|
Skate It is the sequel to last year’s skate.
for Xbox360 and PLAYSTATION3. Offered as a direct competitor to
the Tony Hawk’s franchise, skate. performed incredibly
well,
with its dual-stick Flick It Control System.
Thus far, all showings of the first Wii release in the
series have concentrated on using the Motion-Sensitivity of the Wii
Remote. However, in the E3 2008 build, developer Black Box unveiled
a new set-up including the Balance Board. As predictable as it was,
it’s clearly working well already. When you first step on the
Balance Board it will automatically detect your centre of balance –
as with Wii Fit -and set that as the neutral point for
steering and Manuals. The Balance Board option isn’t intended to
replace the Wii Remote, rather to work in-conjunction with it. Grab
Tricks and spinning mid-air still rely on Wii Remote-based controls,
as well as controlling your speed. There’s no Grind option, however
– how you land will automatically determine if, how and which Grind
Trick you perform.
The Balance Board is divided into six sectors by the
software, each making contact the centre. To perform an Ollie the
press the tail end of the Balance Board, with a Nollie a result of
doing the opposite. When in the air, pressing the bottom-right
executes a Kickflip, and the bottom-left performs a Heelflip.
The main area Black Box concentrated on was the Balance
Board Control System, however a new Level was also revealed.
Entitled San Vanelona, the area features numerous disasters and
chunks of buildings aligning the sidewalks. Apparently, most of the
debris is actually present in the original skate., and so
fans will recognise much has changed.
Even at this early stage, Skate It is looking
fantastic and has very lined-up in the way of competition on Wii.
While it’s possible Shaun White’s Snowboarding may take some
of the sheen of the release in the public’s eyes, the serious gamer
knows that Skate It is looking more likely to deliver the
Balance Board-based goods at this stage. |
