Get on the board with Tony Hawk: Ride @ E3 2009

While we didn't exactly jump on the board, Wendy and I watched quite a few folks try their hand (er, feet) on Activision Blizzard's new skateboard controller. It's a potential reset for the venerable Tony Hawk franchise, which has seen renewed competition to a genre it once created and dominated, thanks to EA's SKATE franchise (excellent in its own right).

The controller is sort of like a video game version of my son's "Yo Baby" practice board, which is essentially just a piece of plastic shaped like a skateboard, sans wheels. But this one has accelerometers infra-red cameras, one on each side of the controller.

I grew up skateboarding in Riverside, California -- Tony Hawk was one of my idols back in the day. And while I've watched the innovation fade from the Tony Hawk series over the years, I diligently picked them up and kicked-flipped my way through them all with my son.

And then, inevitably, this 38 year old dude tries to hop on his real board and recapture his youth, usually with painful results. Maybe this controller will be a safer way to indulge my need to skate? Maybe.

Ironically, my son enjoys skateboard video games more than skateboarding itself, so this is new board/controller is something that caught his eye when I showed him the photos from E3... And anything that gets kids moving is a winner in my book.

If you know your way around a skateboard, this might be a fun game/controller. If not, it may be another innovative Injury Delivery Device. But chances are, I'm not the target demo anyway.