MOBILE GAME REVIEW
SkateThe Hawkster gets a roll for his money |
Product: Skate
| Publisher: EA Mobile
| Format: Mobile
| Genre: Action, Conversion, Sports
| Players: 1
| Format: J2ME
| File size: 684KB
| Reviewed on: K810i
other handsets
| Version: Europe
We're sure he's a nice guy but, still, we've had enough of Tony Hawk. He's had the monopoly on skateboarding games for far too long. Activision has churned out so many of the combo-flipping trickster's games, it's had to stop putting a number at the end of each new instalment.
That must be a sign it's time for a contender to step into the skate park, right?
And here it is: EA's simply titled Skate. On the home consoles, it's a more simulation-based boarder - think the Gran Turismo of skating. On mobile, there's less of a distinction, but it's still a worthy game.
Your career as aspiring skate star begins with the option to create your avatar. Choose your hairstyle and hair colour - from blue to ginger - then attempt to put together a suitably 'street' outfit.
The game's basics are all taught to you through a tutorial, which takes up the first three levels of the game. Famous skateboarders, like Danny Way and Rob Dyrdek, head up each level, each giving you four objectives to complete before you can move on.
These include various four-wheeled tasks such as collecting tickets in the street, completing a race within a time limit or posing at certain points for photographers. Each has to be completed perfectly - there's no room for error - although levels are only 30-seconds or so long, so it's not too disheartening to keep re-trying.
Clearly, it isn't easy to convert the sort of button-bashing depth found in console skateboarding games onto mobile. So, wisely, EA has opted to keep the controls simple as opposed to cramming grinds and ollie tricks on every numbered button.
Many tricks are context sensitive. For instance, ollie (done by holding down '5', or pressing the thumbstick) on a flat surface and your skater will jump. Done next to a rail, however, he'll jump onto it and grind.
If you press right when your simply skating forwards, you'll go faster. Press it when in the air and you do a kickflip, or just before landing on a rail to do a nose grind. Finally, if you press right when you reach the top of a quarter pipe, you do a lip stall.
It's all very intuitive. Linking together skate lines - one unique trick after another, which multiply your score and build up a slo-mo 'footy time' meter - is simply a case of pulling off tricks close together.
Levels are side-scrolling and in most of the mission-based examples you can only travel from left to right. Obstacles litter the levels and are there for you to practise your skills on, from quarter pipes to ramps to park benches for you to jump off or grind along.
The strict goals, though, mean you don't often get to mess around with tricks. The restrictive level design is such that there's a particular way to complete each level. So they are often memory tests of where ramps or collectables that you need to reach are placed. Not being able to go back, and having to do everything perfectly, means after one miss you might as well restart.
Fortunately, combating these constraints is a Free Roaming mode of play as well, which is ideal for practising your tricks and skills without pressure.
Visually, Skate looks brilliant - from the detailed animation of your skater to the levels, which feel like proper, living suburbs. As you skateboard, cars pull out, people lounge on the grass and seagulls fly past. The sound is good, too. When you bail, for instance, there's a muscle-tensing cry and thud from your skater (and the camera wobbles for added dramatic effect).
It's definitely one to show off to your lesser-phone owning friends, then, but in terms of wanting to sit down and play it for a few hours, we're less enthusiastic. The missions are varied and keep you on your toes, but some are simply too frustrating.
Ultimately, Skate is sterling competition for the Hawkster, but not enough to get him hanging up his Vans just yet.
Skate |
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Beautiful looking game with a nicely implemented trick system. But the missions can be more trial and error hell than board-riding brilliance
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