When I was young I had an awesome whale-tailed Santa Cruz special edition and this game took me back to those days. Except that I didn’t get hurt as much and it wasn’t as exhilarating. But nevertheless I pressed forward to make my comeback into the skating world and I’ve got the callused thumb to prove it.

My poor skater on the other hand has raspberry patches, a shredded tee and some banged up old-school Santa Cruz board to show for it. He’s also got a hefty chunk of money in the bank. But enough about that, on to the game.

Skate 2 brings you back after doing some prison time and drops you square into the middle of the New San Vanelona scene. But first you’ve got to prove that you can still roll and work your way up through some unknown ranks until you catch the eye of the mags, sponsors, pro skaters and teams. This is easily enough; you just have to fulfill challenge after challenge. In fact in only a few days of playing I was already rolling Pro style. Of course I was just having fun bailing for hours on end as well.

Managing to do all the tricks requires some crafty finger-work on your part. Using both sticks, triggers, bumpers and all four buttons (along with the occasional D-pad push to keep it flarey) you’ll flip, grind, grab, plant and slide your way to fame. This is where the callus on the right thumb comes in by the way. The control scheme is good. It’s a short learning curve and the hardest thing is hitting the marks right and remembering all the requirements for each trick. Hitting the marks part is bad as the right stick is unforgiving if you happen to miss ever so slightly. This is due to them having packed in so many moves on it that one could be mistaken for another (and sometimes is) because of a minor mis-flick or miscalculation on your part. It sucks at times and makes for a lot of repetition on some of the more involved challenges. I must have tried the tail slide, gap, nose slide challenge twenty-five times before I just decided to say screw it that day. In fact I still haven’t managed to pass it.