Skate It Review
Hey mum watch me nollie
By Ben Salter
EA’s Skate series have rejuvenated the skateboarding genre. For years there was Tony Hawk and seemingly nothing else to choose from, but now that’s all changed. While the original Skate was released on the PS3 & 360 in 2007, the Wii and DS missed out until late 2008, with the release of Skate It, and while technically it’s a part of the same series the fact that they are different games and not a straight forward port means that the DS version was built from the ground up with the system in mind. Many multiplatform titles that make their way to the Nintendo handheld are underdone and play as if they have been extremely rushed, not so with Skate It. It’s got a long way to go but Skate It is a solid first installment in the series on the Nintendo DS.
Like it’s Wii counterpart the ‘flick it’ controls are exceptional. The D-Pad is used to control your direction while on the ground or pulling off spins whilst airborne and the L or R button is used for grabs. Everything else is controlled using the touch screen which contains an image of your skateboard. Touch to the side of the board to ‘push’ to get yourself rolling. All tricks are then controlled by moving the stylus across the board in a different direct. Straight across the board for example will perform an ollie, while diagonally up will see you pull off a kickflip. Timing is vital to being able to pull off the trick, and most importantly then land it. If this sounds complicated it is, although it’s surprisingly easy to pick up.
Career Mode is the main game and will see you attempt to pull off tricks and complete challenges in order to progress to the next stage. Along the way you’ll earn sponsorships and unlock pieces which can be used in the impressive level editor. Beyond completing the challenges there isn’t a lot more for you to do here, and is where Skate It shows signs of the DS’s hardware limitations. The free roaming open world available in the 360 & PS3 Skate titles is no longer present. Instead once you’ve completed the required goals in each level you are cast into a menu to choose the next area. While this is by no means a deal breaker it does take away a little of the magic that was present in the original Skate title. The career mode is by no means easy, but it moves along at a rapid pace, and quickly pushes you along to the next challenge with little breathing time in between. Even the speech text moves at a blinding fast rate, blink and it’s gone before you have a chance to read it.
Career mode will take you anywhere between 5-10 hours to complete, depending if you fall victim to the rapid pace at which everything moves at or not. It’s easy to move on to the next stage when presented with the option after the required challenges are completed, however there’s more gameplay on offer if you chose to follow up with the bonus challenges. Unlike other skating sims Skate It focuses on realism, and brings a unique feel that actual skaters may be more appreciative of. The challenges you are presented with are more realistic than what are seen in competing titles. These range from having to complete certain moves for the camera to the more traditional earn ‘x’ amount of points within a time frame. While some of these goals are rather challenging, the career mode still moves swiftly, and it won’t feel like long until it’s all done and dusted.
Once you’ve bashed your way through the single player game Skate It still has a lot left to offer you, and really goes beyond the call of duty in the value department. While you can have some fun at your own leisure in the free skate mode, it’s the multiplayer and especially the level editor that really shine. Skate It supports single and multi card play, as well as online via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. The online mode is particularly impressive, the few matches that I played were lag free and I was matched up with an opponent almost instantly. You can choose to face off in any of the levels from a variety of countries that you encounter in the single player game, and are offered the option to share any of your own level designs.
Building your own skate park should be a prerequisite for all skate games, however all three Tony Hawk titles on the DS thus far have not included it. Fortunately not only did EA bring it to the DS, it’s one of the titles best features. Completing challenges in the single player game will reward you with new items for your skate park. The warehouse in which you can create the park of your dreams is large, and the diverse range of pieces allows for some interesting designs. The skate park editor is easy and enjoyable to use, adding many hours to your total play time. Best of all is the ability to include challenges in your custom maps and spawn points where ever you please. These can then be sent to your mates either wirelessly or online.
The quality of the visuals in Skate It considering the DS hardware is debatable. On one hand they are incredibility detailed, and for the most part the skater character models are very good. However this is not the best looking title on the DS, and as a result the environments can come across as being very rough. Some backgrounds look great and leave you feeling optimistic about the remainder of the level, and then all of a sudden you hit a wall that looked like a ramp. While these are the two extremes it can become very frustrating to see such a nicely detailed environment all of a sudden turn into an unrecognisable mess. The visuals in Skate It are a bit of a mixed bag, for the most part they do the job, however some extra polish wouldn’t have gone astray.
The sound is something that the Skate series is already renowned for in it’s short lifespan. However unfortunately this is something that could not be emulated in the DS version. Having licensed music is great, but there are only 4 songs in the entire game that are constantly on repeat, it’s a recipe for insanity. There are a wide variety of authentic skateboarding sounds, although these are let down by the fact that they occasionally end up out of sync with your characters movements.
The glitches are a little too frequent to forgive, and hold back Skate It from being something special. Occasionally your character will run into a wall (that you may have mistaken for a ramp) and jump straight through it. Other times you may end up stuck between the wall and nothing. The most annoying glitch encountered was the fact that some controls were not recognised. For the most part the controls are tight, but sometimes when preforming a complex string of moves your stylus control is not picked up by the touch screen, and therefore the move was not preformed according to the game. This is extremely frustrating when your challenge is to pull off a string of moves, and one of them isn’t recognised by the DS. Along with some rough graphics in some areas you can’t help but feel that Skate It was rushed towards the end of it’s development, which is a shame because everything else is top notch and points to it being given the time it deserved unlike other multiplatform titles. These don’t make the game unplayable by any means, and you may only encounter them on the odd occasion depending on your style of play. However had these been amended before the title was released Skate It could have been a whole lot more.
Final Verdict
Skate It is a great first entry in the series on the Nintendo DS. The gameplay and controls make full use of the unique touch capabilities of the system. The career mode offers a decent length of gameplay, which is topped of by excellent multiplayer both on and offline. The level editor rounds off the enormous amount of features that have been included in the game nicely and is top notch. As fun as Skate It is on the DS the glitches do get in the way and begin to ruin the experience if you are constantly encountering them. The hardware limitations and lack of polish let down Skate It and hold it back from delivering the same experiences as the console versions. Overall it’s still recommended, especially to skating fans that can overlook some annoying technical errors. I look forward to a sequel that can hopefully amend these shortfalls, and produce a truly brilliant skating game on the Nintendo DS.
Gameplay
8.0/10
Challenging as the original console Skate was and enjoyable, the touch controls work great but it’s let down by annoying glitches.
Graphics
7.5/10
The backgrounds are nicely detailed, and some are stunning, however these are let down by some absolute shocking visuals. It’s a mixed bag, but unfortunately the worst of it can see you smacking into a wall that appeared to be a ramp.
Sound
6.5/10
The DS can do a lot better than this, perhaps it came down to cartridge size but only 4 songs is very disappointing. The skating sounds were authentic but needed to be topped off with better music.
Value
9.0/10
Lasting appeal is where Skate It really shines, with hours of single player gameplay, single & multi card multiplayer along with a fantastic skate park editor there’s heaps to do here.
Overall
7.6/10