For a number of years now, “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater” (“THPS”) and its sequels have set the standard for all skateboarding games. The series allowed players to challenge themselves through attempting complicated or difficult objectives, some of which had been done by actual professional skaters. Moreover, Tony Hawk is a skateboarding legend and many of the world’s most well-known skateboarders appeared in his games, lending it a significant amount of credibility and authenticity that other developers simply couldn’t match. “THPS” consistently raised the bar for what a skating game could and perhaps should be while also placing a virtual stranglehold on the market for skateboarding games, making it seem foolish to even try to compete with that gaming juggernaut.

And then came Electronic Arts’ “Skate.” Instead of using buttons on the controller and stick movements in one direction or another to perform grinds, grabs and ollies, “Skate” completely redesigned the interface and begins almost every trick by flicking the right stick in multiple directions, offering a simulation of the foot movements involved in contemporary skating (which is largely based on ollies) more accurately since the stick movements tend to mimic how the tricks are initiated. “Skate” also introduced more realistic physics – players used to doing billion-point combos in “THPS” games were in for a very rude awakening when they found that landing a single kickflip could be challenging.

Finally, “Skate” rounded up talented skaters who were legendary in their own right (including some who have appeared in “THPS”), led by Danny Way who has constantly pushed the boundaries of what is possible on a skateboard (including successfully jumping over the Great Wall of China, breaking the land speed record for skateboarding and dropping into a ramp from the top of the Las Vegas Hard Rock Café’s guitar, a height of 82 feet).

After years of crushing other skating games in sales, “THPS” suddenly had a competitor.

“Skate 3,” the newest game in the “Skate” series, offers significant improvements over previous games in the series. It does what most sequels should try to do – get rid of stuff that doesn’t work, enhance the stuff that does, remove the things that get in the way of people enjoying the game and put in more things for players to enjoy.

Review for Skater-3

3.0

One of the most prominent accessibility concerns is the control system. Since the game uses sticks to initiate and control most tricks

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First and foremost, the tutorial mode at the beginning of the game feels substantially more helpful and instructive than previous efforts in the series. Jason Lee, an actor and skater, lends his voice to Coach Frank, who not only tells players how to do a trick, but also how to angle approaches to successfully begin and complete a trick. The tutorial mode also features illuminated approach paths for grinds, ollies and other tricks. Furthermore, the tutorial mode also includes a trick analyzer which shows your actual stick movement as well as the correct stick movement so players can compare the two and improve more quickly. Even better, players can activate the trick analyzer at any time from the Options menu, or simply leave it on while they play. Finally, the tutorial will actually freeze a player in mid-air to perform grabs and tweak them to better understand the control systems.

“Skate 3” has three difficulty modes: easy, normal and hardcore, each with differences in how the game plays. On easy mode, tricks are easier to land and the game seems substantially more forgiving than “Skate” and “Skate 2.” As one example, “Skate” would often require a player to perform a flip trick to a manual to another flip trick, or a manual to a flip trick to a manual, without interrupting the trick sequence. A single interruption or missed trick and the player would have to start over.

In “Skate 3,” at least on easy mode, goals can often be completed as long as the player doesn’t bail (i.e. crash), regardless of whether a trick sequence is interrupted. That single change makes “Skate 3” far more playable and far less likely to result in damage to home audio-visual equipment caused by flying controllers. Furthermore, there are usually two levels of completing a challenge – owning it and killing it. Killing it will still call for specific tricks in narrowly defined areas, but owning a trick typically specifies only a general type of trick like a grab or a grind, or defines an area where a trick must be completed such as a rail, further reducing the difficulty level for casual gamers.

Suddenly, a game that was so difficult that even easier challenges could require a full hour to complete became a game that is actually user friendly, while still allowing players craving a challenge to increase the difficulty level or attempt tougher tasks. In short, “Skate 3” seems to have accomplished something that’s often nearly impossible – creating a game that offers significant ease of entry and a feeling of accomplishment while still allowing hardcore fans to participate in frustration-fueled controller-tossing contests.

However, the most intriguing part of the game comes in its creation engine – you create your own skate team for the single-player campaign and can populate it with friends and family members, customizing characters’ features, appearances, clothes and gear. You can create an online skate team made up of other people all over the world. You can compete against other players in contests and to accomplish objectives. In some cases, choosing to attempt an objective online just puts you in a room with other people who are trying to do the same thing – there isn’t any competition per se, which is to say that no one wins or loses. People accomplish the objective or don’t, but players completing the challenge get bonus points.

But that isn’t all – you can build your own skate terrain with a deep and broad selection of ramps, rails, ledges, stairs and so forth (and the game allows you to put a massive amount of items into a park). You can even chose to spend Microsoft points to unlock all of the terrain from the start, instead of unlocking it by completing challenges as you progress through the game. You can share these parks online, and download parks that other players created. You can design your own graphics and use them in game. About the only thing “Skate 3” doesn’t allow players to do is create their own tricks and save them, but it has such a wide number of tricks that it’s hard to think of that as an oversight.

While some of these features have been present in skating games before, they haven’t been implemented to this level of detail or this expansively (and some of these ideas seem to have fallen out of favor), but they all add to the game’s value – there is always new content and you can create new content for other people to enjoy. In short, you can complete every objective in the game and still be able to find new things to do. In the case of “Skate 3,” your only practical limit is your imagination.

Ultimately, especially in the wake of “THPS” adding a controller which requires players to stand on it to play (which, albeit an interesting idea to bring more realism into skating, snowboarding and surfing games, is a terrible idea when considering accessibility), “Skate 3” is the best skating game so far in this console generation. While Tony Hawk’s “Section 8” and “Proving Ground” may be more accessible due to using buttons to initiate tricks, “Skate 3” seems significantly larger, more expansive and more detailed, not to mention more fun. It’s also endlessly replayable – making skate parks, finding new lines to skate and new ways to go absolutely nuts.

However, all of that is irrelevant if it isn’t accessible to you. Here’s what you need to know.