Take this skateboard controller for a 'Tony Hawk: Ride'

— -- Tony Hawk's next video game steers clear of the same old grind: This time around, you attempt rad moves with a new, skateboard-shaped controller.

Slightly smaller than a real skateboard — and without wheels — the controller has built-in sensors that propel your on-screen character as you stand and shift on it. "You don't have to learn button combinations. You get on the board and basically you are using your body to play the game," says Josh Tsui of Robomodo, the company making versions for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Scheduled to be released this year, Tony Hawk: Ride (Activision, rating pending, no price set; a Wii version is also in the works) is the first hands-free game in the successful series. Since Activision released Tony HawkPro Skater in 1999, the franchise has rolled up more than $1.1 billion in sales, according to market tracker NPD Group.

This new game not only returns the Hawk series to its roots but also aims to attract newcomers, says analyst Jesse Divnich with Electronic Entertainment Design and Research. "By adding the peripheral, you open yourself up to a broader consumer base," he says. "Look at Wii Fit (which has sold nearly 7 million in less than a year)."

At video game news site Kotaku.com, managing editor Brian Crecente agrees that Ride could "appeal to the same sort of gamers who have been drawn to Guitar Hero and Rock Band and the Wii. You don't have to figure out the controls. You just stand on it and it is supposed to be intuitive."

Game designers have turned to a wave of new controllers to immerse players in more realistic and physically interactive experiences — and to justify higher price tags. Music games Guitar Hero and Rock Band have become billion-dollar franchises, thanks to guitar-shaped and drum-set controllers, and another new Activision game, DJ Hero, due this fall, makes use of a turntable-shaped controller.

A game-specific controller works "as long as it makes sense and it's entertaining and it relates to what the game is trying to do," Divnich says. "With Tony Hawk, it does. I think (Ride) will be priced at $80 or $90 (and) be a tremendous success."