EA’s critically lauded, intuitive yet hardcore, Skate hasn’t yet published the faltering tony Hawk series back to drawing board, but into the Uncanny Valley, or rather, its plastic peripheral equivalent. This board controller feels like a skateboard, with impressively accurate responses, but for anyone with a modicum of skateboard experience, the controls are so almost, but not quite, similar to real life, that you brain initially knee-jerks into disgusted, self preserving rejection.
Want to Ollie? Lean back reasonably sharply n the tail i.e. a bit like real life, except without actual jumping, or physics, balancing forward motion. Kickfilps? Do an Ollie and (standing regular) nudge your front foot to the left? Again, notionally like real life, but contrary to everything your body wants to do to achieve the real-life motion. Grabs? Move your hand near the area you want, but don’t actually grab, it. The quasi-reality is dislocating and demands practice.
Hawk’s free roaming levels have been (largely) replaced by narrow corridors, played in timed bursts some focus on speed, others on tricks. The linear helps you nail the core controls, but we’re more intrigued by the more open and expressive free skate arenas. Visually, it’s bright, slightly childish and basic, like a posh TH: Downhill Jam on Wii.
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