Electronic Arts’ immense board ‘em up, Skate, hasn’t just smacked the beak off Tony Hawk, it is just about to become a fully-fledged franchise!

Which is marketing speak for the fact that two new Skate-flavoured games are soon to join EA’s roster. More specifically that’s ‘Skate It’ for DS and Wii, both of which arrive this year and boast the same intuitive controls that made the original such a blast.

The action takes place in the made-up metropolis of San Vanelona (no doubt the capital of the sunshine state of Califormula) and, as before, has players free ranging around town, discovering killer lines, taking part in various spot-challenges, hanging with the pros etc. However, the big difference in these outings is the novel interface – Skate’s revolutionary ‘FlickIt’ controls are transposed to the touchscreen in the DS game and, for the Wii version, translate to the Remote, with players holding/moving the controller as if it was a skateboard. Well, that sounds cool.

Cooler still – and this really is an innovation – owners of Wii Fit can bring the Balance Board into play, using the pressure-sensitive peripheral to pull off the requisite flips, jumps, spins and all that. If handled right it could almost be like riding a real board. And no risk of chipped shins, busted collarbones or chronic road rash either. Whether the Balance Board is up to the punishment is another matter, of course…