Skate It

ShackNews writes: EA Black Box and Montreal's Skate It (Wii, DS) will grind into North American retailers on November 19, publisher and studio owner Electronic Arts announced today.

videogamer.com writes: Black Box has revealed the soundtracks for upcoming extreme sports video games Skate It and Skate 2. The soundtrack for Skate 2 on Xbox 360 and PS3 will feature 52 songs from some of music's most celebrated artists including Black Sabbath, Public Enemy, Judas Priest and Wu-Tang Clan. The soundtracks for Skate It and Skate 2 builds upon last year's critically acclaimed Skate soundtrack, said Chris Parry, associate producer. The songs reflect the culture of skateboarding, with some tracks picked by the pros themselves, and others coming straight out of iconic skate videos. Skateboarding today is an eclectic mix of people and influences and this is true of where we took this year's soundtracks. Look for some old school soul and funk, a few rock anthems, some good beats and a lot of classic punk!

There had been rumours that Electronic Arts' Skate It for the Nintendo Wii would ship with a clip-on frame for the Wii Balance Board to make it more skateboard-like for a more authentic experience, but it's a suggestion that EA has denied.

It was thought that Electronic Arts' Skate It for the Nintendo Wii wouldn't feature Wii Balance Board controlled tricks, but new promotional material shows that it does! EA has split the Balance Board into six different zones, each which perform different tricks, from ollies and nollies to kickflip and heel flips.

Kotaku had a chat with EA and they said, they're actually looking into the possibility of shipping the game with some sort of form that snaps onto the balance board to give it more of a skateboard look and feel.

"I would say without hesitation that our quality is going to be up this year versus the prior year," Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello said in a Tuesday earnings call.

Riccitiello has made it a very public priority to up the quality of EA's titles. A recent review score average of EA's titles was 77 percent, but Riccitiello said at an analyst meeting in February that he wants EA to exceed 80 percent by fiscal 2011.

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Announcing the development of a sequel to the pretty awesome SKATE for Xbox 360 and PlayStation3, EA today confirmed that the sequel, SKATE It, would also be available for the Wii and DS, with the former offering Balance Board functionality.

Electronic Arts is set to bring a spin-off from Skate for both Wii and DS, tentatively titled Skate It.

The original version trounced all over Tony Hawk by heavily focusing on dual-analogue stick control for stuns and moves. It was bastard hard at first but worth the blood, sweat and tears if you stuck with it.

"We knew it would be an exciting challenge to bring the soul and feel of skateboarding to the Wii and Nintendo DS," said

IGN writes...Last year, Electronic Arts and Black Box literally reinvented the skateboarding videogame design with Skate, an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 experience that put heavy focus on dual-analog stick control for its gameplay. What were once automatic button presses in games like Tony Hawk now had to be worked for by flicking your thumbs to pull them off. Because of the dual-analog focus, it wasn't surprising to see that the original game didn't make it to the Nintendo Wii or the Nintendo DS ¿ two systems that lacked the standard control offered by the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. But that hasn't stopped the publisher from trying ¿ in 2008, Electronic Arts will release Skate It, a spin-off of last year's console design that will focus on utilizing Wii remote and Nintendo DS touch screen for its skateboarding control. The Wii version will also support the Wii Balance Board that will ship with Wii Fit in two weeks.