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EA has been talking up its upcoming Skate for some time, promising that it will bring back the true essence of what really makes video game skating – simulating the emotion so the player feels they really are grinding that schoolyard bench and hand planting that swimming pool lip. EA is promising that pulling tricks will be an almost strictly organic analog affair, controlled almost entirely with the 360’s two thumb sticks.

And let’s be honest - its obvious rival Tony Hawk is tired. The franchise is still calling out the same rigid up, up and X combos that it was when it first hit consoles in the late 90s. Whilst it original felt fairly realistic, in this day and age of analog control ubiquity, for such a fluid sport, digital kick-flips no longer fly.

We’re seeing it more and more. Recently, Fight Night Round 3’s ‘impact punch’ and NHL 07’s ‘skill stick revolution’ both allow us to somewhat replicate a real world movement via the analog controllers, striving to make that emotional connection between us the player and our pixelly representatives on screen.

What’s peculiar is why this has taken so long. The concept is certainly nothing new.

Way back in 1984, Daniel san, the arcades saw what would be the first modern day beat ‘em up. Produced by Data East, Karate Champ took kids allowances by storm, and what made it fairly unique by both the eighties and today’s standards was that instead of being a fighter with a button mashing control scheme that would be defined in later martial arts classics such as Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, each character was controlled by two joysticks – one for each hand.

Karate Champ’s moves were pulled by moving each stick in a different direction, each combination producing a different punch or kick. It wasn’t quite the fluid motion gamers have come to appreciate from today’s controllers, each joystick was strictly 8-way, but it was something about assuming that position - each hand gripping a stick - it really felt like someone had asked you outside for a beating and you were raising your fists in anticipation.

Karate Champ’s opening (and worst) level placed you in some kind of martial arts dojo, in a kind of ‘Simon says’ scenario, where the tutor will perform a move, and you have to follow. Displayed at the bottom of the screen was the exact direction you needed to push or pull each joystick in to crack the move, requiring absolutely no concentration on what your character was doing, and therefore removing every ounce of emotional connection you might be having with the game. After that point, you were on your own, but the irony of it is that the opening level suffers exactly the same problem that hindered Tony Hawk. All those relentless combos being called out whilst pulling a spine transfer? Give me a break, I’m too busy looking at the symbols to even care where my skater’s at.

Was Karate Champ any good? It captured imaginations, but the limited scope of what was pretty much three different backgrounds (no jet-setting Ryus here) and a simply tougher nut to crack following each victory meant boredom quickly set in. It would take Kung-Fu Master, immediately following Karate Champ to market in 1984 - with its varying end-of-level bosses - to really define the path of fighting games to come. But as Kung-Fu Master also tentatively introduced to the genre the multi-button control scheme, the emotional connection of facing an opponent – fists at the ready - was quickly forgotten about.

What remains to be seen is whether EA’s Skate can truly transcend the stagnation of the digital based combo system that has seemingly dogged Tony Hawk for the past few years, and finally produce a skating game that, just like Karate Champ, put the real feeling back into the controls.

About G4 in Canada
G4 Canada (formerly TechTV Canada) launched in September 2001. G4 is the one and only television station that is plugged into every dimension of games, gear, gadgets and gigabytes. Owned Rogers Media Inc., the channel airs more than 24 original series. G4 is available on digital cable and satellite. For more information, see www.g4tv.ca.

Tech News on G4

Karate Champ a bigger influence than you think

September 13, 2007

By Andy Barratt - G4 Canada