Skate 3 Review

Since the late 90’s, there really was only been one name in the industry if you were looking for skateboarding in video games: Tony Hawk. The operative word of that statement is “was”. In 2007, EA Black Box threw their hand into the ring as an underdog against the established giant with the creation of the Skate series. Skate changed the established formula of outrageous arcade mechanics and dated controls that Tony Hawk had been pushing for years.

The success of the series was evident when the first installment greatly outsold Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground. Staying ambitious, EA released a sequel two years later, which was received just as positively. Continuing the aggressive trend against Activision’s franchise, EA announced a third installment in the series slated to be released May 2010. A couple weeks ago, I was offered the privilege of heading down to EA headquarters in Redwood City, California to take an early look at the upcoming title Skate 3. How could I refuse?

Skate 3 focuses less on innovation of an already solid system, and instead on adding the features that the community had been clamoring for. The third installment in the Skate franchise sets you in Port Carverton, following the plot of the last few games as you progress as a pro skater you take the next logical step in that chain of progress and set about building a franchise. You go about doing this by establishing for yourself a killer team, which brings to light Skate 3’s primary focus: co-op.

Players get to work together to take on challenges and progress through the campaign or hop online to engage in competitive game modes. I can say for certain that Skate 3 is going to deliver a fun online experience after having gotten a taste of some of the game modes available. One-up, for instance, is a “horse” like mode in which both teams of skaters take 30 second turns to try to nail as many tricks as they can to accumulate the most points. Each time a team fails to beat the other’s set score they get one letter. Now this doesn’t sound exceedingly exciting, but when you take into account the fact that if you at any point fall/fail while performing a trick, your team is stopped mid-turn and you get stuck with however many points you’ve acquired. The pressure gets very real. I can already see the controllers being thrown when your friend epic fails just as he is skating up to that first rail, or the serious face-palm when you know you just cost your team the game.

Other than bringing the new serious co-op experience, Skate 3 is essentially just keeping the good, and adding on some new key features. Some fun new stuff like Skate Create is going to allow players to customize their own skate parks, capture some epic action videos with an upgraded Skate Reel, or just design custom logos and graphics. The best part of this is, of course, that players get rewarded for really doing well in any aspect of the game, so the creativity is encouraged.

With all the best features of the franchise being expanded upon, whether or not you are more of a solo player and not digging the co-op thing won’t be an issue. There is a whole new campaign and a slew of new challenges to keep you occupied. I got a taste of the game in its early stages and I was still impressed. The game’s future looks bright. My birthday is in May and I know what I’ll be asking for.