Skate

Within the first few minutes of picking up and playing Skate I was hooked, it’s the intuitive control system which grabbed my attention and had me gritting my teeth in order to perfect those initial Flip Tricks, Ollies and err Nollies.  Now I’m no skateboarder, except that one time when I received a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Skate Board for Christmas about 15 years ago but the way you control the player in Skate feels so natural as appose to the usual button bashing.

The PS3 analog sticks are used to great effect for example, if you pull down then push up on the right stick your player will crouch down then leap into the air along with his skateboard to perform an ollie.  There are loads of variations on this one simple move too, so pulling the analog stick down then slightly to the right will cause him to spin the board under him as he jumps and the degree to which you push to the right effects how much spin he puts on the board.  There’s quite alot to learn and it pretty much all feels natural and makes just skating freely around one of the parks a joy in itself.

The sound does add quite a bit of realism as well especially when you skid into a Powerslide causing your wheels to squeal across the floor or even the noise from your board rolling across different pieces of pavement.

A PS3 Skateboarding game wouldn’t be much fun if you didn’t enjoy an eye watering smash into a wall every so often and Skate delivers the goods here too with your Player melting over a hand rail in agony upon failing to time a grind just right or even colliding into someone else, it should all hurt and it looks like it does!

 The camera mode is also worth of note here as it lets you record your favourite moves which you can then edit, upload and show off to the world!

In Skate's story game mode you get to freely roll around the city of San Vanelona in true PS3 where you can decide on how you want to progress through the game by becoming a mainstream success, Skating such famous arenas as the X Games Stadium and seeing yourself featured on Magazine Covers or go the more underground route where you attempt to 'own' various Skate Spots, building your 'Street Cred' and getting chased by Security Guards, the choice is yours on how to succeed.