i'm dressed funny.. but yeah i'm makin money see, so yo world i hope you're ready for me my name is Humpty, pronounced with an umpty. Emcees in the top 10, please allow me to bump thee.

Alright, as great as the digital underground was, this blog has aboslutely nothing to do with comedically large nosed emcees.

this post has to do with the new king of action sports gaming, EA's skate.

i've been skating since i was 7, and been a fan of skateboarding games since i first got Skate or Die. While many games designed around skateboarding, very few have actually captured the 'feeling' of skateboarding. Prior to skate. i'd say the closes any developer has come was with Rockstar's Thrasher: Skate and Destroy.

The problem with creating a skateboarding 'sim' is that skateboarding is hard. damn hard. it takes months and years of practice to be able to kickflip a 3 stair with confidence, nevermind landing the 1080 double flips that you can pull on your first play through of any tony hawk game.

Black Box has managed to recreate the feeling of difficulty involved in the sport, while making the reward enjoyable enough to encourage you to keep playing. basically what they've done is really nailed what goes into becoming a profession athlete in the world of action sports, and came pretty damn close to recreating it in a videogame. from the little things like games of S.K.A.T.E. with the groms at the park, to nailing an interesting video part, they've really captured a lot of what goes on in the world of skateboarding today.

by now i'm sure you've read about the innovative controls, basically the left stick is used for steering, while the right stick is all about how you handle the board, it feels incredibly natural. the realism became visible immediately when just trying to ollie up a curb manual and ride off. where in tony hawk you'd just skate in that direction and press 'x' at some point on your way toward the curb, with skate. you need to gather your speed, have your skater prepare for the trick by charging the right analogue stick down, flick it up at the appropriate time (timing is everything here) then before landing you must have your right analogue stick in the appropriate position to land in a manual. when your thumbs and mind are working a mile a minute, this is no easy task, but then again, in real life, its definately no small task either. finally sticking it and getting to watch and share your replays is definately a ton of fun.

another feature that really stands out in this game is that the challenges are skill/style based, rather than location based like tony hawk. sometimes in the tony games, it seems like obstacles exist in the environment for the purpose of that challenge only, while in skate, the player is free to pick thier locale to attempt many of the games challenges. you find the spots that suit what it is you need to do, and perfect your line.

basically this game really nails the lifestyle of today's skaters, and comes closer to the real thing than anything else to date. if you skate, enjoy skateboarding games, or are just looking for some serious bang for your buck (replay here is infinite), i can't recommend this game enough.