ESPN X Games: Skateboarding

When it comes to skateboarding video games, there’s one 300-pound gorilla who’s been ruling the skate park for several years now. Let’s call him, um, “Hony Tawk.” ESPN is trying, with the release of X Games, to beat this “Hony Tawk” character to the PS2 punch—with varying degress of success. For one, the look of X Games is great; smooth graphics, enormous environments, and nice touches of detail. For two, the controls are easy and relatively painless to master. Unfortunately, there are some gameplay quirks that, sadly, drag this down to inevitable sub-Hony Tawk levels. It’s difficult, especially in the early levels, to gain momentum enough to really enjoy the detailed environments. In fact, you spend so much time skating in circles that it gets a little boring. And, since they opt for realism at the expense of fun, you just can’t pull off those sick, death-defying feats you can in other games. A decent game, but destined to be an also-ran.