What Made SKATE Special?

skate is by far one of the most popular skating simulators of its time and even to this day is it the best skating game I'd say yes but the Tony Hawk series and recent rise of both session and skater XL make that a question worthy of a full video in itself it's a difficult comparison too because while Tony Hawk had an arcade approach to romanticized skateboarding EA skate series initially nailed an identity and grounded realism after releasing skate to generally favorable reviews many sequels and spin-offs were created and released within just a few years EA and black box had struck gold and it was clear that there was and still is an audience for this kind of game as the current development of Skate 4 would have you believe the skate series despite having such short development times for their many entries went through a metamorphosis and many games couldn't dream of so let's talk about it foreign I want to throw a caveat out here that all the footage captured was originally on an emulator but after having issues with frame rates and other technical blunders I ended up opting for using the backwards compatibility of the Xbox series s to play Skate 1 and 3. 2 isn't available for digital purchase on there which meant I had to play the PS3 version of the game and it ran pretty rough at times but let's get back to skate and its defining feature its flickit control scheme which sees the player flicking their control stick in specific directions to perform tricks these controls are intuitive and make sense when compared to real life and all he sees you pulling the stick down and up but a kickflip or heel flip sees you pulling it down and up slightly to the side meanwhile a shove it will require you to curve the stick from six o'clock to three o'clock and by the way the clock lingo is just an easy way of explaining where your thumb needs to go everything in the game starts with either a kickflip and all your shove it every trick is built upon or around those three starters so if you can Master those then anything is possible some have criticized the controls for being inconsistent or unreliable but I disagree I really hate the getgood r argument that comes up when people criticize a game or control scheme but truthfully I have found that with enough practice I've come to reliably perform every trick I have wanted to and when I messed up a trick it was always because I wasn't being precise enough when looking at my tricks here you can see that the game is very forgiving with the Precision when I played the game as a child I just pushed a stick in random directions pumping out fast Ali shove its and kickflips with maybe an accidental hard flip for good measure but there was no premeditation or planning and unfortunately this carried me through a lot of challenges I think that this will lead many to a roadblock as it did for me my roadblock was a pro challenge for Rob Dyrdek where you have to perform a 360 Flip to frontside Crooks I had no idea what either of those were and I spent literal hours trying to figure out how to pull the 360 flip off and I found myself not being precise enough accidentally performing either a varial heel flip or 360 pop shove it a 360 shove it is essentially taking the stick from eight o'clock riding the edge to two o'clock and a very old will take it from eight to seven and then out towards three o'clock a 360 Flip is from 8 to 6 and outwards towards three so you see the issue here if I was too wide I did a 360 shove it and if I was too tight I did a variable heel flip but after hours of looking at the trickbook practicing and failing a lot I finally nailed the trick and then I did it again I wasn't perfectly consistent but I was able to do it every three or so attempts the tray flip became and it still is one of my favorite tricks purely because it took me so long to perform it and it was the only cool looking trick that I worked hard to perform intentionally I was no longer getting lucky with performing something cool I did something cool because it was exactly what I wanted it was this roadblock that opened my eyes to just how deep this system is now I want to conquer hard flips inward heels nollie lasers the whole book man I wanted that [ __ ] I'll admit it's fun to Simply flick the stick without intention and do some grinds and pops but it was so much more satisfying to see a line plan it out and then execute it it's one thing to look cool but doing so intentionally is a whole different level of satisfaction grinds and grabs have similar means of execution with different directions on the thumb sticks having different grab tweaks and grind slides you know the works I had a similar roadblock with grinds in Skate 3 with a challenge asking me to complete a blunt slide and it was the same story and that is now my favorite grind by the way all of this is to say that the reward of the skate series is almost entirely dependent on how you wish to engage with its mechanics and how determined you are because once you figure out the controls I don't think you'd want to have it any other way but as with any series it evolved so let's take a proper look back at the skate Series going through the three major entries and discussing what worked what didn't what's new and what's old I know that there was a notable spin-off by the name of skate it for the Nintendo Wii and DS but it won't be covering those here as they have completely different control schemes and are spin-offs before I dive too far into these games though I need to make it clear that I'm coming at this from the perspective of a spectator and a gamer I'm familiar with skating and I've been a fan of it since I was a kid but I always participated as a spectator sure I knew how to ride one and even though it's been some time since I last stepped foot on one if you put a board in front of me I could probably pop an ollie within 20 minutes of refining my bearings but the point is there's some Nuance here that as a spectator I miss out on and when looking at this game primary early as a game unless is a true to life simulator there will be things I don't notice or things that don't bother me that might end up bothering some hardcore skaters so to help with this I have rad rat video who's going to give us a perspective of the skate games from someone who's an actual skater hi I'm Aaron I run a channel called rad rat video where I talk about skateboarding oftentimes skateboarding games through the lens of someone who has skated for over 20 years and I remember the first time I saw skate it was in a show called Robin big where a pro skater and his friend are doing stuff and you know the first time I saw it in motion was right there on that show and I was blown away by it and it wasn't just that the skaters looked good and the tricks looked good it was the camera so when you film skateboarding you often follow the skater with your camera and you hold it down low because you're trying to see the board you're trying to see the the trick and normally in games the camera is floating way up here somewhere and you see you know the care the back of the character's head and that's not how you film skateboarding so like it wasn't just that the uh the actual skateboarding itself looked good it was at the the way that the whole experience was it looked like this was footage from um you know that you shot last weekend the skate series was really the the first successful Sim game uh Sim skateboarding game I wouldn't say it was the first one ever though because we had Thrasher skate and Destroy which came out uh before that on the PlayStation and this game is I I love it but I it's not fun it's very complicated very awkward if you want to do certain tricks like you have to hold the flip button and then you have to hold the the spin button then you hold this button up here to do it off the nose and you hold this button to spin the opposite way and you let go of them all at the same time and your character will perform the the trick now to me it was really cool because you were doing realistic lines you were doing normal skateboard tricks but it wasn't as as fun for people who didn't skate you didn't really have that experience you didn't know that these were tricks that people could actually do and then the pro skater games although they're a lot of fun they're more skateboarding themed platform action type of games you know you're trying to grind this not because it's a cool thing to grind but because there's a secret tape on top or there's the s or the K you know and you're you're just trying to collect things using skateboarding as a tool it doesn't feel like skateboarding so when skate came out it was a huge difference it was a game that was designed to actually feel like skateboarding the controls are a huge part of that because you don't just tell your skater what trick you're trying to to do like in Pro Skater you know you're you're spinning so you you know if you're if you're in the air you came out of a ramp or whatever can you just gonna hit Square you don't have to you don't have a connection with what that trick is in skate if you want to do a 360 Flip you have to perform that trick it's on purpose you are intentionally doing a trick that you're supposed to be doing and something else was that if you do a kickflip station area it's worth almost nothing if you do it very fast and you cover this much distance and you drop this far then it's it's worth extra based on all that so you can make gaps you know there's stuff that's obviously designed to skate no big stair set or something like that but if you find something that you were not intended to that's worth just as as much it's worth what the Gap is worth and that feels like skateboarding because you can explore and you can find new things you can do a trick that makes sense to do at that spot and if you did it with with the speed and you cleared that Gap you'll get enough points for it to actually be worth it and after you land it it's not done you can go into the camera mode and you can actually film it and you can figure out where you should have placed the camera and then you can put it online and share that clip with your your friends and that's what you do with skateboarding you go out and you film something and you share it with your friends and so it really scratches the same itch as actual skateboarding does in a way that no game had yet at that point rad rat has its own reviews of the skate series that are a great watch but let's not delay any further and cover the whole series top to bottom starting with the Legends humble roots in San Van Alona opening with a shot of our player character getting into a near-fatal crash we see a montage of our trip to the hospital and this introduction shows us a permeating theme in the skate series which is its use of real world figures and Brands all the best skaters of the time are here and their cameos are terribly cheesy but in the best way possible seriously Patrick what are you doing uh shopping online this theme of Real World brands invading the game continues as you finally create your character and it's here that you see different Real World brands to choose from I think that having real brands in a game can seem out of place but in this case it feels more realistic because I can have my character wear the same Nikes that I do some of these are more intrusive though like the Adidas sponsor messages that have a pop-up encouraging you to buy their shoes furthermore this is a theme within this very video thanks to today's sponsor brilliant brilliant is an interactive visual learning tool that offers courses ranging from these specifics of stem math computer science and regular science to broader applicable topics like logic and probability the courses here are designed to be as intuitive and Hands-On as possible allowing you to see and feel how these topics like mathematics apply to our everyday life within finance's statistics and more I wish I had this when I was in high school but thankfully I can make use of courses around logic to help me gain more knowledge and develop Arguments for my beliefs which for someone who literally does that for a job is invaluable when I was in high school I struggled greatly with math and science and had to pay Hefty fees for tutors but with brilliant not only is it more cost effective but it moves at your pace meaning you can take advantage of those 3am bursts of ambition there are thousands of lessons that feature Hands-On Interactive Learning and there's new lessons added every month the world needs more intelligence and Brilliant so to balance out the four hour Fortnight sessions that are rot in your brain why not explore and expand your knowledge of probability within casinos this was one of the first of many lessons I've been taking day in and day out and it showed me that despite what you may think you are not as close to hitting it big as it may seem so if you two want to keep learning past that upcoming test or just Flex on your friends you can get a special offer of 20 off for the first 200 people to click the link in the description or the pinned comment and thank you to brilliant for sponsoring this video thankfully I can still appreciate the options for customization this unfortunately doesn't apply to the women out here as you don't yet have the option to play as a female which the developers attributed to technical issues regarding the physics engine despite this there is a female skater that you can choose to play as in free skate and this immediately shows you the very animation issues that they ran into I'm sure some workarounds were taken advantage of to include Sammy as they only have to account for her one outfit but when cruising at high speeds you can see that her chest is tied directly to the t-shirt's physics meaning even the slightest of movements see her chest flapping in the wind admittedly it's quite funny but I imagine it could be mistaken for crude intentional jiggle physics if implemented further as far as the board goes animations feel like they have weight I think there's some janky animations here but nothing that'll do more than offer a chuckle pushing looks the way it should tricks look the way they should and have a satisfying Slam at their end questions I don't want to go too in depth with the animations but when everything here sees a board popping up and slamming down nailing that animation is vital and I'd argue they killed it grind sounds so satisfying and the soundtrack itself has a great range from metal to hip-hop the music is slightly Dynamic too as the higher your multiplier the louder the music gets allowing you to feel the greater rise in Emotion as you continue killing line after line the game's colors function similarly notice how when your stationary the game is washed out start moving and it gets brighter and more colorful with the three times multiplier making the game Bloom like Wind Waker it's a minor detail but it makes the game come to life in the same way that skating makes someone like you come to life this is something a few other games have done but it never fails to communicate A visual representation of Happiness when skating you're in your happy place and this is a perfect manifestation of that the entire game is viewed through a low angle fisheye lens with a grunge look to it everything seems so sloppy but it's aesthetic that rather ironically was nailed through precise decision making even the characters in the menus have a proper cutout style that leans into a low budget charm that the other two games never truly nailed again your skating playground this time around is San Van Alona a city that that aligning with the Uber realism doesn't always feel like it was built for skating and that's what makes it so good the map is designed like an hourglass of income with the top of the map consisting of suburban homes and Rich living Mansions it's here that you'll skate the most lavish of end game spots the Mega Park is where you'll find consistent jumps and drops all with an ambulance at the end to bring you back up you'll find plenty of pools and residential Banks to skate down here along with the GED High School thankfully this school has a skate park installed which is actually one of the few dedicated skate parks in the game if you ride the streets long enough you'll enter the res which features the gnarliest hills and the sharpest drops it isn't all downhill from here though as there are plenty of places for training like the art gallery which offers some AB track spots right outside of Rags a skate shop with a deceptively addictive park in the back further down is Old Town where you'll find the most industrial spots of the town with long forgotten spillways being a source for Speed and slides I found this area to be the most ripe for spot variety but your mileage may vary the area at the bottom of the map is the financial district full of high rises and even higher staircases it's here that you'll make your final push to superstardum Crossing parking lot gaps and Banks but as it's also here that you'll find a greater density of traffic people and security making the marked off areas even tougher to shred as far as Parts go there isn't much aside from the most challenging course in the game the penultimate goal to becoming one of the best the culmination of all your efforts but let's head back there later for now I want to call your attention to what I said earlier the map feels like a proper city that you just so happen to be skating in not a city designed for skating the architecture reflects us as does the population people engage their right-of-way and cars will have no problem ruining a line and Security will take you down faster than trying to do a hippie jump in this game you aren't meant to be skating here not to say that you aren't allowed but that you have to make do with your surroundings you can't turn traffic or security off in career mode and being able to play around those factors despite how frustrating it can be at times is part of the challenge nothing pains me more than failing a race raid at the end because a pedestrian didn't look both ways before crossing the Damned street but this is what makes skates so appealing a majority of the fun here will not be from the challenges though I'm sure for casual enjoyers that's where their time will be spent but for those who get sucked into the freedom of expression on offer here you'll find that your satisfaction comes from finding a spot and just hitting it a million times over trying different tricks grind slides grabs and flips wherever you are on the map so long as it isn't restricted you can place a marker and whenever you want return to that marker meaning you can find an object you want to trick off of attempt it and then immediately try again I can't imagine the game would be nearly as fun if you had to run all the way around to retry a trick don't believe me one pro Mission sees you entering the second level of a plaza which is restricted and grinding down a massive staircase the grind is rather difficult because the mission requires 50 feet of it from you not being able to place a marker before the staircase means that if you mess it up you have a solid 30 seconds to a minute before you can try and potentially fail again it's one of the few times that the game does this but it really makes you appreciate the freedom that you have here in terms of what you skate and how much you can skate it hell almost all filming challenges are not restricted to any locations and are designed to be performed anywhere the requirements might be better suited for some areas sure doing a total of 1080 degrees of rotation and accumulating 12 seconds of air time in just 30 seconds will be far easier done in a bowl or an empty pool rather than on the sidewalk but either is possible and that makes every single playthrough unique in some way what I enjoy doing is picking a random challenge to complete and by the end of it starting a filming session and my own challenge is to keep myself within that area forcing myself to get creative of course this is a double-edged sword though as those who are intrinsically motivated will have a great deal of fun just experimenting and challenging themselves for the sake of it but for those of you who are extrinsically motivated we'll just Spam tricks to fill out a challenge meaning the quality of the gameplay is what you make of it but I want to focus on motivation because for some they only want to complete challenges for the reward and what does Skate have to offer not much now I don't intend for this to be a criticism in fact I think it's a great choice the game is meant to be realistic and adding a progression system could yield problems with high-level characters being unrealistically athletic and new skaters being nerfed effectively blocking off options as if we continue with this example one could not clear a gap hypothetically without leveling their jumping stats this is also why I'm very happy that the game does not restrict tricks or put any of your abilities or tools behind our arbitrary walls it means that a first playthrough has a natural progression that moves at the player's Pace as their ability to perform exciting lines and clear gaps is dictated by their own skill and familiarity with the systems in place this could create a slight problem in that each new playthrough does not reset progression and in a way each subsequent playthrough is a pseudo New Game Plus but as mentioned before the sheer variety and ways for you to complete an objective makes replayability one of this game's strengths regardless otherwise you can get your cash from many challenges and at certain points you'll receive sponsors that assuming you're wearing their Associated product will net you even more income which can be used to further customize your character I would say my only issue with this is that wearing your sponsor's gear is some of the best ways to earn money and if you are say sponsored by Nike for shoes then all Nike shoes are free meaning you're earning money but spending it on only pants and shirts as wearing anything other than your sponsors just puts you at a disadvantage you'll quickly find yourself with a surplus of income and nothing to spend it on completing challenges will also unlock spots for you to hit some of the best parks in the game like the Plan B Warehouse Danny Way's Mega Park and so many more are unlocked by completing Pro challenges among other things it's nothing worth grinding for if you don't like the basic gameplay Loop because all that is offered is more areas to experience that Loop like the art gallery interior and the prior mentioned I said before that there's a great freedom in the filming challenges here and this is seen in its truest form during the different spots around the map finding a good spot to hit over and over again is fun but if you're having trouble getting started then you can hit up the many designated spots around the map these are automatically marked when you enter its vicinity and the idea is that you have to beat the given score for cash and promotion the different spots are varied from large jumps to high-speed wall rides and even basic staircases and hubbas they often aren't too challenging but I don't think these are here to challenge your skills but rather to widen your perception the city feels like it was built for living not for skating and these designated spots show you how to find your own within this city San Van Alona is ripe for skating but it just doesn't look like it yet sure you could get by scraping curbs and popping over cars but when you get into the habit of spotting an otherwise mundane structure and turning it into a 15 minute side tangent as you choose from the hundreds of ways to express yourself in the most unorthodox of places it it's a whole new game the spots show you that with a little creativity you can skate anything and find substance in just about every nook and cranny while there are many challenges here that are meant to make creating your own fun more accessible there are some flat out challenges here that are I think for the sake of them for one there are Death Races which are exactly how you imagine they see you with a time limit and an end goal with multiple gates in between point A and B that add to your time the gate serves a great way of keeping you on the right track but not outright restricting where you can go as shortcuts still Reigns Supreme here the routes and races were interesting enough and I'd recommend them for anyone starting the game as they active tours on the map and are easy to pick up there's no complicated controls or skating jargon you need to learn just pushing and going fast there are some more complex techniques like properly slowing down for a corner by leaning on your tail instead of putting your foot down but these aren't necessary to win what also permeates is a civilian life as cars and people will get in your way just as much as other skaters it's realistic which I can appreciate but I won't sit here and say it isn't downright annoying as it seems that one fall is all it takes for you to completely lose a race at its best is to cruise down the Suburban close and at worst it's an exercise in pure Agony I think the only mission that consistently bothered me here were the games have skate these on paper sound great a game of horse where you copy the trick of whoever is setting it for the round and only those with astute knowledge of the trick list and how to perform them can succeed but in motion this is a pace killer the AI generally will fail moves at random even one of the first games of skate you play will see your opponent pulling off difficult tricks and assuming you can reliably pull off tricks without fail then eventually you will either run out or be wasting minutes at a time just to get one letter these mini games also put on full display of The Kinks with the physics system your skater likes to magnetize themselves to whatever service is closest making things like wall riding possible the issue that happens is when you trick over these boxes here the game gladly shifts your position to that of the newspaper stand which will make you bail on a gap you otherwise cleared this issue never caused too much frustration outside of this one instance but damn if it didn't make this particular Game of Skate stick out in memory as a glimpse of Eternal damnation when I replay this game I almost always skip these and it's because it goes against a major theme in the game expression is a through line and the freedom of expression is integral card your own path in Death Races find random spots to shoot videos and even some like the photo challenges offer a decent amount of freedom in that while you may be required to Gap a staircase how you do that is entirely up to you here you just replicate a trick there is no expression no freedom and I wouldn't even argue that it's skill based as endurance plays a greater role I think these are some of the worst parts of this game and it sucks that there's a game of skate with every single Pro but I can at least skip them and still get by if you do want to complete them but don't want to try the AI is unfortunately unable to perform 540s so it is easily cheesed the competitions around the map are pretty Bare Bones but they're just different contexts to flex your abilities it's typically a best trick or a jam session consisting of a few rounds but your biggest challenge here will not be the points needed to win but the other skaters as much like Death Race as they can bump into you and nothing is worse than having a perfect line ruined by that bastard shingo when the other skaters and Pros aren't being a major pain in the ass you'll be proving yourself to them in the many pro challenges some of these are following missions which admittedly are as boring as they come but others see you hitting spots performing specific tricks and numerous other tasks that offer great variety the voice acting for some of these is rough at times but it's because the pros themselves voice their own Lions so while it isn't the most polished it feels as authentic as it can offering more charm we'll play some skate real quick these challenges also unlock different areas for you like the aforementioned Plan B Warehouse which offers hours of fun collectively we've discussed in detail the micro goals in front of you learning controls completing arbitrary challenges for pros but what is the overarching goal here fame fortune and publicity every challenge you complete Nets you income and notoriety which eventually allows you to do photo ops for either the skateboard mag or Thrasher you get to pick your own photos and the angles are always pretty lame but I digress and these escalate in scale and difficulty with your manager and film or Retta informing you of new opportunities until eventually you get a call um this sound Master Caleb from the X Games dude that cover amazing invite committee got together and it's clear here in the X Games this park is the epitome of large-scale skating you aren't battling locals anymore you're battling other pros and the world's best making this one of the more demanding challenges here this park is a ton of fun to skate and the atmosphere of the camera flashing cheering of the crowd instills this feeling that you are really on the big stage the mega ramp is the peak of this enjoyment as I remember spending hours on this thing when I first got here unlike other entries in the series Mega skating is relatively scarce here as it's left to this park and the final challenge Danny Way's Mega Park the two ramps here are massive and the track itself while only consisting of three jumps and two half pipes serves as some of the largest spots to bomb down you have a jam to cap off the game and this is more of a vanity competition than anything but once you complete it you get a nice message saying that you have more or less made it and that there's not much left to do but clean up any missions and find more spots to skate it's a proper way to end the game and if you didn't get the hint that this games at its best when you make your own fun it's literally spelled out for you but revisiting your favorite spots and hitting technically proficient lines isn't done only out of self-satisfaction but to flex on your friends too skate nude's audience well enough to include a replay function with an editor the editor is admittedly not friendly to the inexperienced but with enough time you can do some cool stuff with keyframes different camera angles and cuts catch a glitch to sent your character into the stratosphere clip it land a nasty flip clip it even more casual lines of feature basic tricks are clip worthy and this replay editor even has sharing capabilities so even when the game was over you could compete over spots with your friends and send Clips back and forth showing your stuff it isn't a major thing but it goes a hell of a long way for expressing yourself there's also free skate where you can place any of the characters you met along the way and turn the traffic off pedestrians off and even security leading to a more relaxed session one of the characters you can unlock is Dem Bones a skeleton and you unlock him by breaking every bone in your body at least three times when you take a nasty bail the game will present the Hall of Meat report that shows you what you bruise sprained and broke which was a nice view feature but wouldn't be fully realized until later on if competition is what you seek then you can play some battles against other players which was fun but I never tried it much the first gate is widely seen as the series in its most primitive form and this is true of the first entry of nearly every series but this first attempt also stands as a testament to the fact that the game doesn't need a gripping story dramatic themes or even massive set pieces to be endlessly enjoyable sometimes developing a deep and rewarding system and then dropping the player into an area to run wild is a formula for success but this formula could very easily have been a fluke and it's this game's sequel Skate 2 that would be the deciding factor between whether black Box's idea was a flash in the pen or something so much more foreign Skate 2 was widely regarded as the best in the series and while I don't necessarily agree hot take I know I can understand why people feel this way Skate 2 is a product is competent addictive and vast but I believe it's when we look at Skate 2 as a sequel that the game truly shines it took what was already a solid and fleshed out system and expanded it even further gave you more freedom to not only skate your environment but mold it and added a new layer of progression that will satisfy both old and new fans it isn't perfect but like its predecessor it's a damn fine game and playing the first gate I would say is necessary as it allows you to really appreciate how much better this game is your new setting this time around is actually not that new it's still San valona the mishmash of Vancouver San Francisco Barcelona and California but it's changed it's far more impressive now thanks to an earthquake that tore the place apart and who rebuilt it nobody else but [ __ ] Corp they have a new regiment to enlist and that's a strict no skating policy we've been powerless to stop it as we've been in prison for the last five years after getting caught dropping in on the one strain San Van Damme now released we take our Rusty slab of wood and embark on another journey to Fame and Fortune but with an alternative goal of reigniting San Van's passion for skating the city strikes a great balance between feeling like a brand new location but still keeping its familiarity most notably in its Aesthetics and charm the suburbs have been replaced by Cougar Mountain and Waterfront but both old town and the res make a return as does downtown but all of them receive some notable overhauls foreign I found that this city had more secret spots for you to hit some being hidden alcoves and other being near death-defying drops that bend your suspension of disbelief but the first major change is with the tricks all of the old favorites are here but there are some reasonable additions that play into the idea of leaving the board foot plans hand plants and hippie jumps buff the roster allowing for even more forms of expression I'll admit that I like to stick to the basics preferring street oververt so these changes didn't do much for me and grab Grimes do look a bit goofy in my opinion but of course as the onboard features of all so have your off-board abilities for one while hippie flips were a fun challenge to nailed in the first game having a more approachable hippie jump helps to add variety but you can go even further off your board which not only opens up a new Avenue for exploration but also for the kind of spots the game can throw at you the first game had to make every single spot accessible by wheels and while in some cases this worked as having things like wheelchair accessible elevator platform in a Parkade makes sense other areas like the abstract design of downtown's Plaza make it clear that it was made for accessibility as much Escape 1 is a very Innovative game retrospectively not having the ability to get off your board feels absurd this was chalked up to development issues and Technical constraints but having it here is a solid step up and in the right direction unfortunately I feel that the movement here is passable at best you move like you're in a Resident Evil game as your tank controls an inaccurate movement ironically offer less maneuverability than your board it doesn't make things awful and like I said it's passable much like the movable objects there are now rails trash bins ramps and other things are scattered around the map which can be grabbed and moved I like this Edition plenty the first gate game plays an emphasis on finding spots and making them so much more by looking at it with a different lens in Skate 2 that lens is under attack as the many undrained pools and caps that occupy half the city prevent you from hitting the best spots so on top of finding the hidden gems we now have the ability to mold those spots to our liking it's a little restricted by the location of these rails and ramps but most major locations will have them nearby allowing the restrictions to shift from your highest ollie to the limits of your environment the only time I take issue with the system is when it is applied to challenges there are a few challenges here where the goal is to move of a piece of the world into place for you to skate on but that isn't always clear typically you have to fail multiple times before eventually questioning why you barely can't make the Gap to realize that you have to move a ramp into place a rather Infamous challenge sees you using a movable quarter pipe to hand plant a backboard finding the right spot to place a quarter pipe is always an exercise and whack perspective but you can at least tie the object's position to your session marker preventing tedium you may have noticed outside of a few exceptions your tricks are much the same even the new tools like grabbing while grinding are simply taking two already familiar actions and combining them that isn't a problem but the progression is a major form of progression in the first game was with the player learning to grasp the controls sure I don't imagine they'd be nailing every trick with perfect consistency after playing one game but their time to skill return should be diminishing and very quickly I've already expressed my disinterest with the monetary and aesthetic progression and I'd like to show you some creative ways you progress this time around of course clothing and sponsors are still here but new additions are more Milestone events and contests rather than the X Games we have the sanvana Slama which serves the same function offering not just one mega ramp but four meaning this has some great replayability and variety for lines sadly there isn't a street component but that's okay because competitions like goofy vs regular make an appearance to scratch that itch these courses and competitions are unlocked by simply completing enough challenges much like the fun track and the monster Clubhouse two areas which are interesting because they are unlocked by purchasing them these things are not cheap and that's what I appreciate the most about them they are something you work towards and I get that they work the same as any other unlockable as the amount of cash you have is directly tied to the challenges you've completed but the reward remedies any criticism as the street elements of the monster Clubhouse is one of my favorite areas to revisit and the fun track is arguably everyone's favorite Mega course in the game if not the series The Fun track is an offshoot of Danny Way's Mega Park positioned to the left of it it looks much the same and offers a few different routes one of which sees you airing over a dividing Hill and landing in the bowl that previously ended the runs on dany's side most didn't get a ton out of this in single player but it's in multiplayer where the fun track becomes a lot more well fun competitions and other challenges As Time Around feel just as good as ever and they upped the stakes from the first game in notable ways fortunately I found myself running into other skaters less or when I did they didn't send me 10 feet over my board I also like that there was more variety here it wasn't just jams and best tricks but a mix of the two meaning if you excel in a jam more than best tricks you're probably safe Death Race is now see you ending a run in a pile of trash or boxes which are rather cartoonish ways to cap off a death-defying stunt which left Fabio from the first game in a coffin with the first Death Race you participate in being in his honor Death Race has now allowed you to place bets adding tension in exchange for a chance at faster progression I found the challenges to have more variety this time around and there's a sense of rebellion that your actions have that just wasn't captured the same in the first skate it's a feeling you can't get anywhere else every skatepark you purchase for the city every pool you drain spot you hit cap you take off a ledge and security guard that just gets a [ __ ] rocked by big black contributes to San Van's fight to revive skating and the expression that you once had in the first game but even if you're a brand new player the game has plenty of tutorials for you to learn at the new school learn the basics of Pops off giant alphabet letters but I'm positive you already know this stuff you can pop an ollie hit a 5-0 but here's the real question can you spell girl if you're a fan of skates or Hal even played the game you know the horse [ __ ] I'm about to revisit and I even have a confession to make please forgive me Father for I have never genuinely beat this Mission sure I've ticked it off but that was by cheesing it not by genuinely beating it these games of skate are some of the hardest challenges in the game and I the series and it's easy to see why you'll spend the majority of your playthrough learning to reliably perform the different tricks here and a test of that is against not one but two skaters on an obstacle that really likes to show you the unreliable physics of the series up to this point it's awful now I wrote this part of the script before my third playthrough of skate 2. and believe it or not when I got back to this Pro challenge I beat it legitimately and it was a perfect game but this also highlights an issue with the length of the challenge as it still took so many minutes for these guys to fail the games of skate are the same as before it's a random chance of a skater bailing on a trick and in this case not only are the skater's pros meaning they are less likely to bail but there are two of them so it'll take twice as long I am not lying when I say this challenge can be a 45 minute ordeal and why it wasn't left is some sort of post-game mission is beyond me In fairness you can see nearly every inch of Skate 2 without touching this challenge but that doesn't excuse how poorly designed it is the best part is after I did win when the victory screen pops it shows X as retrying and circle as continuing why X has always been the button to accept or continue but now it forces me to redo this little slice of hell and I'm convinced this is the game just wanting to [ __ ] with people I'm sorry I'm gonna calm down with the more oppressive sand van there are more ways for you to become a public enemy and fight the power Sammy has taken up a new side gig draining abandoned pools for you to skate once you find three pools allowing the player to feel the disappointment of finding an otherwise great spot that is ruined by the pesky water you can drain them draining these pools will offer spots for the pros to take refuge in and in the same vein we have Mike whose crowbar can be used to take off the ledge caps this functions less as a means of fighting back in more of a tedious prerequisite to skating a spot I didn't feel the same way towards Sammy as in her case there were fewer pools to drain and there was motivation as the final pull you can drain is in the sand Van Dam this spot is what got you injured and arrested so getting a Redemption shot is a ton of fun on top of the mere spectacle of it with Mike it was just a knee-jerk reaction to lining up for a grind just to realize that you forgot to pay the hundred dollar fee and these fees are negligible too and I'm not sure why they even charge at all a rather fun service is big black who you can hire when skating the more difficult restricted zones rather than just one security guard there are now full on patrols I'll chase you halfway across the city but calling in big black for security will allow him to bulldoze these guys you'll meet him thanks to Rob Dyrdek who has his own set of bonus challenges in the game which see you incorporating your emotes into the action nothing revolutionary but a more engaging challenge is those provided by Danny Way who shows you some massive drops that he hasn't been able to conquer leaving the challenge up to you I like that these were pretty hard to nail and as a bonus challenge these were great as I Incorporated gaps that I didn't even think possible I mean gapping from the trail above to a mini bowl and then transitioning into a larger bowl is wild and finding more spots like this really opens your world and your skull if you eat it something that was always appealing in the first game was just how hard you could bail especially gnarly Falls made the game replay the fall and show you what bones you broke bruised and sprained and many found it fun to find different ways to shatter their bones and this is expanded upon here as there are some challenges for you to complete such as breaking certain bones and while it's simple stuff it's a fun side activity it rewards some spawn points that make achieving other challenges easier and I'm serious when I say that I spent hours just slamming myself into whatever I could at top speed the spots here are nearly unchanged but you can create your own spot by finding a part of the map and setting a score for others to compete in it isn't anything revolutionary but it acts as the groundwork for what the next entry would accomplish with flying colors I like the idea of creating a spot as it reasonably Builds on the ideas instilled in you from the first game if the spots themselves don't change the way you perceive the world and what is and isn't a viable spot then you can let others do the hard work for you the soundtrack here is good as expected but suffers from something that was a minor gripe in the first game the songs here are all good not better than the first game but hey music is subjective something I praised before is that the music plays louder as you perform better tricks but the music in general only plays at designated points of interest on the map this means that if you just cruise around you'll only hear a few Snippets and will sometimes be left with silence in short bursts this is okay and it allows you to appreciate the sound design of the world but eventually it's a drowning silence the challenges while similar to the first game have a fundamental difference in the first game you were pushed towards certain Milestones when a milestone photo op was available it was the only challenge you could do more specific tasks like death races were locked behind said milestones and it forced you to diversify and seem like the master skater the game built you up to be here you can focus on each challenge to its conclusion regardless of progression towards your photos or any other challenges I ended up tackling every Death Race first and left all photo ops for last I think this lacks a narrative progression present from the first game but this streamlining makes a game more enjoyable for those that want to avoid the challenges they don't like you'll have to complete just about every challenge though before unlocking some of the extra goodies like the regs mini ramp that was locked up at Slappy's the game built this up as a major reward hinting at it and loading screens but I'm not gonna lie this was really disappointing something Skate 2 decided to add which Skate 3 would follow is DLC surprisingly the DLC here is sparse but enjoyable the Loof pack is fun but it's a bit pointless given its appearance in skate 3. in this DLC it just feels Bare Bones in comparison but I'm sure it was good for the time the second DLC is the fantasy Warehouse which features a set of fantasy factory a popular MTV show hosted by another other than deer dick the show itself is awesome and the park here is a lot of fun to skate around in there is also unfortunately the time is money pack which just gives you all of the unlockables a pretty shitty micro transaction given that it more or less beats the game for you but by EA standards I'd say we kind of got off easy overall Skate 2 doesn't have a whole lot to talk about it's just flat out good and a great sequel it added to the realism of the first game along with the ideas presented there it had a city that fell new while offering classic locations with plenty of secret spots off the beaten path I mean dropping in from the San Van Alona sign is probably one of the most legendary drops in the series it took the freedom of expression from the first game and restricted it forcing you to engage in the rebellious side of your punk hobby it seems as though the game upped the stakes in the extremes too by showcasing more mega ramps but this is a utopian Pursuit that will eventually lead to the game's sequel losing using what made it an instant classic rather than return to the grunge of the first two skate games skate 3 decided to head in an entirely New Direction on the surface this game barely looks like it's part of the same series as the first two the first game was about expression the second about rebellion and three is the Utopia there is no game in this series I have played anywhere close to as much as I've played skate 3. a skating Heaven that offers endless replayability customization and more collaboration than even games to this day rather than having security guards preventing you from skating the security guards themselves are skating skatable objects are falling from the sky and the massive parks are back in full force beginning with a very on the nose acknowledgment of the series Jumping the Shark our main character suffers a critical injury with yet another meeting with Death our trusty cameraman Retta vents his frustrations with working for others and decides that instead we should be our own boss and start a skateboarding brand you've already made a name for yourself even the default player name is the legend and this continuity is appreciated now rather than performing for other brands and sponsors you perform for yourself with each Milestone being earned through board sales but no person is an island and neither is a Legend So with each Milestone you'll be recruiting new members to join your team and compete with but you won't be defending your throne atop San Van Alona rather you'll be conquering new territory in the city of Port carverton on top of the city being new you'll notice that the art style has seen a change too the art style is far cleaner and simplistic here's a hot take I like the art style more it's Sleek simple and cosmetically it offers more variety the clothing in the first two games was bagier but I've always identified with the cheap castles offering no Ballroom having options for nut Huggers and different hoodies jackets and plaids appealed to me more than all the flared jeans from the earlier games streets are cleaner spots aren't as scratched and finally there isn't a camera lens PNG over the screen no more filter that obscures the environments and a seamless Hall of Meat Port carverton is a great City but it doesn't feel like a city allow me to explain firstly the city is split into three districts but you cannot seamlessly Traverse them like you could in the first two games instead you just warp around to different districts these districts do more to offer aesthetic changes than it does to offer different things to different players sure downtown will still provide the best street spots but conveniently there's something for everyone even when there shouldn't be let's look at the university the university seems to have a focus on skating which is understandable so we have the campus and some residential areas below with a park at the bottom for the they're up the mountain we have some highways for bombing down with the observatory being the peak of the mountain and the entrance to one of the spillways which features drops gaps in a bridge perfect for photo mode you can either ride the spillway to the homes below or Veer off into the Super Ultra Mega Park and no I did not just make that name up somehow in the side of a mountain is a universally sponsored Mega Park which while fun and is a spot many will revisit time and time again is very out of place skate is meant to be a simulator of sorts paralleling real life but is this really something we'd ever see in our real lives I'd argue not likely again the park is fun with tons of interconnected paths and unorthodox ways to reach for the grand finale ramp at the end but it doesn't fit this may seem like a nitpick and on the surface I think it is but the Mega Park is indicative of a design philosophy that immediately separates this game from its predecessors San Van Alona in both iterations were created as a city first and as a virtual skate park second yes some spots were rather convenient and there were dedicated skate parks and stadiums but it all made sense within an actual City Port carverton feels like a skate park first city second you wouldn't see a mega Park in the side of a mountain you wouldn't see a random drain pool in the only commercial area of a district you wouldn't find massive slopes next to a monument to memorialize soldiers and why are we skating over their memorials but that's a different nitpick the point is this doesn't feel like a city all the time and I can see where players feel an immediate disconnect from skate one and two but I actually like this change as it puts a greater emphasis on the skating but we'll talk about that more later let's avoid the many rabbit holes for now and look at the industrial district as the name implies this part of the city is full of the grime and grunge you'd expect with some of the largest Bulls in the game and plenty of Ledges for you to slide over the Quarry and Spillway Overlook the district scratching the high-speed Mega itch the spillway has plenty of gaps a side pipe that offers even more speed and loops and has an excellent exposed transition to the rooftops which feature their own spots and gaps the Quarry is a perfect example of allowing the more extreme side of skateboarding to be present without sacrificing realism or practicality it even leads to a not so secret spot that offers its own level of extreme you can't top dropping in from the top of the e but hey I like the attempt the best segment of this district is the stretch from the bottom of the Quarry to the plaza which features plenty of rails Ledges and staircases for you to make a ton of different lines with the final district is downtown which offers the most Street variety but still has a few bowls and large gaps the memorial here is fun to shred but feels a bit wrong given that this is a place of mourning but there's plenty of other locations like the Parkade and Cube Towers which have some rather abstract spots for you to hit this District more than any other is reminiscent of the big city Vibes present in the first two games it's all familiar but that doesn't mean it's not good as a whole Port harveton has some of the best spots in the series while few come close to the likes of the fun track the Super Ultra Mega Park offers insane variety and massive gaps and lines but the university has plenty of verton Street too as does downtown and the industrial district aside from the Aesthetics of the districts there are a few things that really separate them I don't mind this but I'll admit that this idea that every District needs some kind of Street vert and mega contributes to the idea that this isn't a city but a big skate park hell half the inhabitants look like tourists because who the hell would actually live here but we aren't necessarily here for the different spots there are only so many unique ways to build a hubba what we're looking for is a means to use these spots unfortunately Skate 3 suffers from the diminishing returns presented from A system that has real world limits it's too risky to incorporate the near impossible tricks or those that are simply too extreme as it could further blur the one sharp edge between skate and Tony Hawk what has been added here is a more intrusive form of the super dude from Skate 2 which if flipped will be called The Miracle Whip one of this game's more uncanny sponsors along with Dr Pepper other moves like the dark catch make a welcome appearance here for added grind variety and some previous tricks now show underfoot variations which add Flair to otherwise tired moves but this won't do much to raise the stakes over the challenge I've alluded to this enough so far Skate 3 has a sizable problem in front of it how are we supposed to provide new progression for players that already know how to do 90 of the tricks with consistency street is fun and scratch is the real life-esque itch but it's dead Easy by now so Black Box had to figure something else out and their solution was in some ways genius difficulty instead of Simply Having a set difficulty like the previous game Skate 3 opted to add an easy difficulty for new new players and a realism mode for the more experienced folk these difficulties will force players to familiarize themselves with the mechanics that otherwise wouldn't matter so let's cover those in the first two skate games the height of your Ollie or the accuracy of your grinds were not crucial to your success in realism mode simply popping a tray flip isn't possible without first allowing your knees to bend all the way down you also need to flick with greater speed and speed sacrifices accuracy so you might find that tricks are more difficult to nail you also don't get speed as easily requiring 5 pushes instead of three to hit Max Speed you bail easier can't take the same Falls but the most notable change is the Grimes in previous games you had to be somewhat precise When approaching a rail but if you were a little off the game cut you some slack and moved you to the proper spot unrealistic you get no help and I found this to be the hardest change to adjust to is I had to Grapple with a level of precision I just wasn't used to Black Box could have easily just made the point requirement for challenges higher asking the player to perform better tricks but that would be artificial difficulty I've mentioned the idea of artificial difficulty a few times in other videos but I've come to realize I've never clearly defined what it is to me artificial difficulty is essentially a Band-Aid fix for challenge giving enemies larger health bars believing everything else untouched in Escape context it would be raising Point requirements you do the same thing but now you just have to do more of it and this could lead to even greater issues as you are now restricted in what tricks you can and cannot use sticking to hard flips instead of heel flips for Point efficiency genuine difficulty is when you give the same requirement same health bars but make achieving it harder by requiring more skill learning to properly pop rotate and aim When approaching a rail is now more difficult and necessary on a harder difficulty now for someone like myself I have a new genuine challenge I've showed the game that I know its bag of tricks but now I need to provide a deeper understanding on easy difficulty it's near impossible to fail a flip in a bowl and pumping sends you up in Mach 1 but unrealistic pumping is a requirement and flips are as hard to nail as ever now requiring that you time your take off so you can rotate and land with little downtime it makes Mega more difficult as landing at a proper slope so as not to fail is even more important making your pop off the ramp even harder too furthermore are building off of Skate 2 there are more challenges to kill including races photos films and just about anything that isn't tied to point requirements on easy every pop sends you Skyward and grinds are even more magnetic reaching top speed is easier and your momentum carries over in a forgiving manner this is perfect for a new player or the most experienced in some cases this difficulty setting is indicative of skate 3's pushed towards accessibility the skate series up to this point has been seen as difficult to pick up and I can see where that sentiment comes from the trade-off is that with most skating games once you get the controls down they feel amazing the previous games had General tutorials and some Basics but thanks to Coach Frank it's even easier to get into the skate series the tutorial isn't mandatory but the skills provided in the beginner segment are important for establishing your fundamentals how to move on the board how to grind how to line up that grind when to bend and when to pop this is everything you need to complete the game you'll likely learn more along the way and sure there are some helpful mechanics the game doesn't teach you but I think that this was done to not overwhelm the player the intermediate tier teaches you the other mechanics that won't necessarily help you win a challenge but will help you express yourself final tier just shows you some of the new tricks I think the tutorial is damn good and is the best introduction thus far this combined with a larger moveset and refined physics makes this the best option for beginners but it likely isn't what got players buying this game another step towards streamlining skate was with the overall goal now there are no Landmark photos and fewer Landmark events you don't need to meet with everyone before challenges are unlocked and you pick whatever you want to invest your time into with nothing in between in the first game you unlocked more competitions by getting more coverage meaning you'd play the other challenges to get more of your favorites but here if Street competitions are all you want then there's nothing preventing you from bombing down that path for now let's look at the different challenges in front of you it's all standard fare so I'll just focus on the new or heavily changed first is the independent photos in the first game and somewhat in the second you'd be given a challenge to do anywhere in the world here you just do anything anywhere and even pick the camera angle feels like a proper innovation of what was done in the first game except it's ripe for exploitation if you wanted to you could place the camera and do a stationary Ollie and boom free board sales now this is up to the player and these photos will be shown across Port carverton but in some cases you just have to take a photo that won't be shown off it's really a non-problem but I thought it was worth mentioning within these photos are challenges for the other members of your team as you progress you'll recruit different skaters to your roster of five and do challenges with them notably photos it didn't change anything other than appearance but it was still cool I have a slight problem with the new team challenges though which is why it makes your challenges a matter of RNG for example a team Death Race will see you in one of your AI controlled Partners facing two other skaters and even if you come in first by a colossal margin if your AI partner comes in last you lose this applies to the competitions too as my best trick would be better than the other two skaters but when my AI party member can't hit a single trick I lose this is incredibly frustrating and meant I was redoing challenges over and over again praying that my party member gets his [ __ ] together a new category of challenges Hall of meets I know these were in the second game but this time they are official challenges and the Hall of Meat system has been fully fleshed out now you have more control in the air with a spread eagle and different poses used for breaking certain bones are useful for challenges they usually include hitting a score breaking specific body parts and tagging targets to help you you can push the triggers to push off the ground extending your bail it's a fun mode but truthfully was never the most memorable and I could see someone not enjoying it because it serves as an arcadey joke mode compared to the more realistic iteration in Skate 1 and 2. the Bales this time around also feel more stiff making Falls far less humorous than previous entries if you thought owning the spot was good now you can own the lot this sees you completing a series of small tasks within a large area be that the Mega Park the library or any other major location these were an enjoyable means of highlighting the best spots of an area that while not doing anything Innovative is decent fodder the final massive change made here is within the head-to-head challenges specifically against Pros instead of the hellish games of skate we have one up which puts emphasis on score rather than tricks this is far better than the latter and I'm just so happy that this is here someone sets a score over the course of 30 seconds and assuming they don't bail the next player will have to beat the score if they don't one-up the other then they get a letter and if they do then the next player will be tasked with beating that until someone bails or fails to one-up the other there's not much to say it's just just better than skate and is a greater test of skill and expression of course one up is just one of the challenges that can be played online which is seeing its own set of overhauls you can now explore every location online but with strict boundaries not just between districts but between locations you can do races games of skate one up send so much more it gave the series more of a social aspect outside the clip editor which returned and is even more accessible this time around you can even create a custom crew give them a name and a logo and it offered a sense of community that I was lucky enough to be a part of in its Heyday even today it is entertaining to visit and download other creations and skate them with friends and while there's little here for analysis I think the good times speak for themselves one of the greatest means of congregating together was creating sharing and visiting Parks as you reach new milestones and board sales you'll gain access to a few different parks there is a campus facility the Downtown Plaza the warehouse and the stadium each increasing in size and offering different objects I won't go into the different locations as it's mere set dressing but I want to get into the different objects as they are the epitome of replay value you have your street vert Plaza and mega pieces street is generally smaller made for realistic Parks Plaza is much the same but with a bit more style and feels like terrain that belongs Less in a park and more on the streets the vert pieces are self-explanatory as is the Mega which is just everything else but big there are rails Ledges foliage catwalks and a ton of other stuff that I'm sure most of you still watching are familiar with I assume you're all also familiar with how great of a creative output this is your tools include duplication rotation snapping and interestingly enough clipping you can place an object inside another object allowing for compound objects to be made there's a limit to the amount of objects and props you can use but it was a reasonable limit there's something so relaxing about making a park from scratch or following someone's guide because you can seamlessly transition from skating to creating meaning you can make a staircase skate it and tweak it accordingly building Parks is a game in and of itself and I found myself going through a similar transition from the simplistic Parks I began building to the more stylized and ambitious parks that I'm showing off now with online features downloading and uploading Parks gave the game a near endless amount of fun but it's only a matter of time before the online features get shut down I wish I had more to say because the system I spent hundreds of hours in feels like it warrants more than a paragraph but it's just simply perfect so as I'm sure you've noticed there are a few discrepancies within skate 3. as a means of explaining away these discrepancies I've become infatuated with a theory that I saw on Escape 3 Iceberg video and that is that you are dead in skate 3. the game starts with your death off the shark in the first game a bus puts you halfway in the grave so a fall from this height would surely kill you also notice that after such a fall Retta just wakes you up and then leaves you no Sirens no doctors you're just fine the game also does not go into the logistics of the board company rather you just skate away this explains some other odd occurrences like Fabio who died in between Skate 1 and 2 and is just now freely moving around in the world the game calls no attention to this he's just there this also explains away things like the Super Ultra Mega Park a mega park on the side of a mountain could never happen in real life but in the afterlife there's no rules that's why there are objects that fall from the sky or why you can just enter a stadium and create any park and it's why there are no restricted zones or security guards it's why injuring yourself is now an independent sport I mentioned that earlier games had a system where depending on your score and if you were moving the colors of the world would become brighter and more vibrant to reflect the Bliss experienced when skating that feature isn't present here the colors are always bright because you're in a constant state of divine Bliss but let's be real here while this series is fun I think it's just my way of coping with the continuity errors the omitted features and the lesson realistic tone this game has taken compared to its predecessors Skate 3 is I'm sure most snow was made in less than a year and was rushed I think that's why the final product is one that feels so different they had a hodgepodge of ideas like the University campus and the spillway but no feasible means of connecting them within a larger City so they just didn't instead segmenting the city into districts objects falling out of the sky and park building is just a flat out good feature and I assume having Fabio as a playable character is just for quality of life but things like the lack of changing colors were likely due to the rush nature of the game there are no restricted areas likely because the team wanted to focus their efforts elsewhere even the title screen has ditched the ambitious Aesthetics of the previous entries for just a JPEG with a start button and this rushing likely explains how this is the buggiest entry in the series it's sad but at least I can keep some sort of headcanon in place as a shield to my Nostalgia bias I think all of this the game being rushed the change in art style and the step towards accessibility is all connected by the time the skate series was beginning to take off their biggest competitor Tony Hawk was starting to bail its transition into peripheral based games was not a fruitful one and there's a good chance that EA saw the writing on the wall and new that there would be Tony Hawk fans looking for a skating game that would satisfy and since the flick it controls seemed unapproachable to Outsiders EA wanted change I think that's why the art style became brighter the tutorial is more in depth than why there's a lack of skater culture in here at least in comparison to previous games I haven't talked about the skate culture present in these games yet but the culture is cool but it parallels real life a little too much elitists love to give casual [ __ ] and hate on trick Liners in the game for no reason in real life you'll be harassed from all grabbing and in the game if you God forbid push [ __ ] once you'll be lambasted by people who care way too much about how other people Express themselves at the beginning of this video I made sure to include a few [ __ ] pushes and chances are there are already comments about it but either way let's go back to the different ways Skate 3 tries to make itself more accessible and the most interesting part is it worked growing up Skate 3 was the Talk of the Town and even now it still is sure there are many hardcore skate fans that believe the second game is the best and I can see why but the general public seems to think that the best gate game is this one it saw Resurgence years after its release thanks to Let's players and still has a ton of content being made for it today Skate 3 extended life cycle was also likely due to all of its DLC the added content here is not only overpriced but lazily made too and while Skate 3 is by no means a hard a long game to complete wink you can buy the time as money pack to unlock everything essentially having the game completed for you the skate create pack is the only pack that offers a decent bang for your buck as there are hundreds of ways to combine the new park elements and camera features with your existing set but even this will vary vastly from player to player some of the parks on sale here are in some ways downright boring but others are worth diving into the black box Park despite being the smallest might be my favorite it's perfect for Street skating and has plenty of sizable gaps for anyone wanting extremity but not much else a few challenges are here and it's just overall a condensed but enjoyable Park especially for only three dollars the Maloof 2010 Park just feels empty the street segment here is decent enough and same with the vert and even if it is accurate to the actual Park I'd still say for five dollars that's not entirely worth it for the same price you can get Danny Way's Hawaiian dream which is large and features a mega ramstar now associated with weigh in the skate games I love these settings and the challenges were a good amount of fun too it even has a bit of Street in there too like most DLCs here it adds some new assets for park building and it's a good addition to the collection of Mega Parks the art gallery was released alongside Party play and features a recreation of the spot from the first game but somehow doesn't nail the same charm maybe it's the fact that it looks visibly empty or that there are holes that lead you to out-of-bounds areas but it just feels cheap and unfinished contrasting this is a skatepark adjacent to the gallery which I believe is entirely original and it's far more fun to skate around in for the five dollar price tag I don't think it's that bad but when some of the environment feels unfinished and when Party play as a staple of the series should have been in the game upon release I think it's safe to skip this one the sanatorium is the final park featured in the after dark pack which allows you to well skate after dark it's a fun and finished revisit to an older map from San Van Alona plain and simple the DLC here is fine enough and disconnected from its price I can confidently say I enjoy it but saying it's worth the money feels like a stretch especially when I still find myself returning to port Carver 10 for self-expression overall despite his flaws Skate 3 is one of if not my favorite game of all time it was a Cornerstone of my childhood and was where a lot of my online social interactions took place I know it's mostly Nostalgia but Skate 3 just reminds me of simpler times where I didn't have so much responsibility and stress it's part creations and online functions offer so much Variety in its City while in some ways weaker than his predecessors feels like a utopian experience that our protagonists earned through their hours of fighting the oppressive powers that be in skate 2. while I know Skate 3 has its share of haters I think this game does a great job of rounding out the series did it abandon its roots in order to achieve greater accessibility yes I believe it did but perhaps abandon is inaccurate I see it more as a trade and it's a trade that works in the game's favor I still love the grittiness of the first two games but the bright Utopia of Skate 3 is equally loved the fundamentals are the same but skate took them to Greater Heights thanks to a fully fleshed out online mode and while it may have jumped the shark in the process the cons are far from outweighing the pros switch game is the best then well unfortunately I'm gonna take the cop-out answer and say it's truly up to the individual personally I think it's skate 3. it has the best looking aesthetic the Park Builder offers endless replayability the soundtrack was the best and the additions of easy and hardcore mode offer different ways to play but I also wouldn't disagree with someone saying Skate 2 is the best Skate 2 is some of the most memorable spots in the series like the top of the E and the dam that are both more extreme than the likes of the Super Ultra Mega Park yet don't feel out of place worldwide and aesthetically I also think that the ragdoll physics are the best here offering some of the funniest fails in the series physics feel fine-tuned and heavy in this iteration which makes realistic skating better than the first but not better than the third in my eyes I can't even understand someone thinking the original is the best as it has a charm unlike any other game while it's a shock to the system to not be able to get off your board the physics and skating is as clean as ever it also has the best intro in the series with the other two being forgettable long term but perhaps your favorite will soon change it's here that this video was supposed to end with the skate Legacy being left in 2010 sacred and untouched but it seems EA wasn't happy to let sleeping dogs lie nearly a decade later in June of 2020 EA confirmed that a new skate game Skate 4 was in the works I could not properly Express the excitement I had and the idea of reliving my childhood with a new experience sounded so appealing the developers seemed so passionate about the product and more importantly transparent this game has been in development for longer than the other games by now and they've been truthful in saying that the game just isn't ready yet I'd much rather wait for a polished product than get a half big product a year or two early what got me even more excited was that the pre-pre-pre-alpha that was leaked in July of this year looks amazing I can't show footage of it obviously as EA would Smite my channel down and I haven't taken the risk of downloading it but the footage I've seen looks so promising animations are smooth and have weight and gameplay looks true to the skate Legacy and even has some added off-board movements that can be combined with your skating abilities sure a lot of is untextured and not every move is here but again it's promising but right as I was at my most height the more pessimistic side of my brain came knocking on my euphoric door ba today is not the same as they were in 2010. their last handful of releases have been messes riddled with as many microtransactions as bugs and broken promises what's stopping Skate 4 from being another Madden that they milk every year not much but as I was drowning in the what-ifs my fears were validated the developers of Skate 4 full circle announced that the game would not be Skate 4 but simply skate a reboot this time with a whole new price tag of free with plans of consistent free updates that's right a free-to-play reboot of the series if you're anything like me then you already see the writing on the walls I'm expecting battle passes micro transactions unlimited and gimped free experience imagine this for only a limited time you can complete the season's battle pass to unlock skins of Pros park building assets like ramps and staircases will be rotating through daily shops sure some of this sounds nice keeping the game free and accessible is great and I could easily see myself jumping on every day to do some daily challenges around the map but restricting anything on cosmetic to the player is the antithesis of the games to this point I'm so worried that EA will take this too far and put all these incentives to buy in-game currency that will ruin the game and what the series has stood for imagine if they locked tricks behind a paywall or a battle pass or some experience system now the progression is no longer put on the player allowing them to learn and get better over time but instead it is put in the hands of artificial progression just get to level 5 to unlock the kickflip and if you buy five levels from the daily store then you can unlock the Renegade too I'm sorry look I'm not mad I'm just scared let me level with you a little bit the skate Series has meant so much to me as a kid I grew up with helicopter parents I wasn't allowed to cross a street without someone escorting me and the prospect of doing something like skateboarding was entirely off the table hence why I remained a spectator video games have always been an escape for me and skate was that other world I went to when things got tough in the real world I talked to people on the game more than I didn't realize at times and being able to customize my character in my parks and have a game built around expression was the perfect remedy for a life where I was surrounded by strict rules its gameplay was addictive its social elements the beginning of friendships and good times and the soundtracks introduced me to some artists I still listened to to this day every few years conveniently when life seems to get especially hard I find myself returning to the series doing a marathon over the course of a few days I have nothing but good memories of the series and every repeat play through is like a cleanse to my soul even the soundtrack alone fills me with a nostalgic Bliss that instantly puts a smile on my face and reminds me of the good old days that is what the legacy of skate is to me expression Rebellion freedom and community so I'm scared scared that this franchise has meant so much to me is at risk this franchise that means so much to so many people is hanging in the balance the legacy of skate is up for renewal in Full Circle as they get puppeteered by the suits higher up can hopefully decide its fate and simply put I sincerely hope they don't [ __ ] it up hey everyone thank you so much for watching this video I appreciate it and I appreciate you for supporting me on patreon and YouTube members so much so that I actually am going to try not reading them out this time they're just going to be on screen right now because there's so many names that it's actually really hard to read them out there's it takes so long so if it's all the same to you guys I'm just going to have them on screen uh my gratitude is the exact same though seriously thank you and thank you to rad rat for jumping in on this video with me it was really good to have somebody who was a skater talk about the skate games from that Viewpoint because as mentioned I don't do it as much and so I can't uh I can't really come at the the games from that angle uh this was really fun to make this was a bit of a passion project I think you you could probably tell that because this isn't as I guess sophisticated as other videos but this I've been working on this script in the background between other videos for the last uh like two three months and it's been really really cool because as mentioned the skate games mean everything to me and I'm gonna try and stay positive about Skate 4 but like dude like I'm kind of over it already like I kind of think it's it's whatever I have the first three games and EA can't take that away from me well they can they can take it off uh backwards compatibility but you get what I mean I could still emulate it yeah I uh I I really had fun making this and thank you so much for supporting me uh shouts to Sean our editor who um as of this video going up is editing the next video and yeah that's that's basically it I'm uh I have a new episode of the podcast with Nick out right now uh nam's compendium I don't know why I called him Nick um and he and that'll be linked in the description and in the pin comment and you know thank you for your support because this was a video I never thought I'd be able to make because I didn't think anyone would watch it and while whether anyone watches it as a recording is still to be determined the the idea that you know I have other videos that are doing okay so I can afford to just you know put up put out one that maybe doesn't reach as wide of an audience uh that's really awesome and thank you guys for for helping me out with that and thank you for for watching if you did watch the whole thing holy [ __ ] thanks and yeah working on the next video hopefully I'll be back sooner than later I love you guys take care of yourselves take care of each other and I'll see you next time foreign

Channel: That Boy Aqua

Views: 113,448

Keywords: A Skate Series Retrospective, Skate Retrospective, Tony Hawk Retrospective, Skate Review, Skate 2 Review, Skate 3 Review, Skate Years Later, What Skate game is the best, The Best Skate Game, Skate 4, Skate 4 review, Skate 2022, Skate Critique, Skate Analysis, The best skate game, Skate vs Session, Skate vs skater xl, The Best Skate simulator, Radrat video, RadRat, RadRat Skate, That Boy Aqua, best skateboarding game, skate alpha, skate reboot

Id: UTDzGIV2lDU

Length: 67min 50sec (4070 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 08 2022