Before any of the in-your-face vaporwave aesthetic of Skate Story has a chance to overflow my senses, I am struck by something surprising—the sound of skateboard wheels rolling across a slightly gravely surface. It sounds exactly like skateboarding should. It’s a small detail but one that immediately makes me feel that, despite all the visual flair and absurd story at play, the core of this indie skateboarding game is a deep love for every aspect of the sport. The rest of the demo equally surprises me with intricate but not over-the-top mechanics. Skate Story was one of my standout games from the Tribeca Film Festival’s games selection and it’ll make you fall in love with skateboarding.
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All I really knew about Skate Story before my hands-on demo, which consists of the game’s first chapter, was that it is a skating game starring a glass protagonist jumping over flowing obstacles while in Hell. Normal stuff for a skateboarding game, right? When I start my demo, I do get some of the normal stuff: it teaches me how to turn, slide, and push the board forward to gain speed.
When Skate Story does finally teach me how to do a trick it’s a simple ollie, something you’ve probably done a million times without thought in a game like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. The in-game text talks up the trick, saying how fundamental it is to all of skating, and eventually teaches me to hold the controller bumper and press a button. I do a little hop and it feels good. I mean that both mechanically and just as a reward—I feel accomplished for doing something so minor.
