There's been no shortage of skateboarding games released over the past decade. Gamers have been able to break their virtual bones and pull off virtual 720s in the semi-sim Thrasher, the semi-awful X Games Skateboarding and the semi-goofy Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure, to name just a few. But to skate fans, getting big air has always been about Tony Hawk. EA took on some mighty lofty competition when it decided to challenge Activision's series, but Skate will make you rethink the way you do your virtual grabbing and grinding.

Skate doesn't enter the fray meekly. The Career mode starts with you getting unceremoniously t-boned by a bus. Your prone carcass is tossed into an ambulance to the sounds of The White Stripes -- not a band that you're likely to find on many game soundtracks and only one of a stellar cast of bands to which you'll skate -- and then whisked off to the hospital. From there, it's time to rebuild your skating career with the help of some of the biggest names in boarding.

The "getting flattened by a bus" part aside, up until this point there's nothing to separate Skate from any of the eight Tony Hawk games that have been released up until now. (Tony Hawk's Proving Ground is slated to drop in the fall.) There's nothing remarkably new about the "you're the bumbling noob who has to prove his worth" concept. Heck, it's basically just the Xtreme, Mountain-Dew-drinking version of being the untested "Chosen One" in any of about a billion RPGs you've probably played. It's when you hit the pavement that things get interesting and Skate sets out to find a line of its own. And it's all about the controls.

The developers at Black Box have deconstructed the traditional controller scheme that you've been using to skate and rebuilt it in a way that can initially seem oddball and confusing, but after a while becomes completely intuitive. Similar to EA Sports' Fight Night games and the incredibly underappreciated Robot Alchemic Drive -- the greatest game you've never played -- the majority of the game is played using just the analog sticks. The left stick controls the board and the right stick controls your body. You will be using some face buttons for pushing off and the shoulder buttons for grabs, but ultimately, it's about the sticks.

The right stick Flickit controls let you do a simple ollie with just a quick down-and-up motion, while fancier pop-shuvits are done with a down and circular upward motion. If you've played any of the Fight Night games, you'll have a head start. Just like in the ring, on the street the cooler, more powerful moves require some extra thumbwork.

The key to success in Skate is to forget everything you know about videogame skateboarding. And it's not easy. You will go for the triangle button the first million or so times you want to grind a curb. Grinding here -- as in real life -- is done by simply ollie-ing up onto a grindable surface. Of course -- again, as in real life -- that's easier said than done. After that initial million triangle-button grind attempts, you'll go through another million attempts where you'll mis-time your jump and slam your crotch onto a bike rack, railing, etc. Eventually, you will nail the thing. And that goes for flip tricks, grab tricks, 360s, and just about anything else you try.

While Skate gives you the ability to bang out these tricks, what it doesn't let you do is a mid-air 900 into a manual into a 75-foot grind into a 360 grab over a gap between two eight-story buildings. This is far more of a sim than Tony Hawk was -- or ever will be. If you're into over-the-top physics-bending tricking, then Skate may leave you a bit cold, but if you've always dreamed of being able to put together more realistic-looking runs -- that are just as demanding on the thumbs as any Hawk challenge -- it'll be worth dealing with the game's learning curve.

And, happily if you're holding a Sixaxis in your hands, the controls will help lessen the curve. I found the controls on the PlayStation 3 to be a tad tighter than they were on the Xbox 360 -- especially the left stick. If you're a fan of the visceral thrill of feeling a vibration every time you smash your head on the pavement, though, the PS3 game will leave you wanting.

The lack of a vibrating controller to simulate physical trauma isn't the game's only issue, though. The imaginary city of San Vanelona, which appears to have a higher per-capita population of skaters than any other place in the world, is enormous. It's an open-ended place that's so big, it has a subway system that lets you ride, as opposed to skate, from place to place. On the PS3, though, some of the environs -- even when there wasn't a whole lot going on on-screen -- suffered from a noticeable drop in frame rate. I might have expected this in some of the busier areas, but it seemed to be arbitrary. 360 owners somehow caught a break here, as I found very little slowdown in that version.

While the video side of the game takes a hit due to some slowdown, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the audio side. While the ambient sounds of the streets of San Vanelona give the game a real-world feel, it's the absolute killer soundtrack that seals the deal. If you're not into a mix that includes everything from Booker T. & the MGs to David Bowie to Black Flag to The Sex Pistols, I don't want to hang with you.

When you get tired of leaving parts of your skin on the pavement by yourself, Skate offers some quality multiplay. Offline, you can take on up to three buddies in either a game of H-O-R-S-E or see who can dominate an area in the Spot Battle mode. Online, things are just as intense, but some graphics glitches can suck some of the fun out of things. While visually you may be skating fine, those around you can come across as choppy. It didn't happen all of the time, and I found it occurred equally in both the PS3 and 360 games.

The folks at Black Box realized they'd have some enormous Vans to fill if they were going to become the top dog of skateboarding games. But they seem to be wearing them well. Instead of just trying to come out with a better Tony Hawk, they turned the skate genre on its ear with a whole new take on how we virtually do things that in real life would snap our ankles like twigs. If you're willing to unlearn eight years of hard-wired kickflips and nollies, you will be rewarded.

This review is based on a retail copy of Skate that was purchased by the reviewer. And he still has it. It's on that shelf by the door in his office.