Innovation, innovation, innovation! Talk to any videogame fanboy (which includes all of us) and eventually they’ll go on about how they’re desperate to see some real originality in games. Of course, the standard gamepad has been around for years, and finding a way to push it in a new direction or make it feel fresh is difficult. One way, as we’ve all seen, is what Sony and Nintendo are currently trying to achieve with motion-sensing. The potential is obviously there, but it still hasn’t proven itself. So, what does a development team that’s ‘restricted’ to an ordinary controller do when working on a concept that clearly requires a huge dosage of creativity? It finds a way to reinvent the analogue fabled stick.

Now, we’re not fans of writing reviews based around a control method unless it’s incredibly bad or unbelievably good. Considering what we said in the opening paragraph, we’ll let you have a guess why we’re bringing it up here! A quick rundown for the ignorant: the right stick on your sexy 360 pad controls your skaters’ feet – allowing you to perform Kickflips, Shuvits, Heelflips and so on – whereas the right directs their body. So, if you want to perform an ollie, you literally pull the right stick down and then ‘Flickit’ (EA’s name for the method) up… just like a real-life skater would! It feels somewhat strange at first, but after a few attempts it becomes oddly natural. The stick is essentially mimicking what a skater does with his weight and feet so, once the ollie is mastered, all other tricks make perfect sense.

Take the Heelflip, for example. Again, you hold that right stick down, your skater ‘boi’ squats towards his board and a quick tap in a north-west region sees them execute the move. Yes, it’s that simple, but don’t for a second think it means Skate is full of ludicrous 1,080-degree manouevres and 35- second grinds.

If we were to give you one piece of advice before sitting down with EA’s skating debut, it’d be forget everything you know about Tony Hawk’s; pretend it doesn’t exist. The differences between them are so extreme, you could easily buy both and have two completely unique experiences. If we were forced to categorise them (which we’re not, but we’ve kind of backed ourselves into a corner now) Skate would be firmly in the simulation camp, cooking baked beans and chatting about how realistic and faithful it is to the sport; Mr Hawk would be kicking it with FlatOut. As such, you’re going to hate people who haven’t played it because they just won’t understand.

Let’s paint a little picture. You’re sitting in your living room and a friend – let’s call him Steve – has come around to watch your skills. You nail a Laserflip, transition into a BS grind and finish off in a manual. You get to your feet, fist pump, wait for the admiration to rain down upon you, only to turn around and be told ‘it was alright’. Alright! ALRIGHT! ‘Get out of my house Steve. Seriously, you’re a moron. If you ever come back here, I will beat you over the head with a spade!’ Obviously we’ve embellished slightly, but the point is Skate has been made for skaters who understand the effort and skill needed to progress, even if it’s just to pull off a simple ollie onto a kerb. You don’t have to be hitting ramps and benches on a daily basis to appreciate this, but you do have to recognise that the moves you’ve been pulling off in Tony Hawk have been embellished. EA has shifted the focus to the board, and it’s damn fine… or is it?

Well, yes, it is damn fine, but this focal point does come with one upsetting – although necessary – compromise, namely the camera. Due to the system that is in place, there were no buttons available that could be dedicated to the camera, so an automatic one has been implemented instead. Although 90 per cent of the time you’ll have absolutely no problems and can skate along, admiring how awesome you’ve become, there’ll be the odd occasion when it gets in your way. It’s never truly terrible, but there’s nothing more frustrating than throwing yourself off a tall building, aiming for a rail below and completely missing it because you couldn’t correctly gauge the distance between the two. If nothing else, we’d love to have had the opportunity to join the ‘look down’ fan club, but alas, one doesn’t exist. We took great pleasure in getting to ridiculously high locations and hurling ourselves off them, and the opportunity to gaze from the peak (maybe even getting the slightest sense of vertigo) would have been most appreciated.

However, this was an annoyance we could overlook because it hardly ever crops up. The loading times, on the other hand, are almost atrocious. It’s not a stretch to say that certain areas require a good minute of twiddling your thumbs. Frustration soon becomes your new best friend when you attempt an objective, make a mistake and then slide out of the designated, pre-loaded area meaning you have to load the whole damn thing again. Maybe we just have anger issues, but it got the better of us on numerous occasions. If it existed within the realms of reality, we’d kill it and be found innocent within a court of law because the judge would feel the same way!

Even with these slight issues, though, the quality, originality and sheer addictive nature outshines any minor quibbles we may have. The Career mode is especially good at locking you in place. It’s all typical skating fodder (work your way from loser to winner) but it’s the way it’s been employed that makes us feel warm inside – it’s unrestrictive bliss. You’re there, skating around the absurdly large San Vanelona, and how much you throw yourself into it is completely in your hands. Sure, a few of you will have already decided to jip the hell out of it, but you’re not taking into account just how fun and satisfying meaningless skating is, particularly when you have an audience (not that damn Steve).

It all comes down to impulse: you see a rail and you try to grind it; you notice a vert and you attempt a Christ Air; a car comes hurtling towards you at 50 miles per hour and you endeavour to throw yourself into it (see Roadkill boxout). If anything, the Career mode serves as an interesting and enjoyable backdrop that you can dip in and out of when you see fit. In a nutshell, it’s absolutely brilliant.

In spite of all these highlights, though, it’s the animations and physics that will leave you drooling. There are barely words to describe how good they are, but it would be completely wrong of us not to mention how much they level up when you bail. Skating stomachfirst into a rail after attempting a preposterous grind will have you cry out in terrible pain, and watching your skater react pretty much perfectly deserves a round of applause, even if you’re the only person in the room. It’s also a reason why successfully pulling off difficult tricks is so satisfying – nine times out of ten, you deserve the praise.

Oddly enough, there are going to be a select few individuals who won’t understand what all the fuss is about. Whether it’s because they can’t get their head around it or simply can’t handle a more serious, challenging and refined skating experience, they’ll criticise Skate because they think it doesn’t make sense. To these people we say good on you; in a strange way, we guess it’s not for everyone. On the contrary, the majority that do manage to shift gears will see a complete evolution of the genre.

We’re more than happy to say EA has represented the art and sport of skating better than any game ever has done in the past and both skaters and fans will fall in love with a bona fide masterpiece. We would make some jibe about how the ‘next generation’ is finally here, but if we did we’d make ourselves feel ill… dammit.

Simon Miller