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I've never fallen off a game before, but I've fallen off "Tony Hawk: Ride" 100 times already. This version of the never-ending skateboarding franchise comes with a life-size fake skateboard to use as a controller, but it might as well be a bucking bronco.

Even with the lifelike controller, "Ride" isn't a patch on Electronic Arts' "Skate." The tricks? They're far too unpredictable to be satisfying. The idea of being put right in the action? There "Tony Hawk: Ride" might have delivered, but even in the short run this one falls far from the mark.

The two enticing aspects of the "Tony Hawk" games were exploration and complex tricking. Neither of those impulses is satisfied in "Ride." The controls are the heart of the issue.

The one thing I can say for the controller deck is that it feels right. The size is good, and while standing on the board and rocking left to right, it feels almost like there are real trucks and wheels underneath. But I never found a comfort zone.

On the easy difficulty level, the game is essentially skating on rails. The game handles steering, with the exception of a few places where you can tilt the board to choose a path. Otherwise, you've just got to handle tricking. That eliminates some of the frustration of using the controller and is actually a relatively pleasant way to play. The more serious difficulties do away with the rails so you can use the board to steer as well as do tricks.

The basics seem simple: Shift your balance to tilt the board slightly for a directional tweak, or tilt all the way right or left for a hard turn. Flip the nose of the board up hard to ollie, or slightly to perform a manual (that nose-up move that usually links tricks in "Tony Hawk" games). But the board's interaction with the game is janky, and it won't always register your movements properly, and sometimes not at all. You're meant to be able to sweep one foot alongside the board to kick forward, for example. Sometimes this worked; sometimes it didn't.

When it comes time to waggle or tilt the board while in the air to perform more complicated tricks, all bets are off. Sure, you can easily perform some random move. But to do the same thing every time? Failure. There goes the thrill of creating a long, intricate trick run and practicing until perfect. Because of the board's unstable console connection, just navigating a run on the ground is hard enough. Add air and rails, and all bets are off.

Oddly, there isn't even much to explore. The campaign mode features a number of fairly small environments that could be interpreted as a tacit admission that the high-flying exploration of previous games isn't going to work this time.