Balance Board Skateboard Add-on, Bwah?

As posted earlier, Kotaku's own Mike "Michael" McWhertor was impressed with Skate It's straight forward incorporation of the Wii Balance Board. But for some, maybe just the regular Wii Balance Board isn't enough to get them in the mood for skating. Maybe they want something to sexy the board up. You know, like some sort of snap-on peripheral. Nothing's been announced by EA, but rumors persist Skate It will ship with something like that. When asked if such Balance Board peripheral exists, EA replied:

That's something I haven't heard. So... Our focus is just working with what is provided by Nintendo. So there's not an extra piece. You know, it's really about working with the Balance Board. So if you have one, this is another game you can play with it. It's not about fitness, it's about skateboarding and having fun.

There's a video after the jump. Watch it if you like.

We hope you're ready for a world in which all games are controlled with your feet, because following the success of Wii Fit and the welcoming of the game's Balance Board peripheral by third-party developers, it's only going to ramp up from here. Fortunately, in the case of the Skate It at least, playing games with your feet may not be such a bad thing. It has the potential to be about as awkward as any attempt to ride a skateboard, if it's your first time, but you might be surprised at how easily one can pull off nose manuals and nollie kickflips within minutes.

Obviously, one isn't required to have a Wii Fit Balance Board to play Skate It. It can also be controlled using only a Wii Remote. And that, somewhat surprisingly, works rather well, too.

Skate It Wii May Get Skateboard Frame for Balance Board

I was blown away with how fun it was to mess around with the early build of Skate It with the Wii Balance Board that Electronic Arts had on display last week during their event. The controls were fun, easy to pick up and felt much more rewarding when you pulled off a trick than doing the same with two thumbsticks or a remote waggle.

But I was a bit worried about how the game would make sure virtual boarders weren't slowly moving off the balance board's sweet spot. Scooting was a problem I noticed while playing Wii Fit. The more into a game I got, the more intense it was the more I tended to scoot around on the board over time. After ten minutes or so of intense gaming I'd notice the game wasn't responding right because my feet were no longer centered.

The devs told me that that is a concern of theirs as well. So much so that they're actually looking into the possibility of shipping the game with some sort of form that snaps onto the balance board to give it more of a skateboard look and feel. More importantly, this skateboard frame would help gamers realize when they were scooting off the board's center spot without having to look down, and potential facing into a virtual curb.

Sounds like a fantastic idea to me. [Image Credit]

How To Skate It On Wii And DS

Skate It Wii Hands-On Impressions

Standing on the tiny white stage set up in front of the back bar of Supperclub last night, a drink sloshing nearly out of its glass in one hand, Skate It executive producer Scott Blackwood promised not to use the phrase "built from the ground up" while explaining his game.

Boo me off the stage, he insisted, if I do... and then he proceeded to use the phrase.

"If it's not built from the ground up, is it a port? Not really."

Blackwood explained that before Black Box started their work on the Wii and DS versions of Skate, they had to figure out if the controls would work.

"It we couldn't get that great flick it feel, we weren't going to do it," he said.

Later on, while trying out the Wii version of the game for myself, I was told the team spent three to four months working on getting those controls right and for the most part, it felt like they succeeded.

Yup, Skate It Is Coming To Wii, Nintendo DS

It won't come as any surprise that EA is planning Wii and Nintendo DS "spin off" versions of its skateboarding franchise skate—IGN spilled the beans accidentally in April—but you might be surprised at how good it looks. It might not be on par visually with the Xbox 360 and PS3 entries, but Skate It, at least based on the trio of screen shots IGN secured, looks pretty good.

Skate It looks to replace the dual analog control scheme from the original skate with a Wii remote-only method that looks serviceable based on the promo video. As expected, the game also plans to use the soon to be release Wii Fit Balance Board, but executive producer Scott Blackwood is light on details. IGN has the full scoop.

Skate It on Wii and Nintendo DS [IGN]

Skate Coming To Wii And Nintendo DS?

We may have a good idea what those Skate "extensions" are that EA Games president Frank Gibeau teased a couple months ago, as IGN reported earlier today that Skate It, a spin-off planned for the Nintendo DS and Wii, was in the works. Curiously, IGN has since pulled that report, hinting that either that information was wrong or not yet deemed fit to print by the powers that be.

Consider it rumor for now—whilst fantasizing about Wii Balance Board control!—and pretend to be surprised when EA and IGN work out their arrangement on the game's potential public reveal. In the meantime, we'll check with EA to see if there's more substance to this.

Formerly the Home of: Skate Shreds Wii and DS [IGN]