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| Source // PlayStation |
Do you know the reason why so many folks have been trying to get EA to do Skate 4? Skate 2.
You'd think it'd be because of the Skate series in general, but after Skate 3 took things a little too far, and then absolutely nothing interesting happened in the world of skateboarding video games for the next decade, players wanted a return to the kind of sports game that was a breath of fresh air, refined a little.
That's a long way of saying Skate was great, but Skate 2 was the bee's knees, the dog's danglies, the shit, so to speak.
The Flickit system was back and better than ev- oh, I'm sorry. Let's introduce the Flickit system for those of you who only know of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater...
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| Source // PlayStation |
Fond Memories
There have only been a few skateboarding games in this 1001 list, and the majority of them are from the Tony Hawk series. It was, for the longest time, the only series you could go to for some skateboarding action.
While it tried new things over the years, it didn't stray too far from its arcade roots at all, especially when it came to the control scheme that is ingrained in so many of our heads: X to ollie, Square to flip, Circle to grab, Triangle to grind.
The 1001 list pointed me towards Project 8, the eighth main-line Tony Hawk game, and it too was using those same controls to get players on their digital boards, and for many, it was getting old. But it was all we had, really. Nothing else existed to shake things up. And then a year went by and Skate rocked our world.
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| Source // PlayStation |
In an era where the right analogue stick was suddenly found to be just as useful as the left, and not just in terms of moving a camera, along came Skate with its Flickit system, which, as the name implies, makes you flick the right stick to perform an awful lot of skateboarding tricks.
Pull it down and flick it up to ollie. Pull it down for longer to ollie higher. Pull it down and flick it off to the sides and now you're doing a kickflip or a heelflip, depending on which side you're flicking the stick towards, and how your skater is standing on the board. Start your flick to the side or swing it through an arc and now you're pulling of Shuv-its and the like.
For some people, this was just too alien for them to get to grips with. For others, it was exactly what they needed to get back into skating games, and I was in that group. But it wasn't easy, not in Skate, and that's before I even mention how there's no grind button, but a physics engine, and that both your hands and feet are mapped to different buttons so that you can grab with either or both hands, or push off using one foot or the other, and apparently even that makes a difference for how your skateboard can be used.
In short, Skate was an incredible change of pace that effectively killed off the Tony Hawk series for many, and Skate 2 was Skate with the faults fixed.
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| Source // PlayStation |
Fun Times
I played Skate 2 on the PlayStation 3 when it was released in 2009, and I've just had a roll around with it today to refresh my memories of it, which may have been the wrong thing to do, I'm not sure yet.
It opens with a live-action introduction of skateboarders in prison, being watched over by other skateboarders, reading about yet more skateboarders, as other skateboarders go about their days too. I recognised one of them, Eric Koston, ironically from Tony Hawk. I'm sure these are fine skateboarders, but they're just names to me right now.
You're in prison for reasons as yet unknown, but they're related to skateboarding in San Vanelona, the made-up city designed by skateboarders, for skateboarders, but is clamping down on skateboarders by posting security guards and anti-grind blocks everywhere.
What follows is another climb up the skateboarding ranks through your usual challenges: perform tricks here for this photographer, challenge these skaters to a race, drain this pool for a new skate spot. There's not much you can do with a skateboarding story, is there? Good job Skate 2 shines in its control scheme then.
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| Source // PlayStation |
Your view of the city is low and fish-bowled, and with the Flickit system on the right stick, you've got no other choice but to get comfortable with this skateboarding chase cam that's very much focused on your board.
Skate 2 retains the basics from the first game but fleshes your moveset out with the ability to get off your board entirely to run around on foot, or to pull off hand or foot plants on virtually any surface that the physics engine can make sense of, using a combination of buttons for your feet (X and square) and your hands (L2 and R2).
Don't think that running around on foot, therefore, requires you to alternate the mashing of X and square, though. These are more contextual or act as modifiers to your move. An ollie seamlessly turns into a grab if you press and hold R2 while in the air, your right hand grabbing onto the board. If you've enough airtime, you can then use the right stick to tweak that grab into a new direction, pulling off another type of grab in the process.
It may sound like a lot, but what results is a game that feels organic rather than arcadey. It feels more natural, rather than manufactured. It feels like you've earned that successful landing, and you're more satisfied at achieving the little things.
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| Source // PlayStation |
You start to view the city as both a skate park and an obstacle to fun. That'd be great to jump from. That gap looks enticing. That's a nice wide rail. Goddamn curb. Who put a bollard there? Why are there so many people?
A successful line in Tony Hawk was often absurd. A successful line in Skate 2 is often a miracle because one wrong move will send you sliding across the concrete in an instant. Skate 2 is the simulation that Tony Hawk never was (though to be fair to it, was it ever really aimed at being a true to life simulation of skateboarding), and the way you approach the entire game changes to reflect this.
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| Source // PlayStation |
You will bail in Skate 2. Often. Sometimes it's not your fault, the physics engine doesn't quite know what to do and so you awkwardly ragdoll until it resets you for another attempt. Often it is your fault, though. Trying too difficult a trick with no run-up, or clipping a rail and losing your board from beneath your feet. Such is the life of a skateboarder: repeat the same thing again and again until it goes right for you.
When it does go right, the feeling can be immense, even if it's what others might perceive to be an 'easy' thing to do. But when it goes wrong, it can be a right pain in the arse, again and again.
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| Source // PlayStation |
Frustrations
Because the controls are so precise to allow you to do seemingly anything, you need to have a great grasp of them all so that you know what to do at any given moment. You have to become the knowledgable skateboarder capable of pulling the inputs of a Varial Heelflip out of your memory and get them into your thumb, and then have to be skilful enough to input that particular flick on the right stick, at the right time, in the right place, with a clean landing so that you can meet the mission objective and carry on with the next part of your to-do list.
That, as you might imagine, can become hell on Earth. I don't recall the exact objective I was faced with, or whether it was in Skate 2 or one of the other Skate games, but it was to grind and trick, or trick and grind, one of the two, but it had to be a specific flip trick in a specific spot. Nothing else would suffice, and if you didn't do it in the right place, you'd never get to the rail to do the next part.
What felt like hundreds of attempts went by before I finally nailed that fucking thing, and a decade later, I can't even bring to mind my success and what it looked like, only the horrors I went through trying to land it.
This will happen all over Skate 2. Put your thumb in the wrong spot, do it again. Clip something in the environment, do it again. Person wandered into your path, do it again. There will be times where you actively have to cheese the game and sort of glitch your way into succeeding.
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| Source // PlayStation |
You have the superhuman strength necessary to move benches and dumpsters and ramps and rails around the environment to create new spots to trick from, new things to jump over, new grinds to perfect, and moving them is as simple as getting off your board and holding the R1 button nearby, dragging them around and into position.
When it works - it's not terribly easy to manoeuvre some of these things - you can save yourself the hassle and heartache of an objective that doesn't seem doable. Early on you need to jump over two dumpsters, but nothing is stopping you from moving those dumpsters around so that you jump over their width, rather than length, and there's even a ramp nearby to give you more air as well.
The whole mechanic is designed to give you some more freedom and life in the already skateboard friendly city of San Van, but it's often a little too janky to bother with unless you absolutely have to. It is live, on the spot, skate park editing I suppose, which is nice.
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| Source // PlayStation |
Further Fun Times
Playing it today, I noticed a lot more of that jank than I remember. It's been a long time since I've touched the series, so all my tricks were often of the stick waggling variety, as opposed to the carefully planned input, but the same sense of satisfaction arose from landing a fancy looking trick, and the same bit of annoyance at a silly mistake ending my fun was there too.
I couldn't tell you the difference between a goofy and a regular stance, but I can tell you that I find it so much easier to perform nollie tricks than anything else, where I first push the stick forwards, rather than backwards. It just felt more comfortable, but I think it makes me the weirdest skater on the planet.
Not that realism is that important to Skate 2 anyway. It may be a simulator, but it'll drop the realism in an instant if it means doing something cool, like hurtling down a mega ramp or jumping into a drained dam, all for a sick skate video montage and your photo on the cover of a magazine. There's even an entire mode and controls for bailing in the most spectacular way you can manage, breaking as many bones as you can for a higher reward.
That's Skate 2, a skateboarding playground, an environment that you'll look at in another way, all because you have a wheeled plank of wood beneath your feet that handles like nothing else you've played before (except for Skate, obviously).
I was so into the series that I even used the in-game replay editing tools to set up some cool shots, and then some out-of-game editing tools to make my life easier to actually string them all together, putting out a montage to a tune I know of from Tony Hawk.
Final Word
That I wanted to go to those lengths for a sport that I can only succeed at in video games must say something about the state of Skate 2. For all its awkwardness and ease at which failure can come to you, I stuck with it to capture what I consider to be some rather creative footage, even following the AI skaters to new spots to see how they interacted with the world.
And that's the real joy of Skate 2. Aside from trying to run away from guards, take photos, break bones and challenge the pros, you are completely free to engross yourself in San Vanelona and just skate it. Where will you go today? What set of stairs will you tackle? Which rail looks appealing? Who will you skate with? Online friends? The AI?
I'm not a skater - far too afraid of getting injured - but I admire the dedication of those who do the same thing again and again in search of finally succeeding in their efforts, smiling, celebrating, and then finding the next mountain to conquer.
In video gaming, only the Skate series will give you an idea of what that feels like, and it feels great. The grinding and the failure and the frustration before it happens sucks, Skate 2 is hard, but when you get to the top, you'll be creative in a whole new way.
Fun Facts
If the name of the city isn't a clue, San Vanelona is inspired by San Francisco, Vancouver, and Barcelona, among others, with an obvious bias toward skateboard friendly street furniture.
Skate 2, developed by EA Black Box, first released in 2009.
Version played: PlayStation 3, 2009, also via memory.