Review: Skate 3 good at skateboarding, bad at economics

Posted on 12. Jul, 2010 by James Dilks in Console, Gaming, PS3, Reviews, Xbox 360

The important information is minimal. The Skate series has two completely brilliant aspects; its control system and the sense of satisfaction it conveys. I’ll try to get across how these two work together to create an enjoyable experience. The game manages to be a more appropriate mapping of various aspects of skateboarding than any ridiculous plastic skateboard peripheral could ever be. There are buttons for your left and right feet and hands, and one analogue stick controls your weight while the other controls the board. Most cleverly, each input is context sensitive and combines with other buttons in some pleasing ways. A simple example; on the ground, hitting A pushes with your right foot, pulling LT sees you crouch down and grab with your left hand. Grabbing and then pushing performs a Boneless (or something similar), jumping the board up into the air. The core of what started as an innovative control system is the use of the right stick to perform fliptricks. Over 40 tricks; plus various lateflips, and underflip combinations that are new this time around. Most galling for skate purists will be the inclusion of darkslides, a move that apparently nobody does any more. But think of their inclusion as for completion’s sake.

The sense of satisfaction comes in different stages. First, in learning the controls; the simplest of manoeuvres, when achieved smoothly, seem dreamlike when first pulled off. The tighter your footwork, the closer the camera hugs your feet, so kickflip to manual up onto a funbox and roll off and the weight and feel of your character as his knees buckle slightly is as important as the tricks themselves.

Here’s the thing. Skate has edged closer and closer to being a perfect, ‘complete’ skateboarding simulation with each of its two sequels. For a franchise-minded publisher, this may be a problem. Speaking to part of the development team recently, I was told that the series shouldn’t be considered a year-on-year franchise. EA might have different ideas, but the question remains; if there’s nothing left to add, shouldn’t they bin Skate 4? Or at least, shouldn’t they at least sit on the next game for a few years, and work on something else.

Everything else (luckily for Skate 3) is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter that some of the banter between skateboarders is stilted and awkward. It doesn’t matter that the narrative and objectives (set up a brand, sell as many boards as you can) are essentially a capitalist’s wet dream when such an economic policy is at its lowest ebb. It doesn’t even matter that creating a park is a somewhat tiresome process, one implemented poorly in a way that slows the game down and shows off issues of scale between character and environment.

Skate 3’s Port Carverton is a sumptuously skateable city. There are fewer wasted areas, more variety to spots and each one seems to invite multiple approaches.

It’s a better skateboarding game than any before it, a more focused and blissful sandbox than GTA, but let it be. EA; let Black Box make something else before dragging them back to the Skate series, don’t force them into repeating old tricks.

EA provided us with a copy of Skate 3 for review purposes.