Skate (2007 video game)

Skate
Developer(s)	EA Black Box
Publisher(s)	EA
Designer(s)	Scott Blackwood (executive producer)
Platform(s)	Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, mobile phones
Release	Xbox 360 PS3
Genre(s)	Sports game
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer, Online Multiplayer

Skate (listed in marketing materials as skate.) is a skateboarding video game by EA Black Box for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was released in North America on September 14, 2007 for the Xbox 360 and on September 24, 2007 for the PlayStation 3. In Europe, it was released on September 28 and October 5, 2007 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, respectively. As of February 1, 2008, Skate has outsold the 2007 skateboarding game Tony Hawk's Proving Ground by a ratio of almost 2 to 1 on seventh generation video game consoles. A sequel to Skate titled Skate 2 has been confirmed for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, as well as a spinoff for the Wii and Nintendo DS entitled Skate It.

Gameplay

The player controls a custom-designed skateboarder in the fictional town of San Vanelona, a conjunction (in both name and appearance) of the cities San Francisco, Vancouver and Barcelona. Similar to the HUD of the Grand Theft Auto series, skating challenges are marked on a mini-map, along with stores and subway stations that allow the player to traverse the city quickly. As the player develops their skills and performs various tasks (such as completing certain tricks while being filmed), sponsorship and notability are acquired, eventually leading to participation in the X Games. "Filming" challenges allow the player to create a line of tricks to meet the filming goals; the player may also place a session marker to return to a spot quickly after finishing a line. Several "own the spot" locations throughout the city allow the player to try to claim that spot by beating a certain score requirement, thus "owning" the spot from other skaters. Additionally, there are jam sessions and "death races" against other AI-controlled characters. Completing challenges will generally unlock new clothing and equipment items, characters, and additional challenges to compete in. Players are able to create and edit short video clips (15 to 25 seconds) at any time, selecting desired camera angles and video effects, and upload them to EA's "skate.reel" website to share with others.

Dissimilar to the Tony Hawk skateboarding series in which most tricks are initiated by button presses, the player initiates tricks in Skate using the analog sticks, pulling and pushing in various directions and combinations with other parts of the controller to launch ollies, nollies, grabs, manuals, and flip tricks. Mid-air spins, and other unique stunts are also performed in the same manner. Grinds require the player to land on an appropriate surface, with the landing type determining the type of grind that is performed. A line of tricks is generated by continuing to perform tricks without letting a multiplier meter run out. Player attributes such as balance or trick ability are not based on earned statistics and do not artificially improve as the player progresses. All tricks possible in the game are available to the player from the beginning, with one goal to successfully complete each trick listed in a trick book.

Skate allows players to freestyle or compete against other players online in jam sessions, races, S-K-A-T-E (similar to H-O-R-S-E), and own the spot challenges, using selected sections of the overall San Vanelona map.

Mobile version

The mobile version of skate. features only two game modes: Thrasher Mode (the main game mode, in which you complete goals in order to make the cover of skateboarding magazine Thrasher) and Free Skate (where you can play on levels previously unlocked within Thrasher Mode). Your only choice of play is a customized skater, which receives tips mainly from pro skater Danny Way, but also from Chris Cole, Rob Dyrdek and Mike Carroll, through twelve missions divided in four goals each. Though the game is still set in San Vanelona, there are only three explorable areas: Plaza, Halfpipe and Downtown, aside from linear levels only playable in Thrasher Mode.

Demo

The demo was scheduled for release on Xbox Live for August 15, 2007 but was delayed (as stated by Scott Blackwood on the Skate forums) due to a sudden problem with the demo's Skate.reel (video editing) feature, releasing on August 21, 2007. It was was released on PSN, in October 2007. The demo lets players skate around the San Vanelona Community Center for thirty minutes and learn how to do various tricks as well as create and edit videos.

Development

File:Skate development.jpg

This comparison shows the differences between the early (top) and final (bottom) versions of San Vanelona.

Evidence from different versions of EA's official website for skate. show that the game has been through some major changes in development. For instance one screen shot, dated "04/06/2007", shows that San Vanelona was originally planned to be a coastal city, featuring a football stadium, harbour and cruise liner.

Major changes were also made to the soundtrack. Originally planned to feature "Roadhouse Blues" by The Doors, the soundtrack now focuses more heavily on hip-hop. Some songs appear in both studio and remixed form.

Reception

IGN gave the Xbox 360 version of Skate a 9.0, and the PlayStation 3 iteration an 8.8. Praise was given to the environments, control scheme, and soundtrack. Criticisms included latency issues with the online multiplayer, odd physics glitches, and the lack of freestyle tricks in both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game (although it is possible to do lip tricks because of the unique grind engine built into the game). However, IGN have since edited their review of Skate, deleting the paragraph to do with complaints of the PS3 version being worse than the 360 version, after sources on the internet lead them to believe there is no difference between the two versions of the game, despite user reviews. IGN has not changed the scoring for the PS3 version of Skate; it is still scored 0.2 lower than the 360 version. Gamespot gave it a 7.5 for the Xbox 360 version of the game., and a 7.0 for the PS3 version. The reviews praised the game for a good start and innovation, but was criticized for the in-game advertising and product placement. The PS3 version was also given another demerit the 360 version didn't have: an unstable frame rate. This resulted in its 0.5 lower score. Gamespy gave it a 5 star rating for the 360 version, praising it for the control scheme, presentation, expansive environments, audio, and amount of content. It was criticized for the learning curve, frustrating camera, and the slowdown in online game modes. Gamespy has since given the PS3 version a 5/5 as well.

See Also

• Skate It
• Skate 2

External links

• skate. Official Site