Skate

2025-09-27
Nothing will capture the feeling of when I landed my first ollie on a skateboard in real life. But learning how to do it in the first Skate is up there. I mean really, when was the last time you played a game where you had to learn how to do a whole new thing; that wasn't just a remix of an existing concept or mechanic? To be able to take a genre so well defined and turn it upside down and make it much more fun and engaging in the process is insane. God, the feel of coordinating the perfect flick of your finger for a 360 flip here and a manual there after you get your approach just right is unmatched.

We could talk about how annoying the voice over guy is, the over-emphasis on capturing "footie", and the bland ass map that gets old fairly quickly--but who cares? Just like my real experience with skateboarding it's about fucking around, ideally with friends. "Yo this school around the corner has a sick set of stairs. We should check it out." The vibe is mastering tricks and hunting for the perfect line. It's about freedom and creativity. And that core is so fully formed out of the gate with Skate I can't help but love it, warts and all.

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Used to have this on 360. I think Josh Agnew borrowed it and lost it lol.

But man this game was one of the coolest things ever when it came out. Actually having to "learn" how to skate due to the controls was fucking dope. When you actually got good and could show off doin' varial kickflips to a grind to a manual like a real Rodney Mullen. I never really got good at skating IRL so this was dope for me. Better than the arcadey THPS in a lot of ways. Though those games were dope as well.

The open world got boring after a while. I think they needed a better structured story like THPS:U but it was dope either way.