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Vol. 5, No. 2, February 2009, Multimedia

Skate 2

By Joe Legato   Thu, Jan 29, 2009

Skate 2
Hippie jumps, finger flips and one-foots. While they may sound like happy hour appetizers at some restaurant chain, they’re actually just a few of the many new skater moves available in Electronic Arts’ Skate 2.
Similar to its predecessor, Skate 2 allows you to pick from a plethora of skaters and go out into a fictional city to take on a world of skateboarding challenges and trials. The city is called New San Vanelona, and it is a rebuilt version of the original Skate’s San Francisco/Vancouver/Barcelona hybrid city which had since been devastated by some disaster.
Successfully completing the trials builds up your street credit and gets you sponsorship from real-life companies, but you have to keep your wits about you because the corporation that helped rebuild the city does not take kindly to skateboarding.
While Skate 2 contains many missions and challenges that allow the player to follow the game’s story line, it is also just really fun to explore the skateboarding-themed city to find cool spots to try tricks. One new feature that enhances this style of play is the ability to get off of the board and move objects around to create your own skate “line.”
You’ll find yourself jumping off roofs and grinding off dumpsters—just because you can. Additionally, exploring the urban landscape becomes more entertaining, as Skate 2 gives players the ability to grab onto the bumpers of moving cars to get around (called “skitching”).
Skate 2 can be a lot of fun even if you don’t know anything about skateboarding. New San Vanelona is a pretty cool city to see, and it’s just fun playing games where your goal is to do stunts. You even have the ability to shoot videos and record your skateboard moves. Just don’t waste all your video on your best tricks. Sometimes the coolest replays are the wipe-outs that defy physics.

By Joe Legato

Joe Legato

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