Shaun White Skateboarding is the first time Shaun White and the team at Ubisoft are venturing away from the comfort of snowboarding, and from the early looks of it, it might be pretty good as long as you don't want to use the Balance Board.

While it's nowhere near as graphically pleasing as the HD version, it features the same concept: The world lacks color and is in disrepair, and it's up to Shaun White and the gang to color the world. Basically, it's de Blob but with skateboarding, or The Saboteur but with less Nazi killing and more grinding.

The primary control scheme uses the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to control the player, and tricks are executed by flicking the Wii Remote while holding A and/or B. If you want to spin in the air, you have to flick the Wii Remote left or right. It's a little confusing at first, but it's easy to pick up and it works. When you grind, which happens when you're in the air near a grindable area. You balance by tilting the Wii Remote left and right.

When you trick on certain areas, they transform into magnificent skate park pieces, much like the PlayStation 3 demo shown at Ubisoft's press conference. However, there didn't seem to be any of the cool sections where you can direct the rail in mid-air to other areas.

There is also a multiplayer race mode, where you go head-to-head against a friend and go blazing down different levels, tricking to gain speed. You can also hit your rival with "bombs," which are placed on the screen with the pointer and are land mines that feature your character's visage.

I also got to try the Balance Board controls, which also uses the Wii Remote. You have to lean back on the board to ollie, which is a herculean effort at times. I do not recommend this control scheme.

Outside of that, Shaun White Skateboarding looks to be one of the best skateboarding games on Wii, but It doesn't look like it will be as cool as the HD version. Find out for yourself when it comes out this fall.