Addictive gameplay and new controls add up to create the game Skate.
So of course the big thing about Skate is the new control scheme. Unlike the Tony Hawk games which use certain buttons to preform certain types of tricks, the controls in Skate mainly rest on the right analog stick. For example performing an ollie is as easy as pulling the stick down, and pushing it up. To do certain flip tricks, it is all in how you start or finish where the right stick ends up. Push up and slightly to the left or right and you can preform heel and kickflips. This is a revolutionary way of playing the skateboarding games, and most of the time works well. Where you will run into problems is when certain challenges may require you to preform certain tricks in the game. Since all the flips in the game are done with the right analog stick, sometimes the game may be confused on which trick your trying to pull off. Mainly the instances happen when specific tricks are necessary, otherwise you won't really notice any problems.
Also with the controls, Tony Hawk has a button to preform grinds, but unlike that, Skate makes it more realistic and makes you line yourself up with the edge or pole or whatever your grinding on, and simply jumping on to it. You can then change the position of your board with the right analog stick, and with the left, you can control how you get off the pole or edge. This is a much more realistic approach, and most of the time works. Although the timing may take a little while for you to develop, you'll soon get the hang of it and start pulling off great lines.
The grabs and manuals are pretty simple. To do grabs you can press either the right trigger, or left, or both to preform certain tricks. You can also tweak with the right analog stick while grabbing to preform new grabs. Overall it is a little difficult to get the hang of, but once you do it is pretty easy. Manuals are simply pulled off by pulling on the right analog stick slightly forward or backward. You can then use these to connect your lines and preform very cool tricks. Overall the entire control scheme has a few flaws, but is one of the most revolutionary control schemes that the genre has ever seen.
The game itself, or the story, is pretty standard, and doesn't really feature anything special. You create your character, give him some clothes, and a board, and you start out as someone trying to prove himself as a skater. So you will try and film yourself doing cool tricks and/or lines and try and become a pro skater. You'll try and get sponsored by the many companies that are available to you in this game. After getting that and becoming pro, you can compete in such events as the X-games which does mean the mega ramp is in the game. So overall it is what you would expect from a standard skating game.
Although this game is new and innovative, this game has some minor flaws. The game's camera is based on the fact that you have some guy with a video camera who is filming you, which leads to a weird perspective of being behind the skater and down below his waist. This is cool, but does lead into some vision problems, which will frustrate you when your racing, or just trying to pull off something very cool. The skater doesn't become transparent in spots he should sometimes which can lead to some bad things.
The challenges in the game are interesting since the difficulty will bounce around from time to time. The game seems very unbalanced this way since you'll run into some hard challenges in the game in the middle of the story, unlike the difficulty just progressively getting harder. The game will frustrate you this way but you will be able to complete the challenges, although some may take longer than others.
So overall Skate is a cool new idea. It has pretty much been built to be nothing like Tony Hawk, and if there is anything that they've done, it's that. Skate takes a much more realistic approach to the genre of skateboarding, and is a neat idea. I think that it would be cool to see this game get expanded into a franchise, and try and tweak some things to make the game better. Skate is a neat idea, and I recommend that everyone who is a fan of the Tony Hawk series, or just any player for that matter check out this game.