New, exciting ways to pretend to skate

Actiga is a company with it’s finger on the pulse of… No. let’s see… Carpal Tunnel syndrome was never this Extreme!™ Oh never mind. These guys have a couple of products aimed at enhancing your sports gaming experience. First up is Big Vert, a skateboard that you stand on an use as a controller to play skateboarding video games, kind of like the Wii Balance Board, huh? They also appear to have a series of games with little controllers that look like the sport you are supposed to be playing.

[Source: Gizmodo. – Thanks to Dave Arpin for the tip.]

Big Vert controller

Big Vert, a full size wireless skateboard for PS3 and Xbox 360, lets you play Skate and Tony Hawk skateboarding games as if you were actually skateboarding.

I wish I could see the damned thing. It looks like it floats in the air. Hoverboard!

Read the Big Vert press release.

Mini Motion game with controller

These games will cost $19.99 and run on a Mac or PC. Did you know they will also be “collectable?” Here’s the skateboard controller. Other controllers in the lineup will tackle “RC cars, baseball, and futuristic racing games.”

Read the Mini Motion press release.

From landing a 360 on a skateboard half pipe, to feeling the power of driving a home run to deep-center, the realism created through the Mini-Motion line will transform how players can more naturally participate, experience and interact with their favorite real life sports, games, and hobbies.

Check out the the promo shot. It looks like someone has a little dust on their image sensor. I’ve got that problem too, and I hate to shell out $50 to get it cleaned. Until then, there’s always the clone stamp tool in Photoshop guys.

Here’s a graphic from the Actiga web site which strangely doesn’t appear to have any actual pictures of their products, or much else for that matter. The product shots above came from a press release web site. Mini Motion games are programmed by a subsidiary called Aptus Games, but their web site is also bare bones. I suspect these guys only have prototypes and are trying to drum up business. Check out mowhaked businessman skater dude. I haven’t seen anyone that challenged my preconceptions and changed paradigms since the last skateboarding business dude.