EA’s upcoming skateboarding video game called Skate (Duh!) is being heralded as a Tony Hawk killer. Not the actual Tony Hawk, but his video game franchise… The idea that it will kill the franchise is slim to none. It could easily be better than the latest version of the Hawk-named game, but they’ll still milk make a few more because It’s firmly entrenched by now. This seems like a good a time as any to bring up Thrasher’s Skate and Destroy game, that unexpectedly fizzled. I mean, what a perfect product tie-in. The game was a good one too. It took a different approach from an art direction standpoint, going for a more stylized look than trying to emulate realism. They had a decent development studio behind it too. Maybe they were a little bit too early. Oh well, I guess everything Fausto touched couldn’t turn to gold. I had kind of stopped collecting and chronicling current skateboarding video game commercials. They are just too prevalent now. This new one for Skate is pretty good though. It’s funny and features some name skaters acting on camera, and doing a good job of it too. The gist of it is that…

A seemingly drunk or otherwise incapacitated Jamie Kennedy interviewed Tony Hawk and his game developer at E3, which is to video games what an eBay convention would be like for skateboard collectors. Jamie is clearly phoning in his performance and bombing, but it’s still pretty funny to watch him take the piss out of all the video game geeks. Also amusing is when Tony Hawk realizes he’s in a bullshit situation and turns it back on Jamie a little. Watch the vid (only if you are bored) after the jump. And while we’re doing video games and skateboarding, if you are truly bored, you can also see a picture of a board someone painstakingly painted with a character from the Legend of Zelda. [Source: Gametrailers.com via Best Week Ever]

Because I waste my time not skateboarding by writing about skateboarding instead of playing video games, I was unaware of this 2004(!) game called TrackMania that lets players create and race on their own Extreme™! tracks. Not all of them are skateboard inspired, but this one sure is. Watch the video after the jump.

An ad agency called EyeWonder has created some crazy banner ads for web pages that unfold and let interested parties fool around and learn about Tony Hawk’s Project 8 game without having to leave the page. You can do things like use your cursor to scrub through the super slow motion “Nail the Trick” sequences and view trailers and screen captures. It’s very well thought out use of web technology to draw in the viewer. The average game console graphics engine must not be up to snuff when it comes to skinning the character’s shoes, otherwise I can’t believe they would pass up the extra product tie-in opportunity with the accompanying kick-back. Check out a demo of the ad here, and no, they didn’t pay to be included here, It just happens that it’s interesting enough to warrant a post here. Free advertising… Bastards! [Source: Eywonder]

Came across this while reading a webcomic about videogames. I immediately searched for the game LittleBigPlanet so I could understand what the joke was about. Up came this image on a videogame review website. Not sure whether to be awed at the series of cosmic coincidences that always brings me back to skateboarding or depressed at what a pathetic geek I am. Here’s the link.

“Pull off a radical half pipe move from the comfort of your living room couch.” Actually, I think you need to get off the couch and stand on this thing to play the game.