Still, once you've got the hang of it, skating is a lot of fun, even if it's just to the next mission. There's an "adrenaline" meter that fills as you do tricks without falling down. When it's full, you can skate faster, and the game does a good job of creating a sense of speed. As you work your way through the game, more and more options become available. You'll unlock characters for a total of six (each with slightly different abilities), explore various areas, take on side missions, and win hundreds of medals. Early on, you get a laser that lets you latch yourself onto passing cars.

You'll even fly in various "drones," which change up the skating gameplay and provide a new way of attacking enemies. There's a multiplayer mode where you can face off against your friends in a total of ten competitions (including races to kill the most enemies, destroy obstacles, pull off the most tricks, etc.).

Graphically, this is far from an exceptional title, though the colorful, sci-fi art style works well with the game. There isn't a whole lot of detail or texture to the environment (possibly a compromise the developers made to eliminate load times in the open world), and the animations aren’t all that convincing or fluid. The physics are a bit of a marvel as well; you can gain speed while rolling uphill without pushing off and run into objects without falling down. Of course, there's the usual Wii aliasing issues on HDTVs.

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Like the graphics, the sound is just all right. The late-'90s-style metal-hip-hop hybrid music is cheesy, and the people walking about in the open world have a very limited set of canned responses when you run into them. The sci-fi and skating noises are quite a bit better, however.

On the whole, playing this game is an enjoyable experience. There are countless challenges with reasonable levels of difficulty, the presentation does the trick, and there's often a decent sense of speed. Again, hardcore skater-game fans won't find what they're looking for here, and those who aren't skater-game fans won't find much to change their minds, but casual gamers and young players new to the genre will really get a kick out of Skate City Heroes.

By Robert VerBruggen
CCC Freelance Writer