I’ll preface this by saying I’m a young millennial. Born in 2001 I never had the experience of playing on the original Xbox or PlayStation 1 and 2. My first console ever was the original Xbox 360. The Arcade edition. With my young age, I also didn’t play many games. FPS wasn’t really my thing until I was around 15. But there was one game, or rather, series that I always stuck with. Skate. I should also mention I don’t know how to stake, I never learnt it even though I had a board. The games were my skating. The games were my experiences. I never played, nor had access to, games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (until last year’s remakes of 1 and 2) but I’ve always loved sports games, especially ones where I could do something, even virtually, that I wouldn’t be able to in real life. The franchise will always be special to me, and with Skate 4 coming out AND Skate 1 and 3 on EA Play, I figured what better way to celebrate than with a trip down memory lane…
Skate 1 was released to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on September 14th, 2007. Set in the city of San Vanelona, split into 4 districts. (The name may sound familiar to you if you played Need For Speed: Undercover, it’s a small easter egg). The districts, consisting of The Res, Old Town, the Suburbs and Downtown, offered different styles of environments, traffic, and obstacles. The Res (based off San Francisco) has everything speedy from long roadways to hills where you can get mega sped (if you can keep control of yourself), and an art gallery for some high jumps, dives and good grinds. The Res is also where you find the stake shop where you can buy clothes and accessories to customise your character (and there’s a small park warehouse thing in the back for some tricks and grinds).
Old Town is filled with block streets and pipes (the best). Those pipes…there’s one part of Old Town, an old sewer system, which is one long set of pipes, at the end is a long drop ramp where you can get crazy speeds, make a jump at the end, get some good height (and good points). I used to load up the game just to do that again and again, getting higher and higher points. Here you’ll get the City Hall, the DIY Park and the Plan B Warehouse. The Suburbs is filled with modern Suburbia homes (and some empty pools for spins), although pretty basic, you can get some good practice for tricks and still have loads of fun. It includes the school for some grinds on benches, the community centre which works as a skate park to chill and have plenty of fun in a small area, and the Hospital (which I’ll talk about later) Lastly, Downtown (based on Vancouver) is the most modern with rails, stairways, buildings, and filled with trick potential. Here you’ll find the X Games stadium and plenty of security.
Skate 1 featured the Flickit system. You simply flick your analogue stick in a series of directions, and boom, you’ve done a trick. Ollies, pop-shuvits, kickflips, heelflips, you name it. You do a trick, you get points. To get more points and combos you start a line and do more tricks until the timer runs out or you bale. RenderWave provided the physics for the game based on human movements. Development was long and, for the time, hard. But it was very worth all the effort and probably many tears.
The game had a “No Skate Zone” feature, if you went into a location like the Hospital in the Suburbs or City Hall in Old Town, you’ll meet with security. These guys will run after you wanting to knock you off your board (and take some money as bail if you’re playing the campaign). You can outrun them. I easily did as I started learning. I’d go back again and again out of boredom. Skate into a no-go zone, mess around, get security, make him chase me, leave. They’re all over the city of San Van, and very fun to do.
It also has its fair share of mini-games. You can play S.K.A.T.E with the in-game characters (and game versions of many pro skaters). You can do films where you skate around doing objectives and scoring points in a time limit, you can do photoshoots where you do specific tricks, chase characters, win competitions, all sorts of things. You’ll always have things to do from chilling around the city to challenging people. Unfortunately, the multiplayer closed down so you’re limited to AI but it’s still pretty fun.
But what’s a skate game without a soundtrack to match? The soundtrack for Skate 1 defined what I listen to now (well that and a few other things). A blend between punk rock and hip hop, Skate 1 contains some epic indie music and a few bigger artists to match. I’d load up this game just to hear a distorted piano version of Cheap Trick’s Surrender right on the loading screen. This game introduced me to The Ramones and N.W.A (although only later in life, I was like 8 after all, music streaming wasn’t big yet). Nirvana, Motorhead, The White Stripes, Bowie, this soundtrack is a banger. I have the franchise playlists on my Spotify just to jam to it. The game also had a cool feature with its soundtrack, as you got closer to good spots, the music will get louder, letting you know where a good spot to jam and skate is. Riding along the streets of the Suburbs to get to the skate park, wondering what song you’d hear was always interesting. From Rick Ross’ Hustlin’ to Express Yourself by N.W.A. This game always had a good song on for a good session.
To say this game was good is an understatement. It was a commercial success. The soundtrack, the environments, mechanics, it was all highly praised. It did get criticism for things like multiplayer and it’s glitches became memes, and the product advertising was…pretty blatant (But it’s a skating game, I support its use of real companies as in game items). Skate 1 was a great start for a franchise that only went up and got better and better. It was close to doing everything right and was perfect for anyone who was a skater or wanted to skate without needing to learn how to.
My love for this game is never-ending. One of my first games and one of my favourites. This is my childhood and I’m so glad I can play it on my Xbox One. Doing all these tricks again, going to my favourite locations I dreamt about exploring again for so long, angering security, breaking digital bones, and having many digital wipe-outs (and probably concussions). Mini-games, challenges, free-roaming, my nostalgia is through the roof. And I love everything about it. Since it came to EA Play I downloaded it instantly and have been playing it constantly. Next up, Skate 2.
End of Part 1
Written By Chris.J
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