What to do with the balance board now that you're totally fit? Well, you could ... skate it. We'll confess that stepping onto the yoga mat-turned-skateboard for the first time was intimidating. The original Skate taught us that even fake skaters have to practice their cool (and sent posers packing in the process) -- and that was just thumbs! Putting our body in the spotlight at a recent "feet-on" event that featured EA's Wii spin-off, Skate It, was another reminder that what looks easy on TV is just a carefully orchestrated illusion. Thankfully, our play session didn't end in a faceplant.

Nintendo Wii owners will get a chance to Skate It this fall, but EA hasn't forgotten that those with current-gen HD consoles are also ready for their own follow-up to the game that made the last Tony Hawk look like a turkey. Two new videos posted to the official Skate site -- "What happened to that Dude?" and "What happened to San Vanelona?" -- feature skaters talking up players' feats in the first game and about how the city has changed since then, before heading into some brief gameplay clips and a teaser logo for Skate 2 (above).

According to the skaters in the clips, five years have passed in the gameworld -- Skate's fictional city of San Vanelona -- and large corporations have spearheaded a big-time crackdown on skating. They talk of harsher punishment than mere tickets and how obstacles have been put in place near rails and other prime trick spots to discourage skaters. Still, the second clip shows a skater and his board perched defiantly atop a concrete block with a "No Skateboarding" sign affixed to it. So, skateboarding is a crime after all -- at least in Skate 2 -- and it looks like you'll be sticking it to the man (in this case, big business) a la Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure.

Sorry to crush your dreams, er, nightmares, Ludwig, but we've confirmed that Pennywise the clown will not feature in EA's Skate It for Wii. However, the game, which was skated out publically yesterday evening at EA's "Spring Break" event in San Francisco, will make use of the Wiimote for some strikingly easy, yet precise control.

At its unveiling, Skate It was touted "not built from the ground up for Wii" by its dev team -- an odd way of stating the obvious fact that they are simply building on the core gameplay of Skate, while destroying the gameworld. Wait ... what?

Honestly, this post went up for two reasons:

1. We really wanted to use the above image again. It's like Tim Curry is clawing his way out of the page!
   
2. We genuinely thought you'd be interested to see some screenshots of the Wii and DS versions of EA's well-received Skate.

Skate It promises to fully adapt the franchise's controls for Nintendo's platforms, with the Wii version supporting both the Wii remote and the Wii Balance Board, ideal for "the full on immersive types."

Much to the disappointment of many a Stephen King fan, the "It" meant to be skated is not, in fact, the psychotic clown that gobbles up kids and makes your tea turn into blood. Skate It's executive producer, Scott Blackwood, tells IGN (you know, those guys who unofficially revealed Skate's Wii and DS incarnations last month) that the "It" is largely up to you. "Rails, pools, ledges, banks, mega-ramps, gnarly downhill streets ... you make the call."

Blackwood explains that the team behind the well-received original game "are working co-operatively with partner studios to make Skate It," with DS development duties handled by UK developer Exient. Why bother bringing Skate to the Wii? Blackwood is glad you asked: "It's all about bringing that authentic Skate feeling to the Wii remote and stylus, or and for the full on immersive types, the Wii Balance Board." And here we thought a port of Sega's Top Skater would be the first one to let us do an alley-oop in the living room.

Oh, IGN, you so crazy. Yesterday, it was posting a story about Pandemic working on a Batman game and then promptly removing it. Today (well, technically last night) it's skate being ported to Wii and DS. The story apparently went up Tuesday and was soon removed.

What's interesting is that both the mysterious Batman project and skate are EA titles. So ... did IGN get some exclusive info and then let the bat out of the bag too early, deleting them moments before uncle EA could wrest his whippin' belt free from his dungarees? We're betting yes, but we'll almost certainly never know.

[Update: If you're interested, here's the cached article, thanks to tipster Robber Tom.]

In a move that will shock the industry, EA revealed to analysts that sequels to Burnout: Paradise and Skate are in the works. More specifically, EA Games president Frank Gibeau said the two series would "see extension" before April of 2009. Extensions? Can't you just taste the vision?

Gibeau also said that after a disappointing sales year, Need for Speed would be returning to the touchstones that made it a hit before, and adding open-world racing and a new "highway battle mode" -- does it count as stealing if you do it from your own company? It's a great time to be alive for people who love EA games, but hate being surprised.

Electronic Arts might have found a contender for Tony Hawk's throne, as the publisher's skateboard title Skate enjoyed almost double the sales of the pro skater's latest. In yesterday's earning call report, EA reported, "on current generation systems, Skate outsold Tony Hawk [Proving Ground] nearly 2 to 1."

Although Skate had a one-month head start in both US and Europe, both titles were out long enough to be well-stocked for the crucial holiday season. While we're glad to have a quality competitor in the long-dominated skateboarding genre, we can only foresee a constant stream of bickering between the EA and Tony Hawk publisher Activision Blizzard at the Annual Giant Game Publishers Valentine's Day Dance.

Joystiq reader Matthew let us know that the free, pretty good Electronic Arts games promised Rock Band replacement delays are starting to arrive. Not only that, but Harmonix, EA and MTV want us to have a happy new year. Has anyone else gotten their free game? Let us know, and check out the highlights for today:

News
Stringer: PS3 is 'out of the woods'
New games this week: Turok edition
1080 degrees now boarding Virtual Console
Super Smash Bros. Brawl video dump
Rock Band Weekly: Coheed and Cambria, Rush and Smashing Pumpkins
ION Game Conference to address social networking on consoles, PC
Patapon demo includes exclusive weapon
Campaigner calls Wii exercise in schools 'another gimmick'
This Wednesday: Rez, Chessmaster come to XBLA
'Guitar Hero: On Tour' trademarked, possible name for DS version
Circuit City posts new cobalt blue DS model ... removes soon after
World of Goo oozes onto PC and Wii in '08
Kingdom Under Fire II combines RTS, MMO, cornrows
Rock Band microphone in the wild for $50, Wii
Screenshots: Resistance 2
PC game sales only 14 % of industry in 2007
Turok developers remove team-kill achievement with launch-day patch
Halo 3 MacFarlane figures packaged, pretty, coming soon
Team Fortress 2 updated for PC, 'Well' map goes CTF
The Force Unleashed for Wii gets exclusive content
Nintendo shares drop 10%, has 'little to do with company itself'

Rumors & Speculation
Rumor: 120 - 160 GB PS3 with rumble in the pipeline
Rumor: Comprehensive MGS collection coming to PS2

Culture & Community
Ricardo Torres promoted to GameSpot EIC
Jack Thompson: Mass Effect controversy 'ridiculous'
Pro wrestler starts gaming column
How old is old enough to play games?
See Ronald McDonald teach DDR
New site chronicles co-op gaming

One of the major trends of this console generation is the prominence of downloadable content, released sometimes simultaneously with the title itself. That's why it's so surprising to us that Electronic Arts, one of the pureyors of the DLC for consoles, will not be offering any downloadable content for SKATE.

In an interview with EGM, executive producer Scott Blackwood said that they are "not planning any new content for Skate 1 ... We didn't want to go back and ask [people] for more money to get more shoes and shirts." Blackwood added,"that's not how we wanted to enter this market."

Blackwood also lamented on the dearth of female characters in the game, noting that "we are going to make it up to [the players]. When we do it -- and we will -- it's going to be done very well." Given that DLC is reportedly not an option for the first title, look for female skaters -- and the possibility of paying a premium for more in-game shoes and shirts -- in the inevitable sequel, SKATE 2.

We're in a bit of a mellow mood tonight, having just taken our first foray into online four player co-op in Halo 3. Oh yeah, and on the Legendary setting. Can we just say that having four people blasting away makes it about a beelyun times easier? Oh, and a lot messier. There were tons of betrayals, but what are ya gonna do.

So, to take things down a few notches, we decided to post a video worthy of the chilled out mood we're in now. Namely this Skate video that features a player bailing right into a kicked back sit down. It's not quite as laid back as the sit down in the video at the bottom of this page, but we couldn't figure out how to embed that one without our brains exploding, so you sort of get two videos tonight for the low price of one.

Sit back, and enjoy.

Sometimes ragdoll physics can actually prove more natural. Sure, most crashes don't send you floating and flipping effortless through the wind, regardless of the laws of gravity, but those crashes aren't nearly as fun.

Take this video, for instance. In reality, this guy would've likely fallen headfirst and spend hours trying to find his brain on the ground -- not because it fell far, but can you imagine how hard it is to find something when you lack cognitive function? Thankfully, we don't have to worry about such philosophical queries; instead, enjoy the video embedded after the break.

For the first time in a very long time, Tony Hawk has some real competition this year from EA's Skate. Though Tony Hawk Proving Ground has already won the award for most appropriate title of the year, the contest for the top skating franchise is still wide open. With the Skate demo already available, you can now officially lay odds on how the battle will pan out as the THPG demo backside kickflips its way on to Xbox Live.

You've seen the comparison videos, now you can get some hands-on time with both. Here's the big question: Which one will you be getting? Will you welcome a new succinctly-titled overlord, or will you keep Tony in his throne?

Originally due out on August 15th, EA's Scott Blackwood has announced that the Xbox 360 demo for Skate has been hit with a short delay. How short? In an official forum post, Blackwood says, "We're not quite sure yet ... hopefully not more than a week."

We spoke with EA about the cause for this delay and their spokesperson told us, "We are trying something completely new for an Xbox Marketplace demo in allowing people to play the game and upload footage they take in-game to our Skate website. The skate.reel video upload functionality is much more technically complex than a standard offline demo, and the number of moving parts have resulted in undue & hard-to-predict delays." Having recently played the demo area (and well beyond) and scoped out the included features, we assure you that it'll be worth the wait.

The good news is that this delay has no bearing whatsoever on the final game, which will still be shipping out on September 12th for the Xbox 360 and September 24th for the PlayStation 3.