When a publisher owns all gaming development rights to the NFL, it's hard to consider it an underdog, but when the folks at EA announced they were taking on the Tony Hawk series -- Activision's dinosaur of a skateboarding franchise -- you had to wonder what they were thinking. It turns out, they were thinking Skate. And if you're ready for an entirely new take on the skateboarding genre, then you should be thinking Skate, too.

Skate starts with a bang -- literally. The Career mode begins 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 Y 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 Y-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.

In a perfect world, there'd be a PS360, because I found plusses and minuses in both versions of the game. The somewhat steep learning curve was made a little gentler on the PlayStation 3, thanks to the slightly tighter controls -- especially the left stick. I did dig the vibration on the Xbox 360, though. There's just a visceral thrill of feeling a buzz in your hands every time you smash your head on the pavement.

Graphically, the 360 also performed better. 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, some of the environs -- even when there wasn't a whole lot going on on-screen -- suffered from a noticeable drop in frame rate. On Microsoft's machine, everything ran smoothly no matter how much was going on. As far as the audio side of things goes, 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 MG's 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 discount bins of the GameStops of the world are full of would-be giant-killers. Generally, when you go up against an institution, you're going to have your ass handed to you. While technically not a David-versus-Goliath situation (because at last check, EA was about to own exclusive videogame development rights to all New and Old Testament battle scenarios), the folks at EA were hurling rocks at a giant when rolling out Skate. The rocks found their target. If you're ready to re-hardwire your thumbs, Skate is the way you should be doing your video skateboarding.

This review is based on a retail copy of Skate that was rented from the Hollywood Video near where the reviewer lives. The reviewer ended up keeping the game way past the due date and -- as a result -- not only had to pay a huge late penalty, but also really pissed off the guy at the video store.