EA Skate is a fairly good game on the consoles. But shrink it down and slap it on a mobile, can it still shred like a pro? I took several days of playing to find out if I can cut it as a thrash junkie and string together the moves in the half-pipe for the ultimate line.

In a word Skate, the mobile version anyway, is lacking. Without a proper stick for control you have to use the keypad and it simply does not translate very well. It is still enjoyable but it is far from being engrossing and addictive.

As I played through the goals I found myself often frustrated with the control scheme. A control scheme that utilized most of the buttons on the keypad but that was still not very comfortable and intuitive. The main problem I had in the beginning was getting speed. If you push left or right (4 or 6) once you move, push it again you go to what is called Speed 2. A third press puts you into a manual which I found before the game ever instructed me about it and how to use and maintain it. Often my finger would slip during the course of the game and I would end up in a manual and then bail losing a load of points. Irritating

The other tricks are standard skateboard fare; Ollie, flipkick, 360, indy, handplant, grind, etc... Nothing new or exciting in the moves area of this game. In fact, with the screen so small and the animations so basic I found myself losing interest in the game quickly while in thrash mode or free skate.

However in the half-pipe I was really able to shred. Stringing together moves for big points there seems easier and more suitable to the mobile for some reason. Perhaps it's the limited amount of space that you need to cover so the screen doesn't need to scroll all that much. Also in the half-pipe you know you must go left and right. In the free skate and thrash mode it doesn't tell you how big the area is or how far you can go. Plus there's no map feature. Of course if there were the map would be so small as to be invisible anyway.

The sound in the game is practically an afterthought. There are no environmental sounds, no skate sounds and no people sounds. There is one small music loop that plays when you get a goal or are reading what a skate-master has to say. Again as it's a mobile game if I were in public I wouldn't want the sound to start annoying those around me so I would turn it off right in the beginning when given the option. The only reason I had it on was to see what kinds of sound, or again that word, lack thereof.

Rewards are things like sponsor t-shirts, points and things to stuff in a scrapbook. Not original in the least bit. The whole goal of the Thrash mode is to follow instructions from several top skaters in what I believe is a quest to get on the cover of Thrasher Magazine. Wow, talk about a seriously played out and limiting premise for a skate game.

Finally, the dialog in the game is so cliche and predictable that it made me want to be sick. No not 'sick' as in go out and thrash on my board all day, sick as in violently ill dude. I mean I know there's a whole lingo for skating and all that but really they overdid it I thought. Perhaps I'm just getting to old to relate, but I can still thrash some sick lines without even flinching when the game is as simplistic as this.

Overall:

Fun for short periods of time. Not for everyone.

If you're a serious hardcore fan of skating games and have the cash to drop for something like this then by all means try it out. If you are not a hardcore skate fan then you might want to simply skip it. It's not a fantastic game in its mobile form but it is mildly entertaining, even to an old ex-skater like me. If you could find the game for dirt cheap, I mean like 1-3 (dollar, euro, British pound) then by all means get it if you're into this sort of thing. But anything more than that and you might be sorely disappointed. And of course it's caveat emptor, as in buyer beware, because it lacks serious originality and decent sound.

The Full Gallery (15 shots):

Did you enjoy this article? Please bookmark it onto: