Skate

"Your first REAL skating experience."

EA Games' "Skate." is the proverbial Friday to the long week that was the Tony Hawk series. Much like children giddy to start their weekend, this game unleashes the gamer into a huge world where everything is already unlocked for you (Unlike TH) and reality lurks on every car bumper and sketchy ledge. Be careful for this, as a game's realism can be the life or the death of the main character. Speaking of which...

STORY-

The story very quickly justifies the "Create a character" feature by showing a real-life line skated by an unknown and skilled man who, inevitably, skates into the street only to be Michael Jackson'd by a city bus. The man is rushed to the hospital through the humorous city filled with professional skaters improvising as everyday people. As emergency surgery is needed, the gamer is introduced to the vast and well-constructed "Create a player" menu to reconstruct the man's body. After you finish this, you are introduced rather informally by the man who filmed the incident, an unknown character with a heavy "Joy-z" accent who is ready to rock and roll back out on the board and help you climb the ladder of skateboarding fame. This introduction however leads the gamer astray as the actual story is not as exciting as it seems. It's basically your common "Go take a picture for a magazine" skate quest for coverage. You are granted with freedom of skating wherever the hell you please though, so that's a plus.

GRAPHICS -

All excuses toward the fuzzy outlining when traveling at high speeds, the graphics in Skate. are absolutely beautiful. The streets of the game do help this however, being very easy on the eyes as well. Clothing and hair are also boosted by the graphics, both blowing through the air when traveling are quite nice effects to the stick figures of past games.

CONTROLS -

Skate. simply wouldn't be as unique as it is without the revolutionary "Flickit" control scheme. Don't mind the commercials, flicking it is harder than it appears to get used to. Ollies are not nearly as high and simple as in TH games, the highest you'll reach on flat ground is the equivalent of the character's waist, really. That is, if you flick the stick hard enough, you might find yourself jumping higher each time.

SOUND -

The sound in this game is perfect. Car alarms are annoying and smashing bones is spine chilling as usual, everything is in order. Not to mention the soundtrack of course, it really tops the common punk rock of TH games, spanning every genre from artists like Gang Starr to Motorhead. In fact, even the wheels make different noises depending on where you skate, from cobblestone to concrete, from treacherous to smooth.

GAMEPLAY -

This area is where I myself was outstanded and disappointed at the same time. The beauty of the gameplay is that of real skateboarding, from soaring through the desert air to dashing through the busy and dangerous streets of the Res. Not to mention the hilarity of the ragdoll physics put in motion every time a car gives you an Irish kiss. The only thing I can imagine that the TH series eventually evolved to having that Skate. does not have is the ability to leave your board. Normally this is annoying if you're trying to perfect that hardflip to boardslide down a rail of stairs, but the game gives you "Session markers" instead, which give you the ability to start over at the top of a staircase whenever you want. The only other instance of realism working against the gamer is the character's inability to land jumps from anywhere over 15 ft. tall on flat ground. Once again however, this makes for some funny ragdoll moments.

MISC. -

The one thing that this game really irked me with is the awful camera angle. The main camera is like the angle you get in some skate videos, where it's pointed at the skater's legs and feet. Not only is this very hard to get used to, it also takes something away from your vision (i.e. the ability to see cars speeding towards your face) and is a problem when trying to grind rails at your sides because, well, you can't really see them until you're eating pavement.

FINAL NOTE -

This is a great game that's definitely worth whatever money a store charges you for it, but anyone who doesn't like to see Tony Hawk have his franchise pwned should not play this. . . They really shouldn't even look at it for that matter. . . But, anyone who loves great games and is tired of skating games that are horrible should definitely try this out for themselves and see what they're missing as they read this. *WINK*

Story - 7/10
Graphics - 10/10
Controls - 9/10
Sound - 10/10
Gameplay - 8/10
Misc. - 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/08

Game Release: Skate (US, 09/14/07)