Tony Hawk games get more realistic

Got your NES gun? Got your Wii Fit board? Got your Rock Band drum set? Well get this…

Activision has announced the next game in its skateboarding series, Tony Hawk Rides, complete with a plug-in skateboard peripheral. It’s tilt sensitive and includes a series of buttons on the side, though the way these will be used isn’t clear yet. The board doesn’t feature any wheels, but when you think about it, that would be tricky to pull off safely.

Of course, this isn’t strictly a fresh idea. Electronic Arts’s Skate It game worked in similar fashion on the Wii, albeit by modifying the Wii Fit balance board. The Tony Hawk game will be available on the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Perhaps surprisingly the trailer for the game doesn’t even show the board until the final seconds, preferring to concentrate on footage of real-life skaters. That makes sense however: while pretty much everyone can see somebody playing Guitar Hero and identify with the air guitar player in all of us, it would be a tough call to make footage of somebody flailing about on a wheel-less board in their living room either cool or sexy.