Skate It (Nintendo DS) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

I'm actually old enough to remember skateboarding the first time around and was young enough at the time for my various 'stunt' wounds to heal a lot quicker than they would now. Over the years the humble skateboard has made numerous returns and it now features in most male teenagers' 'must have' items. Not necessarily as a sports item but simply to carry around and skate the odd 20 feet or so when the mood takes them. Game-wise the whole thing has been a great deal simpler, while the early days featured a handful of contenders, the last few years have belonged to Activision's Tony Hawk series. EA hopes to steal some of the limelight this year with Skate-It but has it got enough tricks up its sleeve? Let the games begin...

Gameplay

If you've become used to the rather alternative reality which Tony Hawk now appears to inhabit, with his ability to skate on just about everything, then you'll be pleased to know that Skate-It takes a far more grounded approach to the sport. In fact, it's far more realistic than the Activision series has been for some time and possibly the most realistic take on skateboarding available on the DS. This then, is all about pulling off tricks and generally impressing your peers with your skateboarding skills. It takes place in a number of different environments with each area offering up a number of different goals. Initially it's simply a case of racking up 150 points or more with a grind or maybe taking a photo of yourself whilst pulling off one of the more visual tricks. Things quickly escalate though and some of the chained combos take some practice to pass the judgement of other skateboarders. This should take you some time to complete especially if you include all the various tasks but there's a great deal more packed into this little package than that.

For starters there's the park creator which allows you to custom make just about every type of park you can imagine, which does make for some interesting stunts and challenges. These can also be uploaded to share with friends and the rest of the world. The Multiplayer is also fully featured and games can be set up locally or online with both single and multipart play. Best of all there's absolutely no lag or slowdown when playing these games which is impressive given the engine at work here. This all makes for a significant amount of replay value and there's a good chance you'll be playing this when most of this years' other releases are gathering dust.

Controls

The control is a joint effort and while you decide on the Skateboarder's direction with the d-pad, the tricks are all down to the stylish touch screen interface.

Graphics

The developers have done a fine job of creating a collection of sizeable environments for you to skate around although it must be noted that these must be selected from separate locations on a map interface rather than skating between one and the other. This gives a reasonably stable framerate although it does occasionally drop down with some noticeable on-screen glitches. Elsewhere, the animation of the skateboarders is excellent and suitably detailed. The overall presentation though, hasn't really been given the attention it deserves which cheapens the overall package.

Sound

The audio aspects work very well indeed and the various skateboard sound effects are excellent. The music is also rather good and although there are only four licensed tracks they do include Ghost Town by The Specials which sounds as good now as it did when it was first released back in the 80's.

Dual screen

Rather than using a combination of traditional controls the developers have instead decided to use the touch-screen to help you to pull off the various moves and tricks and impress your opponents. This works very well too thanks to the extensive tutorial section although there are still some minor glitches which prevent you from pulling off the perfect trick combo.

Final comments

For a first attempt Skate-It is surprisingly good and the wealth of features and the unique interface makes for a fun and engaging portable skateboarding title. There's also the solid Multiplayer and generous amount of game modes making the whole package feel like value for money. The only real problems are with the odd control glitch and framerate issues but this aside Skate-it comes highly recommended and hopefully signals the start of a new and exciting franchise.

Pro: Loads of Modes, Great Use of Touch Screen.
Con: Still not as good as Falling off a 'real' Skateboard.
Final score: 7.6

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