Video Game Sandwich

Yeah, you like the pun. It’s because I’m genius at words. Anyway, now that we’re past that, Skateboarding, huh? We can all recall being a teenager, playing the Tony Hawks games for the first time, and fully-convincing ourselves we could take to the streets and pull a kickflip without breaking a sweat. On that same note, if you’re like me, you’ll recall bouncing face-first into the tarmac and pledging never to be so naive as to think copying video games is a wise and easy a practice as it looked (let’s just thank fuck it wasn’t GTA2, and the art of standing in the
middle of a highway and firing off rounds from a pistol wasn’t something I took an interest in).

I was dubious the first time I’d heard about this game. When you’ve had the likes of Tony Hawks ruling the skating roost since the turn of the century, you tend to have your doubts. Especially when we’ve been treated to the paradigm of shit sent to contest its crown: ESPN X Game Skateboarding, MTV Sports Skateboarding, e.t.c., the brown-tinted list of challengers goes on. What can SKATE possibly offer a sub-genre of gaming that has already been defined? Well, surprisingly enough, a lot.

… This game is pretty fucking deep…

I was sat in front of my humble television screen for the first few minutes of the demo, just randomly pressing buttons and flicking the analogue sticks like some sort of gaming chimp. But once the tutorial kicked in I started to take in the intuitive nature of the gameplay, the way you were responsible for every movement of your boarder. None of this A to jump, B to kickflip bullshit. No way! This time you’ll be demanded every ounce of attention just to pull an ollie. Since the right analogue stick controls your boarder’s movement (or, more so, his body) you must girate, flick, and roll it in any combination of ways to pull off more interesting and intricate tricks.

SKATE feels like a simulation. Where Hawks serves you incredible, unrealistic strings of high-risk moves on an arcade platter, this game takes the sport more seriously. This is surprising for an EA game, since when it comes to sports titles EA are normally the “license the shit out of it and it’ll sell regardless of gameplay” kind of brand, but this time they’re championing a title which is genuinely innovative. I personally can’t wait to play it in full.

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