MTV Sports: Skateboarding Preview

With the success of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, it's no surprise that developers are scrambling to hop onto the skateboarding bandwagon. THQ's first venture into the skateboarding genre takes advantage of the company's already established MTV Sports license to deliver a new arcade skateboarding experience. MTV Sports: Skateboarding touts a giant list of features - with 20 selectable pro skaters, each sporting true-to-life signature moves. You'll be able to pull off more than 60 individual tricks on 25 different levels - each with its own weather conditions and lifelike terrain.

You can compete for both money and sponsorships as you progress through the game's main mode. If you're having trouble with your tricks, you can improve your skills in the game's boot-camp mode - a collection of training exercises designed to teach you combos and grinds. Additionally, you can explore all of the game's levels by choosing the free-skate mode, which simply lets you skate around at your leisure.

MTV Sports: Skateboarding will be the first skateboarding game to support up to four players, and the game features several multiplayer options. There will be a tag, battle, time-trial, and bomb mode selectable for four players, and single players can even fill open slots with computer-controlled "bot" skaters, who will skate in the level simultaneously with the players.

While no solid details have been announced about the game's soundtrack, the MTV license should provide the game with popular music from some of MTV's most favored bands. The game should also feature tons of licensed apparel and equipment from some of skating's top brands.

MTV Sports: Skateboarding is scheduled to ship this fall. We'll have hands-on impressions as soon as we get them, but in the meantime check out these screenshots.