging out.
• Dissonant Laughter: When Kevin begins a performance of his special grind appeal Dark Ballerina, he laughs in an unsettling way.
• The Dividual: The Johnson Bros are a triplet of near-identical brothers. Bros #1 and #2 are perfectly in tune and audition for Go! Go! Hypergrind as one contestant in one shared set of clothes. When they meet Sally, they refer to themselves as "us" before correcting it to "me", suggesting they were trying to give the impression they're one person. They're not good at it and right after revert to referring to themselves in plural. That said, if the Johnson Bros are not having a conversation with each other, they speak in tandem. Bro #3 may be more of a separate individual, because even though the other two dearly miss him, they also mention Bro #3 could have purposely moved away from them.
• Do a Barrel Roll: During her special grind appeal, Sally switches out her skateboard for her flying broomstick. On occasion, she performs an aileron roll to keep it interesting.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The gorgeous Penny incessantly teases Freddy when she joins him on a walk through Toon City, insisting he tells her whom he likes and leaning into him. Freddy steadily overheats under her sultry gaze until his system violently gives out. Penny is caught in the explosion and left coughing with ash marks on her front while Freddy ends up in pieces but at peace. All in all, the whole scene strongly comes across as if Freddy gave Penny a facial.
• Eternal Engine: Both Act 5: Factory and Act 7: Ninja Village are machine levels. Act 5: Factory is a robot assembly facility. There are a sweep truck making the rounds, open vats filled with molten metal, assembly belts, lasers, fire, paint-sprayers, and a control room in the center of the factory way up high where the wall-pistons can be activated by means of a lever. Act 7: Ninja Village is a set meant to resemble what the game calls the country of Jipang. It has a strong karakuri theme with plenty of huge gears steadily rotating in the open, a clockwork frog in a corner, a tea-serving automaton making the rounds, and there is a switch in a corner that can tilt the dojo over for the gekijo to appear.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: The stages are chock-full of gimmicks that inflict all kinds of slapstick violence on whomever comes in contact with them. Decapitation by sawblade, being blown sky high by a bomb, getting chewed by giant mouths, and so much more are omnipresent threats, but this is to the contestants' benefit. By getting hurt, they enter the negative reaction state that makes linking appeals for a better score easier.
• Expressive Mask: Bob wears a visor that obscures his eyes. Usually, the visor is lined with dollar signs because Bob cares a lot about money and about people knowing he has money. But while looking up at the big-breasted woman on the milk billboard the visor is lined with hearts.
• Expy:
  • Kevin looks a lot like John Kricfalusi's signature character George Liquor and fills a similar mentor role.
  • Mr. Smith is Go! Go! Hypergrind's version of Slappy Squirrel from Animaniacs. He is the only old-timer among the contestants, confident in his his actor know-how to the point of arrogance, and his appeal specials show both technical skill and a dedication to slapstick.
• Eye Pop: As inhabitants of the Toon World, all skaters have the ability to pop their eyes out of their sockets if they're shocked or get hurt. They get shocked and hurt a lot during the auditions. Their eyes also pop when they're close to losing their balance during an appeal, which helpfully informs the player that they need to adjust their control input.
• Eye Scream: All characters are able to pop out their eyes, but only in moments of shock because that's how cartoon logic works. Sally is the only one shown to be able to remove her eyes casually, which she sometimes does while reading in her room.
• Fake Difficulty: In a Simon Says rank match, the computer helps out the player by pointing in the direction of a suitable gimmick. Only, the arrow is not reliable. It may very well point out a gimmick farther away and harder to reach than another gimmick that gives the exact same negative appeal.
• Finger Framing: In a rare moment where the point-of-view switches to a character's, that being Kevin's, he is in the process of finger-framing the classroom, panning from one end to the other, as he talks about filming toons to create cartoons.
• Flying Broomstick: Sally has a flying broomstick both for travel and for skating. She flies on it during the opening cutscene, but it's knocked out from under her when Decker and Vert make an emergency landing and their combined weight is more than the broomstick can handle. Sally also replaces her skateboard with her broomstick during her special grind appeal Flying Broom.
• Flying Saucer: Aliens roam around in Act 8: Hong Kong Night, though all that's seen of them are their UFOs. They inhabit some of the glowing apartments and if a skater enters they leave with the pinch negative appeal in the form of a UFO floating above their head. The stage's secret gimmick is also related to UFOs. There is a satellite dish on the restaurant's roof and if it's switched up, it sends a message into space that draws a big UFO. This particular UFO makes its rounds around the city beaming people up, leaving them with the puncture negative appeal, and then discarding them wherever.
• Former Child Star: Two photos from Piggy Sue's acting career suggest that her glory days were during her teens, possibly up to her very early twenties. She's some ten years older now and while still cute and relatively young, she has her weight against her. She's desperate to regain her old glory, which is why she partakes in the auditions.
• Formerly Fit: In her teens, Piggy Sue was a popular actress whose youthful thinness played a role in marketing her for her cuteness. But some ten years later, she has gained an extra curvaceous form and she's desperate to get rid of some weight. As per her profile, she "has tried every fad diet advertised on TV, even the ones that sound too good to be true."
• Four-Seasons Level: Act 3: Fantasy Studio consists of three film sets: Winter, Fall, and a third set that combines Summer and Spring. By default, the third film set only has flower buds, but when a skater launches themself up to the giant star prop, stardust rains on the set and the buds grow into venus flytraps. These make up the stage's secret gimmick.
• Frankenstein's Monster: The head of the robot Freddy is designed to look like that of Universal's take on Frankenstein's monster. It's elongated and coarse, with little hair and a heavy forehead. Whereas Frankenstein's monster has bolts in his neck, Freddy has bolts as his jaw hinges.
• Funny Foreigner: The Johnson Bros have a Spanish accent and sometimes use stock Spanish words such as "arriba, arriba". They are the character most used for simple comedy, ranging from them being a literal "johnson" joke, to Sally mistaking them for a banana in their shared tracksuit, to them entering the contest not knowing what they are competing for, to their particular silly usage of Spanish.
• Funny Terrain Cross Section: In two stages, Act 1: Toon City and Act 3: Fantasy Studio, the fallin' gimmicks drop skaters into a tube tunnel that takes them to another corner of the stage. During the tunnel ride, the camera looks on from the outside and so the stuff buried around the tube tunnel is visible. In Act 1: Toon City, two moles with shovels and a dinosaur skeleton are passed by. In Act 3: Fantasy Studio, a broken pink teddy bear and a tin soldier are passed by.
• Gag Nose: All three of the Johnson Bros have noses longer than their bodies and their noses' skin color is pinker than the rest of their skin. Bros #1 and #2 enter the contest together as one skater. To pull this off, Bro #1 stands atop Bro #2 while they wear a joint track suit. There is a window in their pants for Bro #2 to look through, which from the side makes the Johnson Bros look like one tall dude with his massive "johnson" hanging out. The Johnson Bros' noses are also limitedly prehensile. For the most part, they weaponize their noses by flapping them around, but several of their special appeals show they have more control. During their special air appeal Blow Your Nose, they literally blow their noses out of their faces and the noses grow back continuously. Also, during their special grind appeal Yellow Submarine and special manual appeal Synchro Swim, the Johnson Bros wield and reshape their noses into spinning periscopes and sonars.
• Getting the Boot: Every stage has one or more gimmicks in the form of entrances into offscreen rooms. Entering any of these gimmicks refocuses the camera on the outside, drawing attention to the unseen proceedings inside, and the proceedings ends when the skater is kicked out with the pinch negative appeal. Examples include the restaurant in Act 1: Toon City, where the skater gets thrown out of with cutlery stabbing their butt, the tent in Act 5: Jungle, where the skater gets thrown out of with spears stabbing their butt, and the dojo in Act 7: Ninja Village, where the skater gets thrown out of with katana stabbing their butt.
• The Ghost: Kevin's profile notes that he was hired to be an instructor at the skating school for Go! Go! Hypergrind by Chief Walt. This would make Chief Walt the organizer of the auditions, but he never shows up, not even during the award ceremony.
• Girlish Pigtails: Sally comes across as the youngest contestant, if not in actual age than in youthfulness. Her height and proportions, her big eyes, her childish voice, and her cutesy pigtails all together give the impression of a girl of around eight years.
• Gold Tooth of Wealth: Bob has one gold incisor — silver or platinum in his alternative palette — despite his young age. He can afford it because he's from a wealthy family, possibly royalty, and though the circumstances of him losing his original incisor aren't revealed, his choice for gold instead of something natural-looking is because he'll take any opportunity he gets to show off his wealth.
• Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: The fallin' negative appeal occurs if a skater reaches the end of a rail. They'll come to a sudden halt, turn towards the camera, look down to see they're not standing on anything anymore, let out an "Uh Oh!" speech balloon, look at the camera, and only after all that do they fall. The process takes about 1.5 seconds.
• Grim Reaper: The Grim Reaper can be summoned in Act 4: Haunted Night by lighting the six candles aligned in a circle on the roof. As the stage's secret gimmick, he spins in a circle holding his scythe. When hit, the skater suffers the decap negative appeal and is sent flying.
• Groin Attack: As an accomplished toon actor, Mr. Smith isn't hesitant to inflict amusing injuries on himself. For his special manual appeal Bull's Eye, he holds his skateboard vertically as he bounces up and down on it with his groin.
• Happily Married: Mr. and Mrs. Smith are going through a financial rough patch that affects their home life, but that's not nearly enough to change the fact that they simply love each other and want the best for each other.
• Hard Light: Set on the pillars of the temple in Act 6: Jungle are orbs that reflect beams of rainbow light in a geometrical pattern between them. These beams can be grinded on, which is the easiest way to go from pillar to pillar and break the stone slab seals on top to unlock the stage's secret gimmick.
• Haunted Castle: Act 4: Haunted Night contains an image of a living haunted castle on the wall behind the mansion. An eerie green glow emanates from its mouth-like gate.
• Head Pet: Bob always has a green snake seated on top of his head. Just like he wears a nemes, the snake wears a little crown. The two of them are well in tune with each other, with the snake often making the facial expressions that Bob can't show because of his visor. At other times, the snake acts like a third arm to Bob.
• Healthcare Motivation: Sister Mary, the owner of the orphanage that Decker and Vert grew up in, has fallen ill. Both Decker and Vert enter the contest principally to earn the money to donate to the orphanage, although at least Decker is not aware that this is Vert's motivation too.
• Heart Beat-Down: Both Piggy Sue and Gigi have physical love-based powers that they put to use in special appeals. Piggy Sue has her special air appeal Blowin' a Kiss, during which she blows a kiss that manifests as a stream of hearts. Gigi has a special air appeal Love & Peace, during which she forms a heart with her rabbit ears. This generates a stream of hearts and a big heart in the middle that eventually gets short forth. Gigi too uses Love & Peace against Bob in their event cutscene when he threatens her with a curse. It is shown to be a devastating move visible from space.
• Human Cannonball: Several arenas have a cannon located somewhere higher-up. Contestants that jump in are squashed into the h-cylinder negative appeal and get shot to another part of the arena. In Act 1: Toon City, the cannon is located on the roof across the bowling alley. In Act 2: Western Film, the cannon is located on the roof of the saloon. In Act 3: Fantasy Studio, the cannon is located on the castle. And in Act 6: Jungle, the cannon is located on a ledge above the campsite.
• Idea Ding: When Sally figures out who "señor", "señora", "señorita", and another "señor" are, a cuckoo clock chimes as she taps the palm of her hand with her fist.
• Human Pincushion: Pinch is the most varied of all negative appeals because it covers everything from being bitten to being stabbed to being stung to being stalked by a UFO. There are two target areas: the head and the butt and the visual reminder remains until either the appeal link is broken or other negative appeals override it. Using an example per stage, a skater gets their butt stabbed with cutlery in the restaurant in Act 1: Toon City, gets their head stabbed with a spear and tomahawk in the yellow tipi in Act 2: Western Film, gets their head munched on by a carnivorous plant in the castle set in Act 3: Fantasy Studio, gets their butt bitten by skeletal fishes in the pond in Act 4: Haunted Night, gets their head munched on by a robot in the conveyor belt tunnels in Act 5: Factory, gets their head attacked by bees in the passageways in Act 6: Jungle, gets their butt stabbed with katana in the dojo or their head stabbed with flags in the gekijo in Act 7: Ninja Village, and gets the aforementioned UFO on them in Act 8: Hong Kong Night.
• Hurricane Kick: Decker is the default skater and has two spin kick-based appeals in his arsenal. His special lip appeal Hurricane sees him balance on the tail wheels of his board while he spins around rapidly. For his special air appeal Tornado, he performs an upside-down hurricane kick that also generates red energy.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: The only hint of what Sally wants out of the contest is her photo cutscene, which shows her staring at a promotional picture of Penny and remarking that "they don't teach you how to be popular in school." Combined with her nerdiness, it appears that her motive is to break out of her shell and make some friends.
• Improbable Weapon User: During a Battle rank match, the contestants have to bombard each other with whatever ammunition they can get their hands on. Ammunition is acquired through negative appeals. Each type of negative appeal generates a different weapon, although the effective differences between them are limited to the ammo count and the damage each hit does. On the conventional end, fire generates molotov cocktails, decap generates sawblades, bomb generates hand grenades, accordion generates hammers, and puncture generates ice picks. On the improbable end, lightning generates lightning icons, v-cylinder and h-cylinder generate toilet rolls, flatten generates doors, box generated packing boxes, and pinch generates plungers.
• Informed Species: Kevin wears a tutu shaped like a standard cartoon vulture when he performs his grind appeal special Dark Ballerina. There's even distorted music playing while he dances and that distorted music is preceded by disturbing laughter, so that all fits with the reputation of vultures as creepy birds. Yet that tutu as equippable gear is called the Dodo Tutu. It doesn't remotely look like a dodo, whether the real bird or any of its cartoon depictions.
• Instant Bandages: Sally trips on the way to the stand during her victory cutscene. She gets up from behind the decorations with a crossed pair of band-aids already on her forehead.
• Interface Screw: During a Race rank match, a skater may end up getting hit with the disorder status effect. It inverts the movement controls.
• In-Universe Camera: The skaters go around performing their appeals for a chance at becoming the protagonist of an upcoming cartoon projected to be a smash hit. There's always a camera on them to catch them showing off or outperforming the other contestants and even when they're chilling in their rooms there's a camera keeping track of them. A few skaters, namely Piggy Sue, Kevin, and Vert, may even damage the lens with their stunts.
• In-Universe Factoid Failure: The last three stages of the contest all have tidbits that are off for the area supposedly presented. There is some ambiguity if this is an in-universe error or not, because while Kevin says that all three are stages set up for films, the menu states that Act 6: Jungle and Act 8: Hong Kong Night are On Location stages. Assuming an in-universe error, Act 6: Jungle is the most egregious. Within skating distance, there are Indonesian rafflesia and pitcher plants from Borneo, a stone temple with Aztec-inspired paint, and a village with African styling. The animals around are African, although that includes both elephants and hippos, which aren't animals found in the African jungles. On the milder end, Act 7: Ninja Village evokes a steampunk version of feudal Japan, but beneath the central building is a hall lined with sparring dummies reminiscent of the Chinese Wooden Men Hall. And Act 8: Hong Kong Night contains a trio of fountains on the right side of the bay. The fountains resemble the dragon that resides on the left, but in design are copies of the Merlion found in Singapore.
• I Will Find You: Both Freddy and the Johnson Bros participate in the contest in the hopes that with all those cameras on them, they will draw the attention of someone they are looking for. Neither storyline provides the circumstances of how those involved got separated. In Freddy's case, he wants to be reunited with his creator and one true friend, Professor Daryl. In case of the Johnson Bros, those participating are Bro #1 and Bro #2 of a triplet and they're searching for their missing Bro #3.
• Joke Item: There are four medals that can be won as equippable gear late in Story Mode. These are the Bronze Medal, the Silver Medal, the Gold Medal, and Kevin's Medal. The Bronze Medal nets a -5 stat boost on everything but reaction, which gets a +9. The Silver Medal nets a -9 stat boost on everything but reaction, which is altogether unaffected. The Gold Medal nets a +2 stat boost on everything but reaction, which gets a -9. And Kevin's Medal, the hardest of all gears to get, nets a -9 stat boost on everything.
• Jungle Japes: Act 6: Jungle is the jungle level. It is one of the large stages, consisting of three areas separated by a broad river and a thick jungle. The areas are a campsite near some open jungle, a native village, and a stone temple. The local fauna consist of crocodiles, turtles, hippos, gorillas, elephants, and bees.
• Kamehame Hadoken: When Mr. Smith performs his special air appeal Soulful Banana, he brings his hands together in a yellow glow. Once charged, he unleashes his attack towards the camera in the form of a swarm of bananas.
• Lady in Red: Penny is an unapologetic stunner and a professional model. She wears a red leather outfit consisting of a zip-up leotard, elbow-length gloves, and knee-high boots that contrast sharply against her blue fur.
• Level Ate: The winter set in Act 3: Fantasy Studio evokes winter within the seasonal theme of the entire stage, but it's also a food-themed area. It evokes one giant cake, with the snow doubling as frosting or cream. Vertical areas look like cake with pieces of kiwi, banana, and strawberry inserted. The main feature of the set is a gingerbread house that ostensibly belongs to a witch. There are also wafer ramps, ice cream cushions, lollypop poles, toffee ramps, and candy cane rails.
• Levitating Lotus Position: Sally, who is a gifted witch, assumes a floating lotus position on her skateboard while performing a F/S Board Slide or a B/S Board Slice.
• Living Crashpad: During the opening sequence, Decker and Vert are launched up onto Sally's flying broomstick. The extra weight is too much for the vehicle and so the trio falls down. First Vert lands atop Bob, who's out on stroll through Toon City, then Decker lands atop Vert, and lastly Sally lands atop Decker.
• Loading Screen: For the duration of the loading time between rank matches and stages, a lone street in front of a forest is on display. Two streetlamps flank a sign that reads "Loading...". Kevin skateboards by and can be made to jump by the player's input. There's also a painted target slowly moving across the pavement so the player can entertain themselves by making Kevin jump and land right in the target's bulls-eye.
• Magical Flutist: Bob owns a cobra pipe with which he can force the snake on his nemes to dance as demonstrated by his manual appeal special Snake Dance. He can also use the pipe to place curses, or so he says. He tried to curse Gigi with bad luck by playing a tune, but either it doesn't work or it wasn't enough to take down Gigi.
• Magic Music: Bob can perform magic with his flute and Sally's musical instrument of magic is her violin. Bob uses his flute to command the snake on his head and may or may not be able to cast curses with its tunes. Sally uses her violin during her special manual appeal String Puppet. It summons her mummified dolls to dance to her melody.
• Magic Wand: Sally is a witch and has all the archetypical equipment for the job: the pointy hat, the flying broomstick, and of course a magic wand. She twirls around with it during her special air appeal Magic Wand, thereby summoning tiny sallies. And during her special manual appeal, she swings her magic wand like a baton to make her mummy dolls march after her.
• Man-Eating Plant: Man-eating plants are part of the scenery of both Act 3: Fantasy Studio and Act 6: Jungle. In Act 3: Fantasy Studio, the man-eating plants come in two varieties and are the stage's secret gimmick. They start out as buds, but if the star above their set is broken and stardust rains down, they grow into full plants. The large and purple variety are flatten gimmicks while the small and green variety that chomps down on a skater's head are pinch gimmicks. The man-eating plants in Act 6: Jungle, meanwhile, are pitcher plants and v-cylinder gimmicks.
• The Man in the Moon: The moon of Act 4: Haunted Night has a face that smiles down eerily on the haunting scenery.
• Marionette Master: Sally is a witch with the power to summon her mummy dolls to her, which she does during her special manual appeals String Puppet and Mummy Parade. In the former, she uses her magic wand to summon them and wields it like a marching baton while her dolls follow her in a line. In the latter, Sally plays a melody on her violin, which summons her dolls and makes them dance.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: There are two sources on the size of the Smith Family. According to Mr. Smith's profile, the family consists of fifteen children divided in three quintuplets. They may be all boys. In the photo cutscene, however, he gazes at a photo of him, his wife, and an octuplet worth of babies. The two sources do not necessarily conflict because the octuplet could just be children #16-23, but otherwise which source is correct is unknown. All the same, whether the Smith Family contains eight children, fifteen children, or twenty-three children, those are big numbers for a series of siblings.
• Matryoshka Object: The Freddy 1 figure depicts him doing his special lip appeal Tiny Robots, only instead of a whole lot of tiny freddies coming out of his mouth, there's just one inside his mouth that also opens his mouth to reveal an even tinier freddy.
• Medusa: Bob is rather gorgon-like in his design. For one, he has a snake permanently seated on his nemes that he is emotionally in tune with. For two, he always wears a gold visor that obscures his eyes. And for three, much like gorgon enemies in video games are regularly a floating head, Bob can retract his body into his head, as he does so during his special grind appeal Facial and when he's knocked off his skateboard.
• Metafictional Device:
  • The opening cutscene ends with Decker being the last man standing after bowling over the competition. Then the metal plate that is the title screen drops on his head.
  • In the multiplayer mode Push, the players perform appeals to push the bar that splits the screen towards the opponent's screen in an effort to push them out of the game.
• Metropolis Level: Both Act 1: Toon City and Act 8: Hong Kong Night take place in the midst of a city with big billboards, constant traffic, restaurants, and tourist attractions.
• Mini-Game Credits: The credits consist of two halves. The first half is a creative credits sequence and the second half is a shooting gallery mini-game. It takes place in a pink room with a small robot in the corner and a large robot peeking in through the window. The player is in control of a mechanical arm and with it has to throw blobs of paint at twenty moving portraits of the Team Poponchi staff. Each hit garners a quote by the staff member and at the end of the mini-game there is a score chart. The mini-game is the only way to get Kevin's figures, because he can't be used during Story Mode where the other skaters' figures are earned.
• Mini-Me: Sally and Freddy both have special appeals for which they generate mini versions of themselves. In Sally's case, it's during her special air appeal Magic Wand that she uses her magic wand to summon tiny sallies. In Freddy's case, it's his special grind appeal Tiny Robots that makes him spit out tiny freddies.
• Mirror-Cracking Ugly: In two different scenarios, Piggy Sue breaks the lens of the camera by being flirtatious in its direction. Her special air appeal Impish Wink causes her head to inflate while she first shows her backside to the camera, then turns around and winks as she asks "Like what you see?". The lens shatters in response. And in Piggy Sue's victory cutscene, she winks at the camera during her speech. This not only cracks the lens, but also damages the camera's internals to intermittently show static instead of Piggy Sue.
• Mirror Match: If Kevin is selected for use in Single Session Mode, Kevin still comes after the skater when they exceed the time limit. This clock-cop Kevin wears the outfit the player Kevin isn't wearing, which makes player Kevin the only skater that can meet clock-cop Kevin in something other than his default blue outfit.
• Molotov Cocktail: In a Battle rank match, the weapon a contestant gets for setting themself on fire are molotov cocktails. The projectiles have decent speed and damage output.
• Money to Throw Away: There are two instances of money being thrown about.
  • Bob is filthy rich. He likes to show off his wealth by throwing money around, such as during his special air appeal Bling Bling, his special manual appeal Camel Ride, and during his victory cutscene. He also uses money as furniture and tools, such as how he's seated on a pyramid of money during his special manual appeal Snake Dance and the Bob 1 figure depicts him as using money as a hand-fan.
  • In Act 2: Western Film, the bank has a moneybag billboard from which people-sized coins fall. These coins have Kevin's face on them and serve as an accordion gimmick.
• Mood-Swinger: During Bob's special grind appeal Facial, he tucks his body into his nemes and spins around while he cycles through four emotions: anger, sadness, fear, and joy.
• Moon Rabbit: Gigi looks like a girl dressed in a pink rabbit-shaped pajamas, but she can move the ears of her supposed pajamas, so the outfit might be part of her body. Gigi's special grind appeal is Crescent Grind, which turns her board into a crescent moon that spins around her. She also has some resistance to Earth's gravity as shown in her special manual appeal Low Gravity and on occasion when she floats back up onto her board after falling off.
• Mr. Alt Disney: The unseen organizer of the Go! Go! Hypergrind auditions and implied high-ranking resident of the Toon World is Chief Walt.
• Mummy: Sally is a young little mummy who still has her hair and eyes, but probably no longer her organs because she only weighs 7 lbs. She owns several mummy dolls, mummified dolls, or mummies as dolls that she can control with either her violin or magic wand. Although with all her wrappings she's ostensibly an Egyptian mummy, she has no other traits to corroborate that, in contrast to the likes of Bob who has all kinds of stereotypical Egyptian elements to him.
• Mushroom House: The fall set in Act 3: Fantasy Studio has a number of big mushroom props and the biggest two of them are mushroom houses. The biggest one is a gimmick because it has a chimney that can be jumped into for the h-cylinder negative appeal.
• Nature-Loving Robot: Freddy is a robotic gentle simpleton whose innate kindness is demonstrated through the willingness of birds to perch on him. During the opening cutscene, he's playing with three of them before Decker rudely disturbs them. Gameplay-wise, Freddy's special manual appeal Shutdown consists of him willingly taking the wind-up key out of his back and falling over. Birds fly down to perch on him the longer Shutdown is maintained until the fifth bird that descends is suddenly roughly the size of Freddy himself. Funnily enough, the Freddy G figure depicts this exact event and puts a lot more focus on the bird than on Freddy.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: As per his profile, Kevin's been a weightlifter, a police officer, a bouncer, a pizza delivery guy, a movie extra, and an agent for a famous actress before becoming an instructor at the skating school for the Go! Go! Hypergrind auditions.
• No Name Given: Some peripheral characters, such as Sister Mary and Professor Daryl, are given names. Others, like Decker's sister and Penny's once-boyfriend, have to do without name.
• Nose Nuggets: Mr. Smith is really into picking his nose and digging up dirt. During the class meeting, he casually pokes around while he has the class's attention on him and flicks his findings to the back of Freddy's head. During his special lip appeal Pick-a-Winner, he digs up big pink boogers and flicks them at the camera.
• Nothing Is Funnier: The Johnson Bros have an appeal called Johnson Juice. They wring themselves as if they were one object and yellow liquid squirts from their yellow tracksuit. The joke is that it is entirely unclear what this liquid is. Is it sweat caught in the fabric? Is it snot given the strong focus on the Johnson Bros' noses? Is it semen given the strong focus on the Johnson Bros' noses as a substitute for penises? Is it tears coming from the comical amounts of crying they do over their missing brother? Is it "water" absorbed by the fabric when the Johnson Bros swim through solid ground as if it is liquid? Is it banana juice because they get mistaken for a banana by Sally? Is is honey because they're beset by bees during their special manual appeal Hive Jive? Any guess is as good as any other guess.
• Not Quite Flight: As a moon rabbit, Gigi has the power to defy Earth's gravity. She has a special manual appeal called Low Gravity that allows her to walk on her ears and sometimes when she falls off her skateboard she flies up and circles said skateboard twice before landing back on it. Her stats furthermore favor ollie and air with respectively a 10 and a 8 while her other stats don't come higher than 4.
• Now That's Using Your Teeth!: When he performs his special grind appeal Biting Slide, Decker bites down on his skateboard and grinds on doing a headstand. He also bites down on his board during his special air appeal Biting Flip to maneuver it around him.
• Ocular Gushers: The two Johnson Bros come close to crying a river every time they despair over their third brother's disappearance. Their copious streams of tears go hand-in-hand with their talent as swimmers, for which they also generate their own water.
• Off with His Head!: One of the negative appeals is decap, a move that has the skater decapitate themself. Depending on the stage, it can be achieved with sawblades randomly sticking out of walls, the Grim Reaper's scythe, laser beams, hostile ninjas striking with their katana, and so on.
• One Curse Limit: During the Race rank matches, contestants can receive one of three status effects: disorder, no-jump, and slow. These status effects are temporary, but in case a new one is inflicted on a contestant that already has a status effect, the new one replaces the old one. A skater cannot have more than one status effect.
• Opaque Nerd Glasses: Sally uses reading glasses to get through her beloved books. They consist of opaque lenses with a pattern of concentric circles on them within a thick black frame.
• Orphanage of Love: Decker, Decker's sister, and Vert all grew up in the same orphanage in the care of Sister Mary. They have nothing but good memories of the place and their childhoods there. The orphanage is the primary reason why Decker and Vert even participate in the auditions: Sister Mary has fallen ill and the two want to donate the prize money to help her out.
• Outside Ride: A trick that never comes up during training or missions but is possible to pull off is skitching. About half the acts have one or more vehicles making rounds and skaters can grab onto the back and ride along on their skateboards.
• Overly Long Gag: Piggy Sue uses her award speech to thank literally everyone even marginally involved with her victory: "I especially like to thank the producers, the directors, the cameramen, the stagehands, the sound engineers, the costume designers, oh, and of course the makeup artists, my mother, brother, sister, and uncle Bill—" The comedy is twofold. On one hand, Piggy Sue herself keeps talking faster and faster to get as many thanks in as possible even though it makes it impossible to discern words amidst the string of sound past "Uncle Bill". On the other hand, the camera is breaking down and static increasingly cuts into Piggy Sue's speech until the camera gives out completely.
• Pain to the Ass: Asses are targeted by three negative appeals: fire, bomb, and pinch. If the skater jumps on top of a fire, they'll specifically burn their ass and jump up in pain. This does not occur if the skater only rides into fire, although the fire negative appeal still is inflicted. Similarly, a skater that jumps onto an explosive while on fire will find their ass taking most of the impact. And lastly, the pinch negative appeal can target either the butt or the head. The skater is left with an item or animal stuck in or on the targeted body part.
• Palette Swap:
  • Every character has a palette swap as an alternative look that is unlocked along with their second figure. The one exception is Kevin, who wears a whole different outfit instead of just switching out colors.
  • During gameplay, the paint negative appeal requires the skaters to douse themselves with a sticky liquid, which turns their model into a single solid color except for the eyes. Depending on the stage, the available colors are white, brown, green, purple, orange, blue, and yellow.
• Palm-Fist Tap: When Sally figures out who "señor", "señora", "señorita", and another "señor" are, she taps the palm of her hand with her fist as a cuckoo clock chimes.
• Personal Raincloud: Although not tied to any character, Act 6: Jungle has a remarkably local and low-hanging thundercloud just outside of the village. Skaters can use it as a lightning gimmick.
• Pig Man: In a cartoon world where all manner of creatures co-exist, Piggy Sue is a humanoid pig. As per the animal stereotype, her excess weight is part of her characterization, but it's not presented as inherent to her species. When Piggy Sue was a popular actress in her teens, she was very thin and she gained her current weight in the time since from drinking paint. She's desperate to lose it and regain her glory, hence why she entered the contest.
• Pivotal Wake-up: If she falls off her skateboard, the mummy Sally may stretch her arms out in front of her and stiffly rise from her prone position into a standing one.
• Pom-Pom Girl: When Penny performs her special manual appeal Cheerleader, she breaks out the yellow pom-poms and does a little routine. It's one of the many dance styles she's experienced in.
• Precious Photo: Every character except Kevin has a cutscene of them in their room gazing at a photo that means something to them and relates to why they joined the contest. Decker and Vert each have the same photo of the two of them as little children along with Decker's sister and their guardian Sister Mary in front of the orphanage. Sister Mary's been sick for a while and both Decker and Vert want to use the award to financially support the orphanage. Sally has a promotional picture of Penny and wishes she was a popular as the model, something she might achieve by winning the contest. Penny, in turn, has a photo of her and her ex-boyfriend, with whom she is no longer together. It hurts her and therefore she's trying to take her life in a new direction with a career switch. The Johnson Bros have a photo of their third brother, whom they are looking for and hope they will get the attention of by joining the contest. Similarly, Freddy has a photo of his creator Professor Daryl and hopes to be reunited with him through the contest. Piggy Sue has two photos of herself: one from her early teens when she was a popular film star and thin and one of her in present day weighing quite a bit more. She's hoping to regain her former glory and maybe lose some weight. Mr. Smith has a photo of himself, his wife, and eight of his children. The family is not doing well financially and Mr. Smith is looking for a well-paying job opportunity, such as becoming the star of Go! Go! Hypergrind. Gigi has a photo of Vert, whom she's fallen hard for to her own confusion. Lastly, Bob has a stone tablet instead of a photo and it presumably depicts his father. He's joined the contest to prove to his family that he's not dependent on them.
• Production Throwback: After the winner has read aloud their contract following the credits, an unidentified voice proclaims "Excellent". This is a throwback to Spümcø, Inc's earlier video game works Yoake no Mariko and Yoake no Mariko Second Act. In these games, each cue performance is vocally judged by the director, "Excellent" being the verdict the player strives to.
• Pubescent Braces: Gigi is one of the younger contestants and altogether the most childish. She has an overbite fitting for her rabbit motif and wears braces over her pronounced teeth.
• Pull a Rabbit out of My Hat: For her special air appeal Black Magic, Sally pulls two frogs, two snakes, and two centipedes out from her pointy witch hat every time she reaches in.
• Punny Name:
  • Gigi's name derives from the Japanese word for "rabbit", which is "usagi". Gigi has a strong rabbit theme.
  • Piggy Sue's name is a combination of "piggy" for pig and "sue" for "sooey", a feeding call for pigs.
• Red/Green Contrast: There's a little bit of red vs green in Decker's and Vert's rivalry. Notably, Decker's special air appeal Tornado has him spin around a vertical axis while emanating red energy. In contrast, Vert's special air appeal Banzai Twist has him spin around a horizontal axis while emanation green energy.
• Recurring Extra: There isn't a singular character that recurs through the various stages, but there are two recurring general character designs that are distinct from the design style of the skaters. These two general character designs align with each of the developer teams: Spümcø and Poponchi.
  • On the Spümcø end, there is the image of a long-nosed face. Among others, it appears on top of the weather vane, on the train, and off in the distance of the fake Mount Rushmore in Act 2: Western Film. In Act 3: Fantasy Studio, the face is on the chimney at the front of the winter house. In Act 4: Haunted Night, a giant skull ornament has the characteristic big nose. In Act 6: Jungle, the native masks and the temple are in the face's image. And in Act 7: Ninja Village, several walls bear the image.
  • On the Poponchi end, there is a simplistic robot design that can be spotted thrice. It first shows up in front of and inside the robot museum in Act 1: Toon City. The second occurrence is in Act 5: Factory, which is where these robots are made. And the design shows up for a third time in the room that hosts the credits mini-game. One robot is in a box in the corner and a big one looks in through the window.
• Remixed Level: Every stage has an eye-catching secret gimmick that has to be unlocked when participating in Freeride Mode, Rehearsal, an Appeal Champ rank match, a 1 Link Appeal rank match, a Simon Says rank match, or a Mini Game rank match. It is already unlocked during the Battle and Race rank matches. In Act 1: Toon City, the globe held up by a big robot can be knocked off by circling its ring. It will roll around the museum staircase and inflict accordion. In Act 2: Western Film, the edge of a circular pen near the tipis can be rounded thrice to generate a tornado. Skating into this tornado causes flatten. In Act 3: Fantasy Studio, the man-eating plants on the spring/summer set can be brought to bloom by a skater who is shot into the big star hanging above the set to make it rain stardust. Two plants grow up: a purple one chews up skaters for flatten while the green one chomps down on a skater's head to cause pinch. In Act 4: Haunted Night, there's a circle of six candles set up on the mansion's roof. A skater can lit themself on fire and follow the outline of the candles to light them and finish a summoning ritual for the Grim Reaper. The Grim Reaper proceeds to wield his scythe in a circle for an opportunity at decap. In Act 5: Factory, there's a lever in the control room at the top of the factory. Flipping it activates the pistons in the walls for accordion. In Act 6: Jungle, there's a temple with light-redirecting orbs on pillars. Above each orb is a stone slab. Skating the beams of light to destroy the slabs causes the volcano to explode and launch a large stone head over to the temple, where it rolls across a linear path and causes flatten. In Act 7: Ninja Village, there's a lever in the corner to the upper right of the dojo that when flipped tilts the dojo over for the gekijo to appear. This exchanges a double of box already obtainable on the other side of the small stage for an otherwise unobtainable h-cylinder. And in Act 8: Hong Kong Night, there is a satellite dish on the restaurant's roof and if it's switched up, it sends a message into space that draws a big UFO that beams skaters up and leaves them with puncture.
• Retractable Appendages: Both Freddy and Bob are capable of retracting part of their body. When he is knocked over, Freddy may retract his limbs and his neck into his torso to hit the ground as a solid brick. Bob too lessens the impact of a fall like that, but he retracts his entire body into his head which itself is covered by his nemes. He also retracts his body during his special grind appeal Facial.
• Robot Maid: In Act 7: Ninja Village, a tea-serving karakuri automaton rushes around the place. It is of use as a paint gimmick.
• Running Gag: There aren't many cutscenes per character, so it draws attention that in both the opening cutscene and in his event cutscene Mr. Smith ends up covered in liquid, much to his disgust. In the opening cutscene, he gets covered in poop. In his event cutscene, he gets covered in pumpkin vomit. Additionally, Mr. Smith is covered in orange goo on the cover and title screen of the game.
• Rushmore Refacement: Off in the distance of Act 2: Western Film, to the left of the goldmine, is a mountain topped with a row of four Spümcø-designed faces. Concept art for this mountain can be unlocked for a better view.
• Scary Flashlight Face: Bob's face is highlighted with light from below when he puts a bad luck curse on Gigi. It's not how he actually looks at that time because there is no light source, but it is how Gigi in her terrified state perceives him.
• Sexy Cat Person: Penny is a gorgeous, sleek, blue-furred cat woman whose skimpy red outfit holds the middle between biker and dominatrix. Decker, Vert, and Freddy are interested in her while Sally admits to wanting to have Penny's sex appeal.
• Shaking the Rump: Three characters shake their backs during distinct appeals. Penny, a model, doesn't let the puncture negative appeal get the better of her and shows off the hole in her abdomen by shaking her hips at the camera. Piggy Sue draws a lot of focus to her behind in general, but she has some appeals that in particular focus on her rump movement. In her version of the grind appeal Tap, she turns her back towards the camera and sways her hips as far down as her knees allow. During her special special air appeal Impish Wink, she shoves her ass towards the camera as she makes a spin. And during her manual appeal special Re-lax, she sometimes raises her butt out of the tub and jiggles it opposite the camera's direction. The third character, Kevin, has a special manual appeal Kickin' Back that is almost identical to Piggy Sue's Re-lax. Therefore, he too occasionally raises his butt out of the tub and jiggles it opposite the camera's direction.
• The Short Guy with Glasses: Sally is one of the youngest contestants, but she is also the most knowledgeable of the whole lot of them. Among others, her love for reading is reflected in her special lip appeal Speed Reader. Although none of the skaters are known to wear glasses, Sally has a pair of reading glasses she occasionally dons, such as when performing Speed Reader.
• Shout-Out:
  • Freddy wears a red-and-dark-blue striped sweater that brings to mind Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street.
  • After Gigi gives Bob a beatdown in their event cutscene, she lies alone in the trashed landscape while the camera pans up to the clear sky. A message comes into view reading "War is over if you want it," referencing the lyrics of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
  • The Johnson Bros, who are two guys in a shared yellow tracksuit, are excellent swimmers and have an appeal called Yellow Submarine after the musical Yellow Submarine.
  • In Act 2: Western Film, there's a building billed as Miss Katie's Saloon. This is an homage to Katie Rice, a character designer who worked at Spümcø, Inc during 2001-2002.
• "Simon Says" Mini-Game: Simon Says is the name of one of the rank matches that can be issued and it's the one that most leans into the gimmick gameplay aspect. During a Simon Says round, the contestant is given an ever-lengthening sequence of negative appeals to perform. The goal is to complete as many negative appeals as possible to walk away with the best score. This particular mini-game is tough because it requires the player to memorize the map's layout for the locations of each gimmick. On the upside, performing the wrong negative appeal affects neither the score nor the sequence.
• Simpleton Voice: The hulking but kindhearted Freddy has a low voice and speaks both slowly and with odd pauses as if he's trying to figure out what next to say. He is prone to making sounds instead of words when he's under stress and when happy can come close to squealing. His grammar is mostly fine with the exception that sometimes he either incorrectly uses verbs in the present simple tense or uses the wrong case of a pronoun.
• Sky Face: If Freddy wins, he looks at the photo of him and Professor Daryl and vows that they'll reunite soon. As he looks up, he imagines his creator's face in the sky.
• Slapstick: Part of the game's humor is the characters being silly, another part is gross and naughty stuff, and another part are slapstick shenanigans. The slapstick mostly comes from the negative appeals, which are tricks that require the skaters to hurt or humiliate themselves by such things as getting pressed into the shape of an accordion or a box or by getting covered in soup. There is also a bonus point system called the negative reaction that encourages a quick succession of negative appeals. A second source of slapstick are some character-specific special appeals. For instance, Mr. Smith repeatedly hits himself in the crotch with his skateboard during his special manual appeal Bull's Eye and the Johnson Bros unleash bees on themselves during their special manual appeal Hive Jive. The third and final source of slapstick are the events that play out during the cutscenes, such as Decker getting the door shut on his hand while he tries to bait Vert.
• Smoke Out: The ninja in Act 7: Ninja Village lie in wait for a skater to roll within range. When that happens, they smoke in to attack with katana, flamethrowers, or giant hammers. If the skater escapes their reach, they smoke back out.
• Southern Belle: Piggy Sue is a modern Bonne Belle. Aside from her thick Southern accent, she's easily the most hospitable of the cast and despite being relatively young is a bit of an old soul. The middle-aged Mr. Smith, who isn't the easiest person to get along with, thinks highly of her and not only is Piggy Sue one of few characters who dedicates her winning speech to someone else, she dedicates it to a whole string of people ranging from the contest's crew to her family.
• Snake Charmer: Bob permanently has a snake curled up on his nemes. With his own eyes hidden behind a visor, the snake emotes for him, but Bob can also go traditional and make the snake dance by playing a tune on his cobra pipe. Such he does during his special manual appeal Snake Dance.
• Spoiled Brat: Bob is from a very wealthy family and quite possibly royalty. He's got money to throw away and does so in any manner to show off, including literally throwing it away. He's also one of the younger contestants and, as demonstrated in his victory cutscene, quite conceited.
• Squashed Flat: One of the negative appeals is flatten, a move that has the skater flattened sideways to the thickness of paper. If it usually achieved with something spinning rapidly, such as revolving doors or a water wheel.
• Stalked by the Bell: Appeal Champ rounds don't end if there's still an active link in progress when the timer runs out, so the round can theoretically go on indefinitely as long as the player keeps extending the link and racking up points. As a countermeasure, Kevin enters the level shortly after the timer runs out to knock the contestant off their board. He can be avoided, but his presence is an extra risk to landing the last link and collecting all the points associated with it.
• Status Effects: The game's primary status effects come in the form of the negative appeals, although with the exception of fire these negative appeals are only visual and do not effect the skater's potential. True status effects occur only in Race rank matches where they are generated at random by interacting with gimmicks. There are three of them: disorder, no-jump, and slow. Disorder has a spotted question mark as as its icon and reverses the skater's controls. No-jump has heavy metal boots as its icon and prevents the skater from jumping. And slow has a ball and chain as its icon and significantly reduces the skater's speed.
• Standard Snippet: There are several scenes that utilize classical music.
  • Piggy Sue's special grind appeal is Prima Ballerina, for which she dons a swan-themed tutu while a sped up version of "Overture" of Swan Lake plays.
  • A melody, "Walkure", incorporating "Ride of the Valkyries" plays in the Spumco Gymnasium during training.
  • A melody, "DRA Spring", incorporating "Spring" from The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi plays in Act 4: Haunted Night.
  • Some piece of classic music plays during most of the event cutscenes. Gigi's and Bob's battle melodramatically ends with a rendition of "Air on the G String" by Bach. Erik Satie's "Gymnopédie No. 1" plays when the Johnson Bros tell Sally about their missing brother. Former coworkers Mr. Smith and Piggy Sue meet up in the eerie stage of Act 4: Haunted Night where Pablo de Sarasate's "Zigeunerweisen" adds to the oppresively melancholic mood. Lastly, Freddy's and Penny's event cutscene opens with Erik Satie's "Gnossienne No. 1" to evoke the calm of city at that hour.
  • The "Graduation March" segment of Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March No.1" plays during the award ceremony.
  • During the post-credits minigame, "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart plays.
• Stealth Pun: There are UFOs in Act 8: Hong Kong Night that float above the skaters' heads as long as they're subject to the pinch negative appeal. These are the only pinch assets to do so, with the others either sticking in the skaters' heads or their butts. But in Act 8: Hong Kong Night, there is one other pinch asset that also floats above the skaters' heads and that is the wok obtained in the restaurant's kitchen. This "flying wok" is a wordplay on the usual "flying saucer".
• Stock Shōnen Hero: Decker is an American skater punk, but still one created by Japan following the shounen hero formula. He is a go-getter with a strong sense of loyalty and justice. He has a tragic backstory of how his family fell apart and of how he and his little sister ended up in an orphanage. He befriended Vert there, but in adulthood they've gone separate ways and become rivals. Decker is the energetic upstart and Vert the ostensibly superior stoic. Decker joins the contest both to earn money for the orphanage he owes so much to and to follow in his father's footsteps, who was one of the best skateboarders in the world before his premature death.
• Stunned Silence: If the Johnson Bros win, they're very happy but they never cared for winning and so for their acceptance speech they ask what actually it is they won. They are met with silence as the crowd tries to make sense of the situation.
• Summoning Ritual: On the roof of the mansion in Act 4: Haunted Night, six candles are set at an even pace in a circle. A skater who sets themselves on fire can light these candles and summon the Grim Reaper as the stage's secret gimmick. The Grim Reaper will spin around with his scythe out, giving the skaters an opportunity to decapitate themselves.
• Supermodel Strut: Penny is a professional model looking to make it as an actress. She brings her modeling know-how with her to the contest, which shows in the fact that she has a 10 in the rail stat and through her special grind appeal Penny Strut. During this move, she uses her skateboard as her catwalk as she hums and gently sways her hips while roses sprout around her legs.
• Super Swimming Skills: The Johnson Bros are so good at swimming that they don't need water to do it. For their special manual appeal Synchro Swim, the duo dives into the ground and performs an elaborate synchronized swimming routine during which they spin their noses like periscopes. And for their special grind appeal Yellow Submarine, the duo lays down to do the backstroke while the nose of Bro #1 spins like a periscope and Bro #2 reshapes his nose into a spinning sonar. Kevin too has the ability to swim through solid ground as demonstrated by his version of the special manual appeal Synchro Swim.
• Symbolic Blood: Mr. Smith, an experienced actor, gets catapulted into pumpkin vomit at the end of his event cutscene. Covered in the orange fluid, he collapses, lamenting that he doesn't feel so good. As the tragic music swells on, up-to-then-nonexistent curtains close.
• Technicolor Ninjas: There are three types of ninja in Act 7: Ninja Village and they are primarily distinguished by the color of their outfits. These are red, yellow, and blue, just like the three torii through which the dragon cart rides. Of course, the village is a set and the ninjas actors, so there's a point to their visibility.
• Teleportation: The Johnson Bros are capable of some form of teleportation. When they say goodbye to Sally, they shift from being next to her to being on the edge of shouting distance. It startles Sally.
• Temple of Doom: Of the three areas in Act 6: Jungle, one is formed by a stone temple with a moving stone face and stone hands. The face's eyes are level with several pillars strewn about on top of which reflecting orbs are located. Beams of rainbow light form a pattern between the eyes and orbs and if the stone slabs on top of them are broken, the mechanism causes the volcano across the river to erupt and catapult a large stone head over. Other aspects of the temple are a fountain, a snake sculpture, lit torches, spikes, sawblades, and various moving parts sure to harm if neared.
• Tightrope Walking: Most stages have wires the skaters illogically can grind on. Examples include flag lines, chain fences, light strings, clothes lines, paper lantern strings, and ordinary rope.
• Tipis and Totem Poles: The scenery of Act 2: Western Film brings together all kinds of Western-themed elements. There's a goldmine, there's a town with a saloon and all, and off to the side are three tipis and a totem pole. They're good for five gimmicks: the red tipi is a fire gimmick, the blue tipi a v-cylinder gimmick, the yellow tipi with a spear and tomahawk sticking out a pinch gimmick, the lower wildly swinging totem a flatten gimmick, and the upper wildly swinging totem an accordion gimmick. Spears, arrows, and tomahawks are also involved in the building-to-building shoot-out rather than any bullets, which suggests that unlike the usual Western story beats, it's not settlers behind the shoot-out but Indigenous Americans.
• Toilet Humour: Part of the game's humor is slapstick shenanigans, another part is the characters being silly, and another part is gross and naughty stuff. For instance, Mr. Smith won't keep his fingers out of his nose, there are two stages in which the skaters may cover themselves in poop, the appeal Johnson Juice involves copious amounts of some bodily fluid, Piggy Sue has a tendency to show her butt to the camera and she farts during the award ceremony, the second face on the Mount Rushmore-like sculpt props up the overly long tongue of the first face, and there's a stage where a Halloween pumpkin sprays around pumpkin vomit.
• Tongue-Out Insult: Gigi, one of the more childish characters, pettily sticks her tongue out at Mr. Smith when Decker tries to end their fight in class. Because Gigi has a prominent rabbit-like overbite, her tongue is blocked from truly sticking out and instead more or less hangs out of her mouth.
• Totem Pole Trench: The Johnson Bros are two short guys stacked atop each other to look like one tall guy. They fill up a single tracksuit together, of which the front is cut open to allow Bro #2 to see. Usually, there are no sleeves for Bro #2, but during some moves he does have them. Neither brother means deception with their two-guys-in-a-tracksuit getup; they're just that in-tune that they prefer to participate as one contestant.
• Toontown: The Toon World is a dimension separate from but connected to the Real World. The Toon World follows cartoon logic and cartoon physics where injuries are funny rather than dangerous and the natives range from humans to anthropomorphic animals to robots to monsters. Sometimes, the Toon World helps out the Real World by filming themselves and sending over the tapes, which are used as cartoons in the Real World.
• Tornado Move: There is a circular pen in a clearing in Act 2: Western Film. This is the stage's secret gimmick, because grinding along its edge for three rounds brings about a tornado. A skater can enter this tornado to be launched up, which gives easy access to the town's roofs.
• Tube Travel: In Act 1: Toon City, Act 3: Fantasy Studio, and Act 6: Jungle, there are rails or equivalent structures that don't lead anywhere. If the player engages the fallin' negative appeal at the end, the skater falls straight down into a series of tubes and emerges elsewhere in the stage. The first two are two-way routes while the one in Act 6: Jungle only goes from the campsite to the temple.
• The Unpronounceable: Bob's true name is Pxhbiqt. He goes by Bob to make it easier for everyone.
• Unusual Ears: Gigi looks like a girl wearing rabbit-shaped pajamas, but the supposed pajamas' rabbit ears are prehensile. Gigi can shape them into a heart during her special air appeal Love & Peace and she can even walk on them in her special manual appeal Low Gravity.
• Variant Power Copying: Kevin has no original special appeals and instead has variants of those of others. His Laser Beam is Freddy's Laser Beam. His Samurai Style is Vert's Samurai Style. His Tiny Kevin is Freddy's Tiny Robots, only the tiny Kevins are just the face and they always look at the camera as if they're stickers while the tiny robots are full-bodied robots with some three-dimensionality to them. His Dark Ballerina is Piggy Sue's Prima Ballerina, just with a vulture theme and distorted music compared to Piggy Sue's swan theme and elegant melody. His Kickin' Back is Piggy Sue's Re-lax. And his Synchro Swim is the Johnson Bros' Synchro Swim, but without any actual synchronized swimming because it's only him.
• Walk Like an Egyptian: During his F/S Board Slide and B/S Board Slide, the Egyptian Bob looks straight ahead and sways his head and bent arms. He may also step sideways over his skateboard if his balance shifts.
• Wild Take: Both Decker and Gigi have a closeup shot of their face during their respective event cutscenes. Decker gets his hand caught between the door and the doorframe, and the distorted closeup makes it clear that he is in pain. Gigi gets accosted by Bob and his head pet snake, the latter of whom wraps around Gigi's arm. The distorted closeup communicates her horror.
• Wink "Ding!": Penny and Piggy Sue hang out together during the opening cutscene. When Decker and Vert pass by, each of the women winks at them and in both cases, the wink generates a star to the side. In Piggy Sue's case, the star is intended ironically because she's not attractive and any other time she winks there are no stars and the lens of the camera cracks instead. In Penny's case, the star is sincere and a full falling star shoots from her wink during her victory cutscene.
• X-Ray Sparks: The lightning negative appeal comes from getting zapped with high voltage. If this happens, the silhouette of the skater turns black and transparent, leaving their bright white skeleton well-visible. The robot Freddy is no exception, even though he is decidedly unlikely to have a skeleton.

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