Goddamn it feels so good to be playing again. I'm rusty but it's all coming back to me. Really digging the improvements they've made to the UI and aesthetics, it definitely has a more approachable appeal now. Which is great since so many people are gonna get to try it! I really hope this one takes off in a way the first didn't.
And to all the new folks who are intimidated and thinking of quitting--DON'T! Not yet! It is exceptionally difficult to get a hang of the controls but as soon as it clicks it's smooth skating. Honestly, you just fill out the nuances but the mechanics become second nature and it's so rewarding.
A couple Hot Tips (based on things I remember struggling with when learning):
- Press X early! Don't try hitting it right as you land, hit it a millisecond before. Think of it as bracing yourself for the landing, correcting your stance right before impact. But you're still withing a couple feet over your landing. You'll start to really feel the rhythm as you practice. Remember, pressing X too early and netting a "Sick!" landing is better totally ruining your trick with a Sloppy landing because you waited too long.
- An Ollie is just another trick. It's not your default jump like in Tony Hawk. There's hardly an instance where you should be jumping with an Ollie instead of just rotating your stick a bit as you lift and propelling yourself up with an Impossible or some other advanced trick.
- Use any direction on the stick to initiate a grind (Hold R or L at the same time to make it an advanced grind) but know that holding Down over a grindable surface will magnetize you slightly and pull you down to the rail (etc.) which starts your grind sooner and can be the difference between catching the tail end of a rail and continuing your combo...or overshooting your jump and bailing.
- If you've got big air in a jump, use L or R to put a few spins in there. They're an easy way to further your combo without doing much as you glide down. Just BE SURE to exit the spin with enough time to safely recover your stance and nail the landing with X. This is still one of my biggest problems. I'm always spinning and Icarus-ing my way to a big disappointing bail when I make one rotation too many.
- On long rails, trick off and land back on the rail with a different grind. That's two extra multipliers right there and a long enough rail can see you changing grinds 5-6 times, rocketing your combo in a relatively safe way. (Go ahead and throw some spins in those tricks in between grinds for even more multipliers!)
There's a ton more I could say (and I'm certainly no expert) but those are some simple fundamental lessons I had to learn myself that made the game so much more fun when I did.