Skate It is definitely going to come with a learning curve for many people. Then again, we're not skaters, ourselves. Pro-skater Danny Way has plenty of experience, though, and when he stepped onto the balance board for the first time at the event, he got the hang of it almost immediately. So maybe all you skaters out there will find it to be an intuitive representation of the real thing.
Last time we saw Skate It we were only able to play with the remote. This method works well and should be a perfectly viable option for anyone who doesn't own the balance board. The A button will give you a push. Once you're going, gesture maneuvers will allow you to pull off any trick in the book. Most of these gestures are intuitive: lift the remote straight up to ollie, lift it up and tilted to perform a heelflip or kickflip, make a circle in various directions to do different pop-shuvs, and so on.
What sets the Skate franchise apart from its competitors is that performing tricks is all about timing rather than button combinations. To grind a rail you simply ollie onto it, but you have to time your jump accurately. Playing with just the remote might be easier than the "flick it" analog stick controls of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games.
As well as Skate It handles with just the remote, it's the balance board compatibility that really makes it stand out. You won't be able to completely abandon the remote -- the A button is still used to push. With the board turned sideways, like a real skateboard would be, there are four zones you can lean into. Leaning left or right will steer, and putting your weight forward or back will lift the skateboard into a manual. This is where the learning curve kicks in, as it takes some time for your body to figure out how much weight to apply.
For tricks, the balance board has been divided into six zones. A quick push of pressure on these areas will hop your virtual board into the air and perform a trick. These are mapped to parts of the balance board that make sense. To do an ollie, just bounce on the tail end of the board like you would in real life. All of the tricks found in the original Skate for PS3 and 360 can be triggered with the Wii balance board.
