Activision had perhaps the biggest presence at X’09, demonstrating three games: Tony Hawk: Ride, DJ Hero, and Modern Warfare 2. I got a chance to try out the latest in the extreme sports simulator, and it was surprisingly easy to play. I am not the most deft biped out there, despite my years of kung fu training. I could only handle up to a five step difficulty in DDR. But the skateboard-shaped control device proved fairly easy to manipulate.
The skateboard works like a regular skateboard, except it has four sensors at the cardinal directions. Doing tricks simply involves leaning and covering one of these sensors with a hand or foot. Leaning forward or backwards on the board does exactly what you’d expect. The use of the sensors did cause a kind of disconnect between what I was actually doing versus what was happening on the screen, so in the end it felt like I was just using a weird controller rather than actually using a skateboard. I would describe the various tricks I did, if I had any clue what I was doing. The mode that was being demonstrated was a casual mode involving a half-pipe, so it was hard to determine whether the game was too easy.
All that being said, it was a fairly fun way to kill ten minutes. I can’t help but get the feeling that it’s exactly the same game as the last Tony Hawk except with a gimmicky controller, though.
Don Tam is a game enthusiast who currently resides in Toronto. He currently owns a two-year old PC, a Xbox 360 Pro and a DS Lite (black). His favourite games include Gears of War, Rock Band, Civilization IV, and pretty much anything Blizzard caresses with their gentle, godly hands. 