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Skate It Wii Hands-On Impressions
Posted by Brian Crecente at 8:40 AM on May 14, 2008
Standing on the tiny white stage set up in front of the back bar of Supperclub last night, a drink sloshing nearly out of its glass in one hand, Skate It executive producer Scott Blackwood promised not to use the phrase "built from the ground up" while explaining his game.
Boo me off the stage, he insisted, if I do... and then he proceeded to use the phrase.
"If it's not built from the ground up, is it a port? Not really."
Blackwood explained that before Black Box started their work on the Wii and DS versions of Skate, they had to figure out if the controls would work.
"It we couldn't get that great flick it feel, we weren't going to do it," he said.
Later on, while trying out the Wii version of the game for myself, I was told the team spent three to four months working on getting those controls right and for the most part, it felt like they succeeded.
To play the Wii version, you hold the remote flat, facing it toward the screen and then move it around as if it is the board you are standing on. The A button makes your skater push with his foot, and the B makes him hold the board. The rest is done with motion. You turn by tilting the remote side to side, manual and nose manual by tilting the remote forward or back and do tricks by snapping the remote up, to the side or in tight circles.
I was able to do quite a few tricks with the remote, including a new Kung-Fu move requires jumping up in the air and pushing both buttons at the same time, after just a few minutes with the controller. There was a slight lag between the motion and a jump, but it felt like it was something built into the game on purpose rather than a design flaw. The turning was tight and responsive and for the most part if felt like a Skate game.
One very noticeable difference is that in Skate it on the Wii there are no pedestrians. The developers explain this away by saying a series of disasters have struck the city, leaving you with a playground of upturned asphalt, broken signs and bent rails to skate in, but I suspect that some of that decision was also driven by the necessity of developing an Xbox 360, PS3 game for the Wii.
While the game will also make use of the Wii Balance Board, allowing you to steer and do manuals with it by shifting your weight, we weren't allowed to test that out at last night's event.
The game will have you leaving the city and travelling to real cities around the world to compete in skate events, the developers told me.
While the graphics certainly take a hit, the slick feel of the controls, I suspect, will more than make up for that.
I didn't get a chance to check out the DS version, unfortunately, but in the demo they showed how you will perform stunts by tracing lines across a skateboard on the touch screen. Most moves looked like they were made by drawing angles lines or open shapes, like a rough J or U, though one trick required a odd-looking loopdeloop.
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Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.
Posted 9:13 AM 14/5/08
@karasu is my homeboy: I call bullshit on that too. Tony Hawk's American Skateland had pedestrians and that was on DS.
@IntelSilver: Dude, i can't figure that out either. Someone somewhere needs to explain that. Why can't Skate It look better than a PS2 game? 1080 Snowboarding looks great on GC even though it wasn't a great game but from the stills I've seen of Skate It, it doesn't even look as good as 1080: Avalanche. What the hell?
Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.
DrunkenTrom
Posted 9:13 AM 14/5/08
@karasu is my homeboy: "So, there's a series of disasters, but skate competitions are still being held, and despite all the ruin and probable deaths, you just want to skate?"
I know this is going to sound horrible but that's what I did on 9/11/01(skating deserted places sans competition). I was moving that day from West Michigan to Philadelphia and decided to take the Amtrac. I was pulling into Chicago where I was supposed to have a couple of hours lay over that was extended to 3 days because of the terrorist attacks. I had some friends that lived in Chicago that let me crash on their couch until Amtrac resumed service. After spending the morning watching CNN like most everyone else around the country something dawned on me: They had evacuated downtown Chicago in case the Sears Tower was also targeted and that meant my friends and I could skate whatever spots we wanted without getting kicked out/ticketed/arrested that usually would happen within only minutes of skateboarding. It was a really fun day of skating but I did feel kinda guilty for a long time afterwards for using such a tragedy to my advantage(not guilty like all of the war profiteering that has resulted since but guilty nonetheless).
DrunkenTrom
Grave
Posted 9:03 AM 14/5/08
@PissedPS3Fan: Ever since the balance board was announced, all I've wanted is for Sega to announce a Wii port of Top Skater. Maybe this will deliver some of that joy! We can only hope. D:
Grave
PissedPS3Fan
Posted 8:56 AM 14/5/08
Looks like ti could be fun. I'm quite curious about the Fit Board controls, though. Could this be the spiritual successor to Top Skater?
PissedPS3Fan
IntelSilver
Posted 8:54 AM 14/5/08
After seeing Mario Galaxy, I don't understand why so many games on the Wii have ugly graphics. They CAN make them look good, but for some reason they just don't?
IntelSilver
karasu is my homeboy
Posted 8:51 AM 14/5/08
The graphics look great, but really simple. Seems to have a lot of polish though.
The developers explain this away by saying a series of disasters have struck the city, leaving you with a playground of upturned asphalt, broken signs and bent rails to skate in.
...and yet...
The game will have you leaving the city and traveling to real cities around the world to compete in skate events, the developers told me.
So, there's a series of disasters, but skate competitions are still being held, and despite all the ruin and probable deaths, you just want to skate?
How about they admit being lazy/ time restraints/ technical limitations. This reminded me of Superman 64's awful line of sight being due to the fog...when we knew the awful line of sight came before the fog.
The lag sounds like it's easy to get used to but I don't understand why they'd do that on purpose.
karasu is my homeboy
mizzle
Posted 8:48 AM 14/5/08
I was really hoping for BB impressions as well. If those work well I'll be psyched.
mizzle
Heliophage
Posted 9:40 AM 14/5/08
No pedestrians is going to look weird.
But honestly, they can be annoying as hell. Have you ever, after finally getting the string of grabs and kicks necessary to have enough points on the trick to complete an objective, land directly on some ass that wasn't paying attention?
Heliophage
PissedPS3Fan
Posted 9:37 AM 14/5/08
I would really prefer the game NOT have pedestrians. All the do is piss me off in skate.
PissedPS3Fan
Sustenance
Posted 9:35 AM 14/5/08
Is the city surrounded by a thick haze of Kryptonite Fog? Seriously though, it's nice that we more underpowered console owners will finally get a skateboarding alternative to Bloaty Hawk.
Not sure how much I like the DS concept. Drawing on a skateboard to do tricks? Doesn't sound fun on paper.
Sustenance
twesterms 2nd
Posted 9:29 AM 14/5/08
@karasu is my homeboy:
See, you see it as bullshit, I see it as him just being funny and genius. I'm sure he wasn't serious when he said that and that's just the funny excuse he came up with.
So yeah, no need to be super literal about every little detail and sometimes you should just learn to have fun.
twesterms 2nd
Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.
Posted 9:24 AM 14/5/08
@Sub: Are you kidding me? Please tell me that is NOT the actual story? Oh jeez, what the hell was EA thinking? Why couldn't they just own up and say "We suck and couldn't get the game to run with the extra geometry of pedestrians. Give us your monies anyway."
Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.
Sub
Posted 9:19 AM 14/5/08
*The speech played in the introduction video to skate it"
"THE CITY WAS HIT WITH BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS. YOU ARE THE ONLY SURVIVOR. YOU PAINFULLY TOOK TWO YEARS TO CLEAN THE STREETS OF ALL THE DEAD, SHOVING THEM IN BUILDINGS AND IN TRUCKS. NOW, YOUNG SKATER, YOU HAVE THE WHOLE CITY TO YOURSELF. SKATE AWAY, MY FRIEND. SKATE. AWAY."
Sub
FunKrusher
Posted 10:28 AM 14/5/08
I'm a bit pissed they didn't add online in this as well. EA's online is pretty much the best as far as Wii titles are concerned.
While I have the game for 360, that could've been the deciding factor in me scooping it up, but it'll probably just stay on my rental radar.
The DS version though sounds like it could be good, I mean drawing over the board on paper sounds kinda lame, but if they managed to get that "flick" feel? I'll take it for some on the go action.
FunKrusher
FunKrusher
Posted 10:17 AM 14/5/08
@DrunkenTrom:
That's UNCANNY that you said that. One being that I live in PHILADELPHIA and two because I did the SAME EXACT THING. I remember skating down Chestnut street and once I hit broad (by City Hall) there was this guy walking and hew as like "Damn, you're going to have a ball. The city is yours tonight!"
I mean I left work around 3pm and skated until 11pm the city was DESERTED, no cops, no people, no cars, NOTHING.
FunKrusher
pandafresh
Posted 10:12 AM 14/5/08
""It we couldn't get that great flick it feel, we weren't going to do it," he said."
theres a typo there just in case no one noticed...
anyways, no interest in this game. if Ollie King gets a wii port, then i'll be interested!
pandafresh
CockroachMan
Posted 11:11 AM 14/5/08
I see no reason for pedestrians in the game.. :P
Looks like the controls are good.. can't wait for it!
CockroachMan
jcsunshine
Posted 10:59 AM 14/5/08
@Sub: "ARE YOU A BAD ENOUGH DUDE TO SKATE IN A POST-APOCALYPTIC AMERICA?"
jcsunshine
Jac21
Posted 11:47 AM 14/5/08
@Heliophage:
Sucks even more when it happens in real life.
Jac21
Sonasu
Posted 11:32 AM 14/5/08
Maybe the elimination of pedestrians was a gameplay choice. They can be distracting, and in the Tony Hawk series, they could be incredibly obnoxious.
Sonasu
Grey Gecko
Posted 12:38 PM 14/5/08
sounds neat, but i was hoping for some news on the use of the wii balance board, oh well...
@IntelSilver: Everybody compares the wii to the 360 and PS3 and says "oh yeah, the graphics arent big deal here" then 90% of the game industry starts to forcefully belive so they can speed up production. They say the console is just two gamecubes taped togheter and apparently that means its graphic department is just as powerful a busted Dreamcast...=(
Grey Gecko
Mecharine
Posted 12:20 PM 14/5/08
@karasu is my homeboy: Its obvious that all the people were killed or injured in the great Skatocalypse of 2123. The skaters now must repent for their use of the triple dipper ollie skipper which caused the devestation. And to do that, they must compete.....to the death! The main character is a cybernetic Tony Hawk, resurrected from the grave to prevent another skatocalopse.
Mecharine
Netnavi
Posted 2:31 PM 14/5/08
where are my textures at!?! Did the bio hazard melt them away?
Netnavi
geoffcbassett
Posted 2:22 PM 14/5/08
@DrunkenTrom: I don't think you did a bad thing at all, you found something good in a bad situation. I wish I had thought of skating that day and brought all the skaters I knew with me to Phili, it would have cheered up everyone. I also think that you gained a brouder picture of what happened that day from your skating the empty city.
geoffcbassett
NeoAkira
Posted 2:53 PM 14/5/08
Graphics don't look too bad for this game, and thanks for the hands-on impression Brian.
Although I've got to say that I'm most excited to see how the Balance Board works with the game. If they spent half as much time working with the controls for the Balance Board as they did working with the controls for the Wiimote this game should turn out well.
NeoAkira
Knukleur
Posted 9:26 PM 14/5/08
Couldn't they just say that everybody locks up their daughters when the bad mofu skaters are around 'cause, y'know they've got lice and other diseases.
Knukleur
Sloopydrew
Posted 4:31 AM 15/5/08
If the Wii Balance Board controls work well for this game, it may lead me to picking up a copy of Wii Fit. Not for Wii Fit, but for that balance board. As a former skater long past his skating prime, I can imagine that being a ton of fun.
Sloopydrew