Some developers have an idea for how the Wii Balance Board could be used to improve the gameplay of their titles, and they get it very, very right. Some developers have the same idea and get it horribly wrong. Skate-It is the pure definition of the latter problem rearing its ugly head.
Before we crack on, let me make it clear that Skate-It contains two control methods aside from the Balance Board controls that everyone will be buying it for. These two methods work well enough – apart from being a little clunky in the turns – and if you persist in playing the game, one of them will surely be your weapon of choice for thrashing around the game world. I’d suggest using the remote and nunchuk combo, since using the remote on its own is like building a dam out of toothpicks. It takes ages and it never works.
As mentioned though, most folks will be picking this up to use with that flat white peripheral that has been sat unused since they vowed to use Wii Fit to lose a bit of weight six months ago. Those folks will be disappointed, and not in any small way. The idea is that you steer as you would with a skateboard and also pull off tricks by shifting your weight to different positions on the board. Shifting to the “back” of your virtual deck pulls off an ollie, whilst throwing yourself to the front-left pulls off a nollie (inverted ollie) heelflip. There are six areas on the board relating to different flips and jumps, and I can safely say that none of them work with any level of reliability. Half the time, you can soft-shoe shuffle your way to the back of the board, and Skate-It will magically pause itself and tell you not to jump on the damned thing. I could understand this if I was a six-stone weakling and the board thought I was stepping off and onto it because it couldn’t tell that I was actually stood on it, but if the software can’t tell that I’m standing on it, then I don’t fancy its chances with anyone who is in shape enough to be able use a real skateboard.
Anger and rage inducing control methods aside, and Skate-It isn’t terribly impressive. The entire game is absolutely devoid of people, including your annoying cameraman. The voices are there, but the people aren’t. I kid you not. Disembodied vocals come at you from all angles but you are essentially the only person to exist in this particular ghost town, and given the bustling cityscapes of the title that this is based on, that just doesn’t sit well.
To add insult to injury, the game is still plagued with the problem where your boarder steadfastedly refuses to get off his board and take a step or two to walk up steps or climb up a curb. This leads to frustration at almost every turn as you try to navigate your way through to your next challenge or checkpoint. As if that wasn’t bad enough, you’ll frequently respawn directly facing a wall or a curb and have to take a slow turn around to even get started again. This is so bad that it could be fixed with a patch that just makes your character automatically spin through a hundred and eighty degrees at every respawn point before giving you control again. Seriously, that would only negatively affect you four times out of a hundred, and would help you the rest of the time. It’s that bad.
There are upsides of course, and the most notable of these is that if you can get used to any of the three control systems, you’ll find that there is a heck of a lot to do and the same free-roaming spirit to be found that was present in the first game in the franchise. That is one heck of a big “if”, though.
