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Skate It DS Review

09/02/2009 Family Teen Gamer Review
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Skate It DS

Skate It

Format:
DS

Genre:
Sporting

Buy/Support:
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Other GamePeople columnists have reviewed this from their perspective - huh?:
Family Guide Gamer (Wii)

This is the first skating game I've played for a long time, so I wasn't to sure what to expect, though I was hopeful and the controls were novel, it left me a little disappointed.

You play as a young skater, wanting to make it big in the world of skating. To do this, you have to play through many levels and challenges around the world.

Skate It introduces an interesting way to play. As you would expect, all the forward, stop and turn commands are buttons. But the unique thing about Skate It is that you get to perform tricks through certain movements on the touch screen, the Skate It games real highlight called Flickit. An ollie is performed with a simple line up the "board". A kick-flip is performed with a diagonal line out of the board from the base... you get the idea. This feature is what makes the game special. It's great, as you can play the game well without using complicated button combinations, and scribbling your tricks onto the touch screen can be fun and interesting.

Skate It also features a particularly nice add-on; the ability to create your own custom maps.

One thing I did quite like about the game was the variety of challenges. You can race against other (computer) skaters, perform specific tricks or a series of tough challenges, or even do film shoots. This abundance of things to do kind of makes up for some of the crumbier elements of the game.

Skate It also features a particularly nice add-on; the ability to create your own custom maps. This feature is pretty neat as it includes a lot of different ramps, rails and jumps to put into your custom skate park as you wish. Even nicer is the Custom Map Share, meaning you can share your home-made maps with other players.

The flaw in these features is that you have to unlock a lot of the objects in career mode, not something I like in any game, especially this one. Why? It means if you want to get the most out of Skate It, you have to spend a lot of time repeatedly trying to do some infuriatingly tricky moves and levels.

\If you want a good hour of challenging gameplay, this is a good game for you.

The problem with the unique controls are that they can really make the game hard; even judging when to make a jump is difficult because of the controls. Also, the who touch screen controls do get a bit tiring after a while, and it does occasionally glitch, resulting in different tricks than you intended. More bad news; The graphics are terrible, something I find a little strange (not to mention disappointing) considering the quite good graphics on some DS games out there, and the maps are laid out pretty badly. Also, I didn't like the way this game had no story-line whatsoever; I thought at least a bit of a plot may have made the game better.

Overall, Skate It is an average game, and that's the problem. Despite its Flickit system and its realism, it's just average and nothing more. Because of its tricky controls, it's irritating features and sometimes badly laid out levels, Skate It is above all a very realistic portrayal of skating; a true skating game for those who want a good challenge to sink their teeth into. So, if you want a good hour of challenging gameplay, this is a good game for you. On the other hand, if you want to sit down and have a relaxed play on a simple game, don't.

Written by Rowan Brown

You can support Rowan by buying Skate It



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Rowan Brown writes the Teen Gamer column.

"I write about my favourite games from a younger person's perspective. It's often surprising how different this ends up to other more grown up reviews."


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