‘Skate 2’

‘Skate 2’

(EA Games) for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Genre: Sports; Rating: T

Grade: B

For more than six months I’ve been reminding my buddy Kelly that “Skate 2” was coming out, and his typical response was telling me to shut up and stop talking about it. We were building up too much hype for it, and he was getting worried that we’d expect too much and get too little in return.

With the game’s release, luckily any fears we had were put to rest. “Skate 2” is definitely a worthy sequel to the original, a game that redefined the skate genre and easily took the mantle away from the Tony Hawk franchise as best skate franchise on the market.

“Skate 2” certainly has its flaws, but if you are searching for a game that you can turn on and have fun with in about five minutes, you won’t need to look much further.

Set a few years after the first game, you are newly released from prison and now must rebuild your street/skate cred. In your way is Mongocorp, a prototypical anti-skating company that has redesigned New San Vanelona into a city that barely resembles what you remember before getting put in the slammer.

Mongocorp has capped and clipped all the good spots, though you’ll soon figure out your way around them. EA could easily have given us the same city and no one would complain, but remaking the city and its environs opens up the skating creativity for you even more than before.

Photo and video shoots and S.K.A.T.E. competitions are back, and they are still the bread and butter of the game. There are larger-scale contests to enter, and part of the goal is to earn loads of cash and unlock tons of licensed gear. The amount of licensed material (from Girl, Lakai, Element and plenty others) does go overboard, making parts of the game seem less about skating and more about pushing product.

The innovative controls have returned, with a little tweaking, and for the most part they still seem fresh. You can land some unreal moves.

Added here is the ability to move objects around to create your own skate spots. It’s not as fun as it sounds, since ramps and rails rarely stay still because the lightest breeze knocks them around.

Better still is getting off your board and walking around. This wasn’t possible in the original “Skate,” and now new areas and lines can be discovered -- your only hindrance being your imagination and ability to land the tricks.

‘Moon’

(Mastiff) for DS

Genre: First-person shooter

Rating: T

Grade: C

DS owners will most likely enjoy “Moon” because of what it is: the rare first-person shooter on the handheld device. They don’t come along often, and when you see how smoothly the game presents itself and handles, few gamers will be disappointed.

The weapons system and control scheme make perfect sense for this platform. The combination of stylus, d-pad and trigger to lay waste to foes never feels cumbersome, and even novices at intense DS games can grasp it if you make the time to learn. “Moon’s” level design is excellent — actually better than some PS2 games I have played in recent years.

Disappointment will set in when you look past the graphical and technical prowess of “Moon” and notice that it has a shallow story and features a host of alien enemies that were clearly derived from a replicator machine. It’s not enough to completely kill the game’s successful aspects, but for DS aficionados it is hard to ignore.

—Chris Campbell, Scripps Howard