If any of you have ever skateboarded you will know one of two things:
1 - Putting all of your effort into nailing a move after hours of tireless attempts is one of the most rewarding things you can do; when you finally pull it off, there is a great sense of achievement and satisfaction.


2 - Putting all of your effort into nailing a move after hours of tireless attempts is one of the most frustrating things you can do; when, after the twentieth time, you have picked your bruised buttocks off of the ground, you finally realise why you started playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, as you pick up your board and walk home in what you evidently conceive as a dignified manner.

Yes, Tony Hawk had his claws hooked tightly around this sports genre since 1999 (Time flies). That was until last year, when EA decided, in their typically competitive fashion, to challenge the very basics of Skateboarding games, and released ‘Skate’. A bold move; a very bold move in fact, as nobody else would ever think of taking on the might of the ‘Pro Skater’ series. It would be like Microsoft trying to release an mp3 player to rival the I-Pod. Yet EA opened one of their many vaults of cash and decided to commit to the idea of re-defining the genre. Lets just say it payed off!

‘Skate’ was the breath of fresh air in a tired and smoggy skating environment. Tony Hawks had been plagued with a touch of the ludicrous, and the ever more consistent presence of the entire ‘Jackass’ cast did little to help it’s decline into the insane. People were tired of skating about a crudely created city, and pulling off ridiculously complicated moves just to drop a wheelbarrow of rotten cabbages onto Bam Margera’s morbidly obese father (who for some reason was always sitting in the toilet?). The easily accessible trick system that had brought the game such success had grown old, and after countless tedious renditions of the same system, ‘Skate’ grabbed the skating world by the throat and delivered a totally new and ingenious experience.

It is not often that a genre is re-defined by a simply control scheme shift; but ‘Skate’ certainly did. Doing away with the traditional holding of the ‘x’ (from the PlayStation days) button to gain momentum and prepare for an ollie; instead ‘Skate’ decided that the player should be controlled by the analogue sticks. The ‘x’ button was confined to pushing the board, and actually controlling the legs of your skater was a daunting experience at first. Simply (and I use that word lightly) flicking the right analogue stick to ollie, and the left to steer, was a stroke of genius, that worked remarkably well. What you were left with was a control system that mimicked almost every aspect of skating. The frustration of failing to nail that 360 flip over the rail, the joy of finally pulling off that stair gap; the new system took the genre back to the gritty basics, dismissing elaborate set pieces and giving you a city to do what you want to do what it is Tony Hawks had frustratingly hindered you from doing; Skating.



Now almost a year has passed, Skate 2 is on the horizon and the 23rd of January can’t come quickly enough. ‘Skate2’ is set five years after the events of ‘Skate’. During ‘Skate It’ (the Nintendo installments of the franchise), many mysterious disasters (identified as Earthquakes in Skate 2) devastated the city, leaving it in ruins and a mass evacuation of the city. The new city has been dubbed New San Vanelona, or New San Van for short. However, instead of a skater’s paradise the city used to be, security has been stepped up by Mongo Co. in order to protect the best parts of the city. This is, in my opinion, a risk. It reeks of the same unnecessary plot devices that lead us to mourn the Pro Skater series. What was so refreshing about ‘Skate’ was it’s no strings attached freedom. Simply being able to grab your board and go. Yes security was rife in places, but it was avoidable, and the idea of basing the game around this sets off warning signs in my head.

Still, we will judge that when the time comes, so on to the good things! ‘Skate 2’ is set to build on the great trick list we saw in the original; with a host of new (and equally as difficult) tricks to pull off. Notable inclusions are foot-plants, rail slides, fingerflips, lip tricks, ollie norths, easier hippie flips and lastly the ability to Skitch. To top things off, EA Black Box have mercifully installed the ability to get off your board. If ‘Skate’ had a crippling flaw it was the irony of pulling of a double kickflip to manual to 360 flip, then being rendered totally disabled by mans greatest enemy…Stairs.

With these new elements Skate 2 looks to be building upon a franchise that grows stronger with every installment. Improved graphics, and EA know how to do a good soundtrack; also the enhanced graphics creator new to ‘Skate2’, means that 2009 should be getting off to a very good start.