Can skateboards revive old-fashioned magic?
Blog Andrew Joseph 18 Jul , 2025 0
Since the 2020 Skating Announcement (originally known as Skating 4), we have seen a massive influx of skateboarding games like Sims, like Session to Arcadey Tony Hawk Remakes, and unique experiences like VR Skater and Olli Olli Olli Olli World. No matter how you look at it, skateboard video games will definitely be back, but they still lack the open world sandbox, feeling the skateboard series became popular in the late 2000s. I was excited when I had the opportunity to play the Alpha version of Skate 3's long-awaited sequel, but also skeptical about how the skating revival would work as a live service game and, most importantly, would it be able to retake the magic from the first three entries?
Within a few minutes of my nearly six hours of running, after a few moments, I was radiating a harsh dance party around San Vansterdam, and I was able to reactivate my long-dormant muscle memory to find myself grinding and kicking away in the skating sandbox world. From the extremely independent and easy-to-digest first handful of missions that smartly taught me its gameplay mechanics in small digestible chunks, to its cleverly designed world that never slowed me down when I was cruising around, and its unique traversal system that plays more like an Assassin's Creed and Spider-Man game than what I would expect from a skateboarding sim, it's obvious that developer Full Circle took an “if it ain't broke, don't fix it’s the way to do it and make sure skating is a game that can be played and understood quickly.
In addition to the classic control scheme, the skateboard offers two kinds of controls that make it easier for new players to curve and multiple life quality features, which is a welcome addition, frankly. While I stuck to the original control scheme, it didn't mess with any accessibility features of the skates, there is certainly a way to make the unique play style of skating easier, outside of a few fewer buttons, for newbies in both series and stubborn Tony Hawk's Pro Skater fans. No matter how you want to play the game, the skateboard’s controls make the trick of getting out of gravity an easy and fun process, thanks to its flick controls and intuitive motion system.
In short, while I was cruising around San Vansterdam, I found something cool, skating from goal to objective. The skateboard is a big open sandbox where you can jump and drive and do some cool tricks in between. So I never felt the pressure to accomplish any nearby goals on the map, I never paid too much attention to my score, nor felt stuck in a tricky game loop, so so many live service games depend on. Encourage you to complete your goals to unlock new realms and upgrade your character, but I found myself overlooking this and just cheering up and finding new cool places in the in-game soundtrack.
Thankfully, finding these attractions is very simple thanks to the ability to jump off boards and parkour around the map. I was able to easily scale the building with the easy-to-use climbing controls and drop marks of the skateboard, which happens whenever I tried something stupid like trying to reach a skyscraper from the park bench to the park bench. By the way, this never resolved, but I still find myself trying it over and over again. Such a sports system makes the skateboard less frustrating and finds interesting and ridiculous areas for skating on the map. That being said, there are a lot of goals and story missions from following the prefabricated line to getting high scores, even one goal and story mission that I had to drive from the building into a nearby bridge.
Judging from the colors, the look and feel of the skateboard is somewhat different from the direction of the original trilogy. While I absolutely nostalgic about the pseudo-realistic look of the original, Skating World seems to be more exaggerated and saturated. In the early stages of the meeting, I had to complete a task that would jump the building into the trash. The narrator in the game explains that no one in this world will feel pain when they fall, because a tech startup called Invervatek figures out how to make people invincible. When asked to elaborate further, I was told not to worry, as its science and subject matter was never mentioned again. That's stupid, but OK. I think I keep skating. Although I like simple skating world architecture, it took a while for the character models to get used to because they look like the next generation of Sims. But eventually, after a few costume adjustments, I looked very satisfied with my bleaching, muyu’s self, and I quickly returned to the landing three kicks.
If you don't know yet, Skateboard is a free, live service game, and while that's a lot different from previous titles, its focus on multiplayer games does make this version of the skating game look like it's the one I'll return to for a long time after release. The developers on the scene told me that there might be over 100 players on the map and although there was no close chat in my demo, I never really felt like I needed to say it out loud whenever I met another skater. Seeing others mess around in the sandbox world of skating is a unique experience, few live service games get right, and with its numerous custom features and an ever-evolving world, I’m very optimistic about how this world feels after it is released, and I can definitely see a map full of people hang out and skate.
Finally, there is a level of progressive system where you can earn cosmetics in the game, one of which is the same pair of vans that many of us have been wearing for over two decades, a famous deck for many of our major skateboard brands, emotions and a ton of cool and weird clothes that can be worn on my custom character. As expected, there is also an in-game store with cosmetics and outfits, but I never felt like I needed to buy anything and could be assured that there was no micro-transaction to “win” ice skating. While this comes only from pre-α gameplay, and everything can be changed, I don't seem to find any typical pitfalls in other free live service offerings. Hopefully it stays that way.
After playing for over five hours, not only can I clearly see that the entire circle of developers is adopting the series, but I can also say that the skaters are shaping a game worthy of being the expected sequel to Skate 3 in 2010. The gameplay seems to be exquisite. Hopefully add this to the game rotation where I can relax after a long day.