Skate It

A risky game with a control system based on the movement and the Wii Balance Board. The best skaters will see in it a different proposal and a quality game for Nintendo's console. But there are also problems and frustrations with that system.

This is about as solid a next-gen port as we’ve seen on Wii, but it’s probably going to take an act of God to make us think a downscaled port is better than the original. Other than an earthquake, we mean.

The game is plenty big enough to satisfy even very demanding gamers, but I would be concerned about those controls. Not everyone wants to spend too long getting to know a difficult control system, these days. Often, immediacy is key and this is a step away from plug and play.

Skate It won't appeal to everyone, but it's as close to skateboarding as you can get without falling off the real thing and scraping your knees.

The biggest draw of this skateboard simulation is the unique controls, which are intuitive but disappointing.

EA's latest skateboarding foray, Skate It, does a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong. The only part of the formula that truly impresses is the controls, everything else is limited by the technical limitations of the Wii. Skate It does share a lot of what made the original Skate great, but if you want the full experience you're better of with Skate for the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3.

While not as fully realized as its Xbox 360/PS3 counterpart, Skate It proves to be enough fun to recommend ... but only if you're willing to put the time in to get over the mountainous learning curve!

Sadly, it ends up being a bit of a disappointment, with iffy controls and less than impressive graphics.

Save your money for a better action-sports game. [Jan 2009, p.89]

And that's a small taste of the poor control scheme. The slightest twitch or turn of the Wii-mote creates a wholly new effect -- and frequently, it's one you don't even want. It's even worse on the Wii Balance Board; by default, the turning is overly responsive, even after reducing the board's sensitivity. However, this makes it harder for the device to register a trick.

You won't be buying this game for its (un)exemplary graphics or "innovative" control method, but if you're prepared to sink hours into it, there's fun to be had.

There will surely be a great skateboarding game for the Wii, perhaps with the next iteration of the balance board, but this isn't it.

Skate It is better in theory than it is in practise. We can forgive the awful Wii Balance Board controls because you're not forced to use Nintendo's Wii Fit peripheral to play the game. But we just can't get away from the fact that EA's focus on creating a hardcore skater sim has resulted in a frustrating experience, for no other reason than the Wii itself isn't built for that kind of game.