skate demo review

The Tony Hawk series has reigned supreme for years now with not one challenger until now! Why? My guess is the game companies have a meeting every year and say 'we want to rule this genre for a while, please don't make any competing ones'. I am sure this is not the case but, the Tony Hawk series has some competition this year and its name is skate!


Now granted this is just the demo but, really it is really graphically awesome! You could pick a nose hair out of some of these people! This is what this gen skating should look like! I am not a graphics whore so, I can't tell you how many pixels and that kind of crap but, I can tell you that this has gotta be the prettiest skate game I have seen in a long time! Every animation (in the demo at least) is just lovely! The boards, skaters, and everything else just makes ya wanna drool.

I am going to basically skip the sound part because it is a demo and the songs really suck! Everything sounds like it should. No surprises here! We will just leave it at that.

I was realllllllly looking forward to this demo just because it is something different to the genre and I had high expectations for it. (Well, as high as I can for an EA game) Skate has a different feel to it. One that is hard to explain in words. This is not a bad thing as skate makes you work for your score! Button mashing will not work here! Before I get into gameplay, we will go over controls cause this is where skate excels! You might as well get rid of the button trick thinking right now cause this game does not do that. The only buttons you will use are the X and A for pushing your board (left and right foot), B is for the brake, Y is basically your use button, the triggers are your left and right grab buttons, and the RB (the one above the right trigger) will start the photo session missions. The right analogue stick controls your body or movement. The left is the board!

When you start the demo, you get treated to a tutorial that is much needed! It goes through ollies, high ollies, timing, nollies, manuals, and grabs. All of which you will need to know as this is a pretty technical game. After you get through the basic crap, you will get to a contest! This is what I play over and over again. The contest consists of three high scores in three rounds over three locations. This pretty much tests your ability to play the game! Now, after you go throught the basic tut, you are free to explore the one place that is open to you. However, I don't reccomend this as the other missions will teach you something new.

After you get the hang of the game, running around is just a sheer joy. It is like no other! I swear when you actually complete a line, it is almost a religous experience! Before I go off on a rant about how good the controls are, I probably should explain them a bit.

As I mentioned above, the right stick controls your board. So, any ollie or flip trick you do is done by moving the right stick in different directions. Up then down is an ollie. Holding the RS down then pushig up gives you a higher ollie. How you use the rs determines what trick you will do. For example, straight down then circle to your left is a left pop shuv it. Now going from up to down is a nollie! A manual is not something people are going to be used to. Instead of going up then down, you have to 'balance' the stick. This means you have to position the rs just barely up or down for the balance. Once you are in the manual though, you can move your body to change it. Which is just freakin sweet!

There is also an editor. This allows you to edit what tricks you do and put them online. Which I have to say is pretty cool! (not that I have done it yet) The editor is pretty sweet too! Allowing you to position the camera and change a lot of other things as well. As far as I can tell, the editor is the best to date.

There will be mp, tis just not in the demo. (surprise) So, I can't really comment on that part.

There are some bad things though. In the demo, you can not move the camera at all! This is a bad thing as the damn thing never goes where you want it to and you can't change it! It is also timed! This is usually not a bad thing for a demo but when you limit what you can do and where you can go in 30 mins, it blows! And it really wouldn't be that bad if they didn't kick your ass to the dashboard after it was done. Seriously, if they are going to time you, have everything open! What is the point in having a demo that is timed, constcites you, and limits where you can go and what you do? I swear, these companies have no brain.

Overall though, the demo is sweet despite my bitches. It is something new and refreshing and I recommend every skate boarding fan give it a go. I can only hope the game will be better than what has been shown!

I have been playing with the editor today and uploaded a vid. I'll be adding more later

Edit:

EA's skate site is getting on my nerves. I will post the vid when I can actually get to the damn thing

Good review, have you gotten the full game yet?

very good review nice and done. :thumbup: