Making Tony Hawk seem so yesterday

Simple and elegant, instead of complex and convoluted, Skate shows us how all skateboarding games should be controlled. Watch out Tony Hawk, there’s a new king of the kickflip.

For as long as there have been game systems, there have been Tony Hawk skateboarding games. As they aged, each required more complicated button sequences to be followed to get your skater to pull off the requisite tricks. Tap a square when you should have tapped a circle, your skater fails to pull off the trick, falling into a bone-crunching heap.

Then along comes this crazy, fresh newcomer with its new way of control. Use the left stick to control the body and the right stick to control the board; simple, natural, logical, even easy. Who knew a 360 pop-shuvit was that painless to pull off?

Besides the control, Skate also offers an amazing playground to explore, full of an overwhelming array of different places to pull down tricks. And like Tony Hawk, this game also boasts a roster of real-life professional skaters to use as well. (Who knew there were enough pro skaters to support two games?)

But alas, Skate is a boys club in which male is the only option for your playable character. The only females in the game are pedestrians who get in the way of your tricks. (What, girls can’t skate? They can in Tony Hawk’s games.)

Sexism aside, Skate shows us how it should be done.

Details: $59.99; Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms; rated: teen (blood and gore, crude humor, language, mild violence, tobacco reference).

Bad gameplay spoils a good story

The best thing about the button-mashing actioner Heavenly Sword is the well-acted and rendered cut screens that move the finely crafted story along. The characters in these mini movies are so lifelike that you almost believe they actually have souls.

The in-game action, on the other hand, is repetitive and at times amazingly frustrating. Nariko, the gorgeous main character (but when are they not in video game land?), can swing her mighty sword only so many ways against what seems like a never-ending supply of the same generic enemies.

Too bad you can’t skip the gameplay and just watch the cut screens.

Details: $59.99; PlayStation 3 platform; rated: teen (blood, language, suggestive themes, violence).