Skate 3 – Full Written Review

Skate 3 is the third iteration in the Skate franchise by EA Black Box. You play as a skater, who along with your pushy business partner have started your own skateboard company after a dramatic fall. Skate 3 has one of the most unusual beginnings in video game history, more a movie than a game intro, with its ‘Deliverance’ nod and story of how a skateboard comes into being. After a minute or so you may well forget you’ve put a game in as opposed to some weird indie film.

Once the game actually kicks off – or kick flips off – you will need to sign into EA to get online content. You then start a board company, choose a team name and logo, before heading to customize your character, including naming it and choosing gender.. yippeee! So you can be female despite the “HE” clearly used in the intro. There are plenty of customization options available including skin, hair, body shape, face, (including the different areas chin, mouth, eyes etc), and tattoos. Clothing options include headwear, t-shirts, shirts, hoodies, sweaters, pants, shoes, socks, accessories and of course your board. You can also attribute a particular style to your skater, then you’re good to go. It should be noted however that most of the clothing and accessory options are locked when you begin, but these become available as you play the game.

When you eventually get into the game (which could be some time if you like customizing your character) you’re introduced to “Coach Frank” voiced and modeled on actor Jason Lee (from TV series My Name is Earl). Skate School with Coach Frank is essentially your tutorial level and it’s pretty cool and helps you get to grips with the basics before the actual game begins.

If you’re a fan of the original Tony Hawk titles, and by that I mean well before it was thought a good idea to add silly plastic peripherals that didn’t work that well, you’re in for a treat. Many games have tried to recapture the magic of Tony Hawk 2 and they’ve almost always failed. Whilst Skate 3 doesn’t quite hit the magic of that long lost era of skate game perfection, it certainly has most of the magic that made that game so special. The addition of some sweet controls that use the thumbsticks instead of a series of button presses actually makes Skate 3 feel even slightly more intuitive. Timing of certain moves will require some practice, as it can be fairly unforgiving, but get the hang of it and you will be ripping it up.

The lay of the land
No skating game is worth its salt without some smart environments to skate in and Skate 3 doesn’t disappoint. The maps include the usual skate parks, but also a sprawling university just made for skating. There’s also car parks, the burbs, tunnels and roads as well as the ability to create your own skate park with the park editor. Within these environments you’ll find plenty of challenges and people to skate with and against, these can be found using the handy compass styled navigation aid which highlights things on the map.

The soundtrack to Skate 3 is pretty much what you would expect from a skating title. There are some skater favorites including licensed tracks by the likes of The Beastie Boys, Devo, Del the Finkee Homosapien and The Pixies. As well as this, there’s the great musical score soundtrack by Dan Diaz. Sound effects in Skate 3 are great too, with plenty of realistic skater sounds and some top notch voice acting. The only thing that lets Skate 3 down in any way are the repeated instances of male referencing to your character, even if you choose female. The NPCs in game will refer to you in a way that highlights the fact the developers clearly expect the player to be a guy and this is a shame (more of this in the female gamer angle).

The Female Gamer Angle
As far as female characters go in Skate 3 there are a few you will see walking around and in the crowds, but as far as actual skaters go it’s a guy fest (other than the odd NPC holding a board). The good news is however that you can create a female skater, despite it being fairly obvious from the in game dialogue this is obviously not expected. The intro story refers to ‘he’ and mentions you need to get a hot secretary in sexist fashion. In the Skate School tutorial Coach Frank consistently refers to you with male pronouns: “good job fella”, “get on it boy”, “you got braggin rights boy”, “air off that ramp boy!”. Other characters too refer to you throughout as “bro” and “man”. Now whilst this doesn’t overly change the gameplay experience, what it does do is reinforce the same old issue, that girls and women don’t skate or don’t enjoy skateboarding games… news flash.. some of us do. A few well placed “she”, “her” and “you go girl” phrasing linked to the gender choice would have made Skate 3 feel less patronizing to the female gamer, maybe next time. On the upside you can create a female team for the most part, so kudos to that at least, even if it feels like an afterthought. On a girl related note there is also a male team called Girl Team which features the guys from The Girl Skateboarding Company with the recognizable female outline used on most ladies toilets.

Overall Skate 3 is a great skateboarding title. There’s plenty of sweet Skater moves, you can play as a female character and create a female team. If you played the previous Skate title, there is enough here to have you part with your cash. Whilst not offering anything particularly new to the genre overall Skate 3 utilizes the best of the skateboarding genre and fuses this together in a competent and fun game. Practice will be needed and those male pronouns may annoy some, but overall the game itself is a must for skateboarding fans.

U-Haul Review Status
So you’re at the skatepark and you see that cute girl skater eyeing you up, what do you do? Well you ask her out of course! Skate 3 is well worth a date, maybe a few and then you’ll want to move it on in. Hire that U-Haul, just don’t forget your skateboard.

Well duh, there really is only one L Word rating we can give Skate 3 and it is of course “Skater Shane”. Yeah you know when Shane worked at Wax and would rip up the place between haircuts, well before it burnt down. Like Skater Shane, Skate 3 looks the part, has flair, style and can be difficult to handle. That said it doesn’t stop you wanting to try because you know you’ll have fun regardless.

3 Responses to “Skate 3 – Full Written Review”

1. Heather says:

   June 3, 2010 at 2:12 am

   I’m a lesbian gamer and pre-ordered Skate 3 and love the game. I’ve been trying to find at least one other girl that plays online and I have failed miserably. It would be cool to play with or even join a team with girls. Heck an al lez team would be awesome!!!
2. Thefremen says:

   June 9, 2010 at 7:12 am

   I really enjoyed Tony Hawk 2 and have been kicking around the idea of getting a new skating game, so I was glad to see an informative review.

   It’s so odd how they went to the trouble of involving custom skaters that can be female, but then forget to be inclusive with the voice overs.
3. Jessica says:

   March 30, 2011 at 2:55 pm

   i soooooo want this game dont have it yet but i mite get it this week