Skate (Xbox 360)

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When a publisher owns all gaming development rights to the NFL, it's hard to consider it an underdog, but when the folks at EA announced they were taking on the Tony Hawk series -- Activision's dinosaur of a skateboarding franchise -- you had to wonder what they were thinking. It turns out, they were thinking Skate. And if you're ready for an entirely new take on the skateboarding genre, then you should be thinking Skate, too.

Skate starts with a bang -- literally. The Career mode begins with you getting unceremoniously t-boned by a bus. Your prone carcass is tossed into an ambulance to the sounds of The White Stripes -- not a band that you're likely to find on many game soundtracks and only one of a stellar cast of bands to which you'll skate -- and then whisked off to the hospital. From there, it's time to rebuild your skating career with the help of some of the biggest names in boarding.

The "getting flattened by a bus' part aside, up until this point there's nothing to separate Skate from any of the eight Tony Hawk games that have been released up until now. (Tony Hawk's Proving Ground is slated to drop in the fall.) There's nothing remarkably new about the "you're the bumbling noob who has to prove his worth" concept. Heck, it's basically just the Xtreme, Mountain-Dew-drinking version of being the untested "Chosen One" in any of about a billion RPGs you've probably played. It's when you hit the pavement that things get interesting and Skate sets out to find a line of its own. And it's all about the controls.

The developers at Black Box have deconstructed the traditional controller scheme that you've been using to skate and rebuilt it in a way that can initially seem oddball and confusing, but after a while becomes completely intuitive. Similar to EA Sports' Fight Night games and the incredibly underappreciated Robot Alchemic Drive -- the greatest game you've never played -- the majority of the game is played using just the analog sticks. The left stick controls the board and the right stick controls your body. You will be using some face buttons for pushing off and the shoulder buttons for grabs, but ultimately, it's about the sticks.

The right-stick Flickit controls let you do a simple ollie with just a quick down-and-up motion, while fancier pop-shuvits are done with a down and circular upward motion. If you've played any of the Fight Night games, you'll have a head start. Just like in the ring, on the street the cooler, more powerful moves require some extra thumbwork.

The key to success in Skate is to forget everything you know about videogame skateboarding. And it's not easy. You will go for the Y button the first million or so times you want to grind a curb. Grinding here -- as in real life -- is done by simply ollie-ing up onto a grindable surface. Of course -- again, as in real life -- that's easier said than done. After that initial million Y-button grind attempts, you'll go through another million attempts where you'll mis-time your jump and slam your crotch onto a bike rack, railing, etc. Eventually, you will nail the thing. And that goes for flip tricks, grab tricks, 360s, and just about anything else you try.