It’s now official: Tony Hawk is my bitch.

After all those years of torturing myself to perform insane, ollie switch 180 combos, I’ve finally found a skateboarding game that doesn’t frustrate the hell out of me.

‘Skate 2’ for the PS3 is so good, I even recommend it to the 13 year old, trying to look badass, ugly as sin skater kid who tried to stare me down during an afternoon walk. (The trials and tribulations of South Tampa.)

Having grown up on ‘Skate or Die’ and ‘720°,’ the button mashing that is the Tony Hawk series of games (15 and counting) never truly felt right. ‘Skate 2’ – after 20 damn years – is well worth the wait. Thank you, Electronic Arts.

Truth be told, I never played the original ‘Skate’ due to aforementioned Tony Hawk-induced ho-hum, likewise a middle finger for the ‘extreme’ culture that skateboarding engendered during the early 2000’s. Thus, I come to its sequel as a series n00b, albeit one in awe of the gaming greatness in front of me.

First things first: this game is wicked hard. Gone are the automated moves via sequences, replaced by physics-based flicks of the right (for board control) left (for direction of travel) analog sticks.

Wow, what a difference a control scheme makes. Rewards are aplenty for kickflips, nollies and manuals, likewise punishment for ignoring gravity and ouchies generated by environments. (‘Skate 2’ calls this the ‘Thrasher [Magazine] Hall of Meat.’) Expect oodles of practice before feeling in control of this bad boy. Then practice some more.

For ‘Skate’ veterans, ‘Skate 2’ promises several new tricks for your arsenal, likewise the ability to customize environments in lovely San Vanelona. By ‘customize,’ I’m referring to physically moving objects to string together stunt paths. The latter I found an afterthought, as ‘Skate 2’ already features some of the most gorgeous, detailed, and trick-friendly environments a pair of wheels could hope to grind on.

Akin to most skateboard games, ‘Skate 2’ offers a career mode (where money is earned to buy new equipment) and open freestyle (to test environments and tricks). Both feed very well into each other, as career not only tells a story, progress requires learning a host of tricks needed to succeed in every game mode.

Voice acting is good (but not great), soundtrack effects crisp, player customization top notch, graphics…jaw dropping. With all due respect to ‘Soul Calibur IV,’ this might be the best-looking PS3 game I’ve played to date. Watching my pre-created character do his thang during loading screens is amazing stuff. It only gets better when collecting snapshots during key tricks.

EDITOR’s NOTE: Downloadable content and/or online presence was literally non-existent due to this being a pre-release copy. I would (hope and) expect both remedied somewhat following official release (Jan 21).

In playing ‘Skate 2’ for some time, I can’t help but recall gems such as ‘Unreal Tournament,’ games with a seeming infinite shelf life due to their open endedness, abundance of modes, robust online presence, and engaging gameplay. This is what you’ll find here, a keeper and then some…even for the non-X Games obsessive.

In closing, I’ve often attributed the success of the mainstream, music game genre to the incredible attention to detail by their publishers. This focus both ensured a rich gaming experience and polish few other titles possess. ‘Skate 2’ is one such title.

SUMMARY: ‘Skate 2’ for the PS3 easily stands as the best skateboarding game to date, ripe with incredible graphics, feel, and replay value. If you’ve shied away from this genre due to Tony Hawk monotony, this is the title worth giving it another go.

CONCLUSION: A