My thoughts on the skate. demo
The skate. demo just went up on Xbox Live Marketplace a couple of days ago, and last night I had my first chance to try it out. Probably unlike most folks following this game, I’ve seen next-to-nothing of it as far as videos or screenshots, just a few little clips on ad banners and such. So I got to go in with no real expectations. My first impression is that it’s hands down the best skating game ever made… maybe even the best sports game ever made (and by “best” I mean “most fun to play”). The clever Flickit control scheme allows you to do all ollies, nollies, and flip tricks by flicking the right analog stick in various different patterns. I love the fact that doing a nollie trick just means performing the mirror image maneuver you’d do for a normal ollie trick. Manuals are done by tilting slightly back or forward on the right stick, so it’s fairly simple to manual into and out of tricks, but not like Tony Hawk’s “press down when you hit the ground” simple. Grinding entails ollieing onto an edge or rail, the character grinds or slides on his own depending on the direction you’re facing.
I guess all these new features really tell us is that a very analog type approach to gaming can work amazingly well, especially in a somewhat open-ended sport like skateboarding. It allows the player to sort of craft a series of tricks that feels more like an accomplishment, and is actually doable in real-life as well… simple runs like kickflip-nosegrind-kickflip-out actually look impressive. We’ve been inundated for the past 10 years with Tony Hawk games, where nothing is impressive in the least. It’s just a giant two minute long combo. The whole game becomes points and multipliers instead of skateboarding.
The open environments are cool, but not necessarily innovative. But as far as this genre goes, I think an open world is a must-have. The challenge system shows promise, too. You skate up to various characters in-game and they assign you a challenge to complete, like manual-flip trick-manual, or to do a certain combo under a time limit.
I’m eager to get my hands on this full release. I just hope I don’t get bored in this game as quickly as I normally do with sports games.
Tags: Demos, EA, skate., Sports, Xbox 360
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