Skate It very simply, is Skate (last year’s Xbox 360 and PS3 skating game) for the Wii.
My first impressions of Skate It… no, wait. I’m not going to submit and pretend it’s a different game just because it’s on a different console. I’ll call it Skate. So sue me (please don’t). OK. My first impressions of Skate were not good. My second impressions were slightly better, but by the third I was back to a definite “eh.”
The main draw of Skate on the Wii is, of course, the use of the balance board to simulate real skateboarding. Of course, we’re all about cutting prices here at Nometet.com, so I don’t possess a balance board. But luckily, the game states that you can “play” with both the Wiimote, or the Wiimote and the Nunchuk. When I say “play”, I do of course mean “throw into television screen in frustration”.
Skate is one of the most irritating games I’ve ever played. For example, I spent nearly five minutes flicking my Wiimote straight up into the air to get past the tutorial explaining how to ollie (a straightforward jump). I did 15 Pop-Shuvits, 3 Kickflips, and even a Nollie before my Wiimote accepted that this was not my aim. Of course, when the time came to perform these moves, the Wiimote did not acknowledge that I was flicking it at all, no, it merely assumed I was turning more than 90 degrees, which caused me to “powerslide”. And when my luck held, and it realised my hand was moving faster than it should normally, it decided that I should do ollie. Hundreds of them.
After much perseverance, I’d mastered waving my Wiimote aimlessly, and grinding. Grinding is one of the two features in Skate I enjoyed – it was the easiest one to do. I will relate the other shortly.
After more grinding than a 3-day World of Warcraft convention, I actually managed to get into a contest. This consisted of a giant mega-ramp for the riding down of. Fun enough, but you had to do things in a precise order to be able to actually land without crushing your face. Many times I actually landed, then my Wiimote decided that I had stupidly turned left, which of course meant I flew off my board, but that would be a stupid thing to do. I am not stupid enough to kill myself, although I almost attempted to snap my Wiimote with my bare fists a few times.
It took me a total of 16 tries to complete the mega ramp challenge. Note that – 16 tries. By the time I mastered it, I could have flown to the location in real life, mastered skateboarding, and landed it myself.
Some challenges in this game are physically impossible, or seem it to me. There were several that seemed that no matter what happened, I could not build up enough speed to do what it wanted me to, which meant I had to skip them and do other things instead.
However, Skate (It) does have a few bonuses that were the appeal that my second impressions saw. This included the My Spot Space, which meant you could move objects around to build up trick sequences, with more to unlock by completing challenges. The Hall of Meat was fun too – a collection of broken bones, bruises and sprains. But by far the most fun part of this game was one particularly map, the Spillway. This is basically a downhill sewer run – you can pick up so much speed, which is reflected in the rumbling of the Wiimote – it makes you get an adrenaline rush. And you can do a move called a coffin, where you lie down on your board… you get yet more speed, and you can loop the loop on a full pipe. It’s very enjoyable.
But Skate It in general is a bit of a bore to be honest. My advice, if you want a really long grind, in all senses of the word, get Skate. If not, don’t.
Nometet.com says: 
+Spillway
+Balance Board
+My Spot Zones
+Grinding
-Frustrating
-Dull
-It’s a grind in itself
Editor’s note: I think it says quite a lot about the Wii in general that the screenshots EA provided were 640×480, not the usual 6400×4800
