The jewel of Konami's alternative sports lineup is ESPN X Games Skateboarding. According to Konami, the company hopes to compete favorably with the reigning king of the genre, the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, with generous use of the popular ESPN X Games license and a compelling gameplay system. Judging from our early hands-on experience with the game, Konami is well on its way to achieving those goals.

　　The most striking aspect of ESPN X Games Skateboarding is its graphics. The visuals are crisp and detailed, and the game has a bright, colorful look. Subtle visual nuances add to the game's graphical style. As the boarder flies down the half-pipe, his clothes flutter in the wind, while dynamic lighting effects, such as the bright orange glare from the setting sun, light up certain stages.

　　ESPN X Games Skateboarding features three primary location types: the X Games skatepark and half-pipe; city-based courses such as New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles; and fictional courses such as one on an ocean liner and one in a national history museum. In the E3 demo, we were able to skate on the San Francisco course, the X Games half-pipe and skatepark course, and the ocean liner course. As expected, all three locations played significantly differently. For example, the ocean liner and the San Francisco courses could be navigated freely, while the skatepark was more confining. Although the free-form areas themselves weren't significantly large--the San Francisco course had approximately eight city blocks--they were cluttered with ambient objects, such as vehicles and pedestrians on the San Francisco course and a crew patrolling the deck on the ocean liner course.

　　The game's control scheme is rather intuitive. The face buttons are used to ollie, grind, and perform simple tricks--button combinations and the analog stick are used to unlock more complex moves. The sensitivity of the analog stick needs some work though. Regularly, we found ourselves missing a rail or jump, particularly on the city course, simply because the analog was slightly too sensitive to movement.

　　ESPN X Games Skateboarding will headline Konami's ESPN lineup. The game looks impressive and plays pretty well at this stage. It will be interesting to see how much further the development team is able to polish an already entertaining game.