While the skate. fans of the world are surviving on morsels of news and, admittedly hilarious, Tim Robinson skits that spotlight the corrupt megacorp at the centre of the upcoming game, I’m keeping an eager eye on Sam Eng’s Skate Story. A regular fixture on my radar since its reveal, this curious indie appears to balance good, honest skateboarding with the tale of one demon’s ascension from an infernal underworld. His freedom is conditional on his ability to skate to and devour the moon itself, which is a metal as fuck concept.
Having been lucky enough to go hands-on with the game’s first half hour, which introduces the fundamentals of gnashing lines straight out of hell as well as a couple of the key players in Skate Story’s plot of lunacide, I’m definitely a bigger believer in this game’s style than I am its substance—but that’s largely due to the demo still keeping so much close to its vest. The full game is expected to feature seventy-plus tricks, while this small slice only introduces a few old faithfuls: The ollie, pop shove-it, and kickflip.
Unlike the skate. series, which utilises its patented “flick-it” controls, Skate Story’s control scheme still operates out of the “traditional” box, though it’s a little jarring at first. Shoulder buttons determine footing on the board, and combining any given stance with the face buttons determine the trick itself. You can either opt for a simple, single prompt version of the trick that’s low effort but high risk when contending with villainous, ankle-shattering curbs or you might choose to pop it higher courtesy of a timing prompt that reels around as you find your footing. I expect, as it did eventually with skate., that it’ll gradually feel like second nature and you’ll quickly lock into the game’s flow state.
While it takes getting on the sticks to appreciate Skate Story’s take on the art of skateboarding, one of the game’s obvious lures is its stunning art direction that combines surrealist imagery with lo-fi graininess. The player-character is a spectre made up entirely of glass which indicates a certain level of vulnerability when carving lines through the underworld’s timeless, spaceless void. As a simple dude in his thirties who still harbours dreams of skating and can never resist the urge to pop a kickflip on any deck I come across, I relate with my whole self to the visceral, knee-busting brutality of Skate Story. Although the game checkpoints after each portal you pass through, each and every bail is felt as your avatar detonates with every collision, leaving a trail of glass shards behind.
It’s made all the more primal and rooted into fundamentals by its low, near to the ground camera angle that resembles fish-eye lens popularised by old school skate videography. It gives it a grounded weight and authenticity that feels prevalent despite the game’s dreamlike, otherworldly visuals.
The journey itself is abstract and strange, as though this hell you’re fleeing from is taking the form of whichever nebulous concepts come to mind minute-to-minute. One second you’re pounding along a track, chasing a rabbit like Alice through gates adorned with all-seeing eyes, and the next you’re waxing philosophical with the chiselled, stone bust of a man, likely bearing historical significance, who presents you with your next hurdle. The half-hour ultimately culminates with you tricking your best tricks to wear down a literal moon before gobbling up its depleted body—it’s quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen and I cannot wait to see the places this game goes with its mind-bending story.
Portraying a demon made of glass certainly feels like thematic dynamite, and I hope the arc presented is one that sees them hardened by circumstance as they rescue other tortured souls along the path to their own deliverance. Whatever the story becomes, it feels like solid, technique-driven skateboarding is at the bedrock of Sam Eng’s vision for Skate Story and I’m so excited as someone who has endured the best and worst of Tony Hawk, skate. and Session to get back to basics—even if that means taking the fight to a whole ass moon and all of hell’s army to do so.
