Skate It

The Skate series was a revolution in the skateboarding game genre at the time – instead of button combinations, it offered analog trick control via the right stick, which tried to faithfully mimic the real foot movement on a board. However, this so-called Flickit system only made sense on the classic gamepads of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the consoles the main trilogy was primarily developed for and tailored to. Nintendo Wii owners thus had no access to the core of the series at all, until Electronic Arts prepared a standalone spin-off specifically for that console, later supplemented with versions for Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2.

Skate It therefore didn't take over the controls unchanged, but reworked them completely from scratch with an eye to what the Wii offers beyond a classic gamepad. Instead of stick movement, tricks are performed with a physical gesture using the Wii Remote in hand – the player mimics the board's push-off, rotation, and landing with their own wrist and arm, an experience that simply can't be replicated on a classic controller. The game also supports the Wii Balance Board peripheral, which lets players shift their body weight from side to side similarly to riding a real board, and the level design and track composition were adapted to shorter, clearer sequences that better suit casual motion-based play than the precise stick control of the original. Looser freestyle sections were also added, where the game values the fluidity of gestures more than precise button-combo timing. The result is a game that shares its license and most of its tracks with the main series but practically none of its mechanics, and which also tried to appeal to players who had so far overlooked skateboarding games precisely because of the demanding stick control.

Why play it: Skate It is for anyone who wanted to experience the atmosphere of the Skate series but only owns a Wii or prefers motion control over precise stick control – it's not a watered-down version of the main series, but an independently designed way to control the board with your own body instead of your thumbs on a controller.