“Skate Story” Review by Nick Navarro
I didn’t expect a skateboarding game to pull me into such a strange and otherworldly headspace, but stepping into “Skate Story” immediately felt like entering a dream constructed from shattered glass and whispered bargains. Developed by Sam Eng and published by Devolver Digital, it’s a game that approaches skateboarding with a surreal lens, filtering a familiar sport through an underworld journey built on fluid momentum and emotional undertones. Even before I wrapped my head around its mechanics, the sheer atmosphere made it clear I was playing something that cared about tone just as much as technical precision.
I play as a demon made from glass and pain, a fragile figure navigating the nine layers of the Underworld after accepting a deal from the Devil: skate to the moon, swallow it, and earn freedom. It’s a premise that sounds wild on paper, but within minutes, it becomes surprisingly grounded thanks to how much attention Eng gives to the act of skating itself. Movement is deliberate and weighty. Every ollie, kickflip, and grind depends on understanding how the board responds to subtle inputs, and the game never stops reinforcing that mastery comes from repetition rather than luck. It took me a while to forget the controls of “Skate” or a “Tony Hawk” game, but the way the mechanics emphasize balance and flow gives these Underworld environments a strangely meditative rhythm. What really stood out to me was how the game connects progress to learning rather than pure challenge. Completing skate trials gives me new tricks, gear, and tangible growth, yet the emphasis is always on experimentation. I’m encouraged to chain moves, try alternate routes, and use the space around me as a playground of ledges, rails, and precarious structures. Selling my soul for new decks, trucks, and wheels is a stylish way of handling upgrades, but it also reinforces the game’s tone: everything in “Skate Story” is built around commitment and sacrifice, even the customization.
As I moved deeper into The Emptylands, I kept meeting tortured souls who added a bit of personality to the journey, figures like a forgetful frog who became more endearing than I expected. Some characters exist to be saved, while others are there to be destroyed, and skating fast turns into a combat tool when demons appear in my path. The contrast between the quiet, contemplative stretches and the sudden bursts of danger creates a pacing that feels unconventional for a skateboarding game. It’s as if the Underworld shifts around me depending on how confidently I’m riding. The art direction is easily one of the game’s strongest elements. Watching a crystalline skater streak across a hellscape covered in ash, smoke, and glowing distortions creates visuals that feel both threatening and hypnotic. Chromatic aberration, reflective surfaces, and stark lighting make every area look intentionally overwhelming, as if the world wants to distort my sense of direction. Paired with a psychedelic soundtrack composed by Blood Cultures and John Fio, the atmosphere becomes fully immersive. The music swells and pulses in a way that gives each environment a heartbeat of its own. I even had to add many of the amazing tracks to some of my playlists on Spotify.
There are absolutely moments where the flow breaks down. Because the protagonist is literally made of glass, even minor stumbles can shatter momentum, leading to stretches of slow recovery or awkward repositioning. Some sections lapse into repetitive exploration where I’m simply rolling forward with little to react to. And a few pockets of eccentric humor land more oddly than amusingly. These dips don’t ruin the journey, but they highlight how much more invested the game is in style, sensation, and pacing than in offering a deep mechanical sandbox. While I don’t mind reading text, I felt like this game could have easily used a tranquil voice cast to have it all flow better. That said, “Skate Story” still rewards me for pushing through those rougher patches. The more time I spent refining tricks, the more satisfying the controls became. Even though it is a skateboarding game, it doesn’t aim to be a robust or realistic skate sim. Instead, the skating is a tool for self-expression, exploration, and emotional texture. If someone approaches it expecting a mechanically dense skateboarding experience, they might come away disappointed. But when viewed as an atmospheric journey with skateboarding as its core language, it becomes something far more compelling.
The most memorable moments for me were when speed, music, and environment synced together, pulling me into a kind of hypnotic state. Surreal landscapes, glowing pathways, and beautifully bizarre imagery made me want to keep pushing forward even when the objective wasn’t entirely clear. The narrative is delivered in fragments, encouraging me to piece things together through interactions and environmental cues rather than direct exposition. I appreciated how much trust the game places in players to interpret meaning rather than chase explicit explanations. By the time I reached the later layers of Hell, I felt the game’s themes reflect through the way I skated, humility, perseverance, momentum, failure, and trying again. Eng manages to take an idea that could’ve easily collapsed under its own ambition and hold it together with a clear vision of pacing and mood. Even with its minimalistic structure, it left a strong impression on me simply because it dares to present skateboarding as something poetic rather than purely mechanical.
“Skate Story” isn’t the best skateboarding game I’ve ever played, but it’s absolutely one of the most visually and emotionally striking. The combination of crystalline art, atmospheric music, and an unconventional setting makes it stand out in a genre that rarely experiments with this level of surrealism. It won me over despite its rough edges, and by the end, I couldn’t help but respect how boldly it commits to its identity.
8/10
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Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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