There have been a lot of Tony Hawk games over the last five years, so it’s no wonder there are some gamers out there looking for a skateboarding video game alternative to the series. Skate just might be it if what we played of the game at Electronic Art’s pre-E3 2007 press event is any indication of how the final game will measure up.
The first thing you should understand is Skate is nothing like Activision’s long-running skateboarder. Sure, the game features a lot of skateboarding, but that’s just about the only similarity the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 title shares with the Tony Hawk games.
Skate is several times more realistic than Tony Hawk has ever been. In Activision’s series, it’s not unusual to kick flip into a tail grab while soaring 30 feet into the air off a high school staircase, it’s expected – and compared to the other tricks you can pull off in the average Hawk game, it’s actually pretty lame. In Skate, however, managing to jump off a staircase, do a simple 180 and land with success is quite an accomplishment – at least when you’re first learning to play the game.
Indeed, EA’s new skateboarder feels like the Gran Turismo of skateboarding games. It feels very much like a skateboarder simulator in everything it does – hell, after each challenge, you have to pay a doctor’s bill for each bone you broke while trying to grind a 20-foot rail down a stack of stairs. If that doesn’t emphasize how ‘realistic’ Skate is, nothing will get the point across without you playing it yourself.
If we have one particular complaint about Skate, so far, it would be the control scheme isn’t exactly simple, but at the same time, that’s part of the game’s style, and the unusually complex control scheme has a lot to do with what makes the game so challenging, realistic and thus satisfying to play. With the left analog stick, you steer your skater around a vibrant, realistic-looking world. In order to pick up speed, you have to press either the X button, which causes your character to push forward with his left foot, or the A button, which will push him forward with his right foot – just one example of the way the game tries to be as realistic as possible.
Skate employs a totally new control scheme for ollying and doing tricks called “Flickit.†The game relies on the right analog stick not only for doing tricks but for ollying, too. Moving the right stick down and up (or back and forward) will make your character ollie into the air. Pushing the analog stick up and down, on the other hand, will perform a nollie. Meanwhile, all flip tricks are mapped to the analog stick as well. For example, by moving the analog stick in a backwards C fashion, you’ll perform a varial kick flip. If you want to perform a toe flip, you perform an ollie and immediately roll the analog stick to the left. If you want to heel flip, you do the same thing but roll it to the right instead. For the most part, you perform tricks by moving the analog stick in a fashion similar to how you’d move your feet if you were skating in real life.
While all the flip tricks are handled with the right stick, once in the air, you can grab with either the L or R trigger. You’ve probably guessed it, but the L trigger grabs with your character’s left hand while the R trigger grabs with his right. This kind of depth, like the option to push your skateboard with either your left or right foot, seems to go a long way. Skate feels incredibly realistic, and once you begin to understand and manipulate the control scheme with ease, it becomes very satisfying to just skate around in circles and attempt the simplest of tricks, such as trying to grind a curb.
Although the video game world has been spoiled by Tony Hawk’s 50-foot 540s, it’s refreshing to experience a more earthly game adaption of skateboarding. EA showed us a free skate mode, where we could skate around a living, breathing city, complete with plenty of rails to grind, drops to kick flip off and objects to slam into. In a way, the open-city design reminds us of Grand Theft Auto – simply because you can go and skate just about anywhere you want, leaving you to create your own fun. What’s more, there are several challenges and events scattered around the city, allowing you to pick and do whatever you want when you want.
When we first started playing Skate, we could barely ollie, let alone skate forward, without somehow breaking both our ankles and landing headfirst into the cement. However, about a half-hour into the game, we felt like we were ready to go pro – until we grinded right into a wall, landing on our backside. Just like in real life, when you get cocky in Skate, you end up with your face skidding across the pavement.
A smart game design decision removes any kind of stat-building or leveling up. Instead, in Skate, the only way your character gets any better is if you get better. You’ll have to practice, practice and practice some more if you want to improve. Your personal skill determines just how “sick†or “dope†your skater is.
Before our time with Skate ended, Electronic Arts showed us the game’s impressive rewind feature. At any time while playing, you can rewind and watch a replay of your skateboarding. For example, let’s say you successful grind down a stair rail, you can then rewind and watch the whole thing in slow-motion, fast-motion or regular speed. Additionally, you can zoom the camera in and out and move it wherever you want it, allowing you to catch a glimpse of your mad skills from whatever angle you want. What’s more, you can save your replays to your Xbox 360’s hard drive. The game actually saves your replay as game data and not a video file, so the file sizes will be kept as small as possible. However, you have the option to save a flash version of your replays and upload them to Electronic Art’s EA Nation website and share your best Skate moments with your friends as well as the rest of the world. More impressively, you can edit together your sickest clips and produce your very own montages – so sweet.
Part of what’s responsible for Skate’s realism is its graphics and overall style. Its animation is smooth and realistic, and despite being soaked in that kind of realism, the game is bright, vibrant and colorful. In a skate park located in the middle of the city, what can best be described as a sea of grey pavement and cement is tattooed with occasional but still noticeable multicolored graffiti. Meanwhile, you can almost always see a blue sky above, populated by the occasional family of clouds, making Skate a very immersive experience.
When we asked EA when Skate will be released, a company rep could only promise “sometime in September.â€
Of all the games we played at EA’s pre-E3 event, Skate was easily one of our favorites. The game feels polished, and its distinctly different feel from Tony Hawk is revitalizing. We can’t wait to get our hands on Skate again.
