We’d heard rumblings that Tony Hawk was working on something with motion controls -- which seems only natural after EA’s Skate hit the scene with its intuitive Flickit control scheme, and Shaun White’s game put the Wii’s Balance Board to good use, both making the Tony Hawk method of arcade-style button mashing feel a little dated. Well, Tony’s new Ride is looking to change all that, with a skateboard peripheral that looks like... a skateboard. It’s hard to tell from just looking at it how precisely interactive the controller will be -- it seems basic balancing and leaning would be in, while Christ Air-ing your little sister in the face wouldn’t go over so well. According to the man himself, Hawk is quite good at the game, and skateboarders should find the transition easy. A promo video is after the break, and apparently on June 2nd we’ll be seeing this thing in action.
Update: We added another video after the break, including video of the actual board in action. Turns out the motion controls are quite detailed, and in advanced modes even allow for in-place 180s, but nothing seems to involve lifting the board actually off the ground. Grabs can be performed by actually grabbing the edge of the board, with infrared sensors picking up your hand position, and pushing is performed by running your foot along the side of the board. Ollies and flip tricks are obviously going to be a bit different than the real deal, while manuals and steering are pretty much spot on, and apparently there’s a lot of choice as to how much "realism" you’d like in controlling the thing. Tony Hawk also sees the controller as a "standard," which could work with snowboarding games, surfing games, exercise games and other assorted cash cows for Activision.
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