By itself, the game’s name said all that needed to be said about it. No subtitles. No attached names. No pretensions. EA’s ‘Skate’ -- its first venture into the skateboarding arena since 1987’s Skate or Die – was about to turn the genre upside down – and Activision’s long reigning franchise was about to get hit out-of-nowhere.

The hype for the game started with EA’s official announcement on September 19, 2006, and it proceeded to snowball all the way to E3 2007 – where it snagged IGN’s “Best Sports Game” award and, more impressively, managed to catch Shigeru Miyamoto’s attention. “Apparently he [Miyamoto] had heard good things from one of his advisors and wanted to find out more about the controls and see it in action” wrote producer Jay Balmer on an enthusiastic post-E3 blog entry.

Up until then, the gaming community and press had found it kind of hard to take the proposal of a new skateboarding franchise from EA seriously – especially considering that Activision had already monopolized the genre thanks to its constant output of Tony Hawk titles.  But as soon as the previews started rolling in, the skepticism started fading out. “The battle lines have been drawn and an epic conflict will soon grip skate fans” stated IGN’s Hilary Goldstein on her E3 preview. Clearly, EA’s team at Black Box was onto something. Now, the stage was set for their potential “Tony Hawk killer” to prove itself as a worthy competitor.

Still, for all the talk about Activision’s franchise finally having a true rival, most of what was said in the previews that followed Skate’s E3 showing told a different story. As the then 1UP writer Nick Suttner noted, 'Skate' wasn’t simply a different aesthetic option to Tony Hawk, it was shaping up to be a fundamentally different type of game. Proof of this was executive producer Scott Blackwood’s answer when, in an interview for this same site, he was asked what the two franchises had in common “You’re on a skateboard. You’re on the ground. Other than that, tricks are tricks. Comparing our game to Tony Hawk’s is like comparing a real-time strategy game to a first-person shooter.”

Contrary to popular belief, 'Skate' was turning into something special not because it directly sought to dethrone the current king, but because – like the practitioners of the very sport it looked to capture – it was doing its own thing. This had everything to do with the design and development teams behind it. On a preview in Transworld Skateboarding Magazine, pro-skater Chris Cole was quoted pointing out how everyone that was working on the game actually skated – e.g. on a chat with YouTube channel Epileptic Gaming, Balmer [Jay] talked about his 30 year old passion for practicing the sport. He and the rest of the of the team at Black Box were seeking to capture the flow and feel of skateboarding through the use of realistic physics and the atmosphere provided by the sport’s free spirited nature -- as opposed to the manic score racking, reality defying, wacky affairs the Pro Skater series had been. 

Jay Balmer's chat with Epileptic Gaming

On September 28, 2007, the wait was over. The Xbox 360 version of 'Skate' finally hit store shelves – and its PS3 counterpart did so about a week later on October 5. The media response to the game was good. Its intuitive “Flick It” control system was praised for finally finding a way for the player to feel a more organic and physical connection to the board. By mapping all of the board’s movements to a variety of right-stick motions that mimicked the lines described by real-life skateboarding tricks, this new control scheme assured the player that even something as “simple” as nailing a kick-flip turned into a satisfying experience – the days when stringing tricks together felt like dialing-in a Mortal Kombat fatality were over.

So were the days of linearity and rigid goal structures. Opening up most of its huge fictional city/sandbox – San Vanelona, christened after the 3 cities it took inspiration from: San Francisco, Vancouver and Barcelona – from the very beginning of its campaign and presenting the player with a more relaxed goal structure, in ‘Skate’, free skating for the sheer joy of discovery and creativity became just as rewarding as seeking the completion of specific goals. This, along with the creation of a dedicated social network where users could upload their edited videos and screen-shots, rounded out a package that captured the creative and collective spirit of skateboarding like never before.

Flick it Motion for a Pop Shuv-it

While the game got great reviews despite its flaws as a first installment, it didn’t manage to get the often sought “Universal Acclaim” status on Metacritic, but that didn’t matter. Its true success was measured in the words that championed its authenticity and not in numbers – although year-end sales figures for 2007 would later prove otherwise by showing its 2-to-1 sales advantage over Activision’s latest offering.

Through its developer’s love for skating culture and its unapologetic, but hugely rewarding approach to the sport, ‘Skate’ drove quite a few game reviewers to put it on a league of its own and hail it as something in need to be experienced. Maybe Nick Suttner put it best in his final review when he said that “There's a difference between the fun of pure, accessible entertainment and the moment-to-moment fun gained through the constant satisfaction and reward of working for it; Skate clearly defines that, and it revels in its opportunity to offer something novel.”   

The franchise’s third installment dropped into stores this past Monday and it’s already raising the question: Will ‘Skate’ slowly go the way of the Hawk? Only time will tell. But, come what may, the first incarnation of EA’s genre redefining franchise, is destined to roll forever as the game that finally captured the feel and soul of the complex, beautiful, and often misunderstood urban sport whose name it bears.

The Cast from 'Skate'