Its really great to finally have an accurate portrayal of your home state New York after so many movies and games getting it wrong. Thank you Sam Eng

The game has a good premise and amazing soundtrack, but lacks so much polish that I am amazed it came out. The entire game looks like it was made in the Dreams creation engine for the PS4. The low poly statue textures may have been a design choice, but having them be the main narrative pushers, spouting Katamari Damacy levels of dialog while zoomed in to the 480p free model store statue texture takes everything away from it.

Underneath the graphics and music is a thoroughly mediocre game with repetitive gameplay mechanics we've seen countless times before. Tricks are no more involved than just repeating L1+B, L2+B, R1+B, R2+B, L2+R1+B repeatedly until you stomp the board to cash in. There are no pipes, no grabs. There are grinds but nothing more than that. Hub areas involve collecting letters and spamming tricks. The game is not doing anything innovative mechanically. The plot and dialog with NPC's is so random that people actually try to find some spiritual meaning in them, like an AI hallucinating an image out of noise, when it actually feels like the whole script was written by AI in the first place. Boss fights are just performing the same trick patterns in a random order, but in certain play areas. "Corridor" levels are where the game uses the visual and music combo to it's best degree, but many of these are just two second straight lines with randomly placed stretched and rotated cubes that feel like they were the result of a late night Blender session, rather than intentional. I would've preferred the whole game to just consist of these levels but with much tighter design, achieving something more like Sayonara Wild Hearts did, even if it was only two hours long. The game pads itself out for six hours but by the penultimate act and after 4.6 hours, I'd simply just become sick of playing the game any further. After watching the first trailer I was excited to buy this, but it seems I'm not blinded by the graphics and music as others and actually see the game for what it is. An impressive feat by a solo or small dev, sure, but that doesn't make it a good game. I have not enabled comments for this review because I know that there's a strong contingent of keyboard warriors that cannot stand other opinions that don't align with their own, and I'd rather not spend time defending my opinion. Just leave a clown emoji or whatever makes you feel better.

This game should have just been a music video. I have no idea how it has so many glowing reviews, I'm on chapter 5 and have been bored the entire time. I've spent more time skipping though cutscenes than I have spent skating. Moving from uninteresting hub world to uninteresting hub world is not doing it for me. The Trick system is the worst I have ever came across, you literally can not bail on your tricks so most events can be beat by slowly rolling in place while you mash b and every shoulder button followed by X to end the combo. This game is hard carried by vibes and Blood Cultures. I've never refunded a game on steam, but now I'm bummed I've played this turd past the two hour refund window hoping that at some point it would get good. Chapter 4 go collect 15 letters, 12 of which you can walk over, two of which require you to do the repeated floor moon symbol (mash tricks in a circle) and one that you jump off a ledge. I'm spending more time clicking through cutscenes than skating. Oh yay boss battle time, B,RT B,LT B,RB B,RT, BX, repeat 4 times move on to more cutscenes and a new uninteresting hub world. I thought I was going to have to skate like a demon and avoid shattering. Instead I can mash tricks in place and the only way to shatter is taking a corner wrong. And who cares if you shatter, the only downside is the camera freaks out and rolls around on the ground for to long. I like a bit of skill required in my games, none of which seems to be asked for here. Maybe it gets better later, but after 3 hours of a 6 hour game I'm ready to tap out.

i really wanted to like this game but it just doesnt feel good to play. im sure alot of people will like it just try the demo first

The first hub in this game is a lyceum, but it never asks you to think. It asks you to feel. It takes the conglomeration of sensory experience that only videogames are capable of providing, in harmonising sight, sound and touch, to provide a sort of rare, surreal immersion you won't feel anywhere else.

I don't get it. I found it very boring, a skateboard game with very limited freedom? Surely not for me.

stay out of this game that's what you get when you slap your name all over the place and start the game by making player to sign a contract with a devil. feeling smart, Sammy?

I've had better. You REALLY want us to know your name, eh? lmao

I've been waiting for this game for a minute. I purposely avoided the demo in order to get pure first time impressions on the finished product and all I can say is: Wow.

DEMONS! TONIGHT.... WE STEAL THE MOON!!!

A fantastic and unique premise for a skateboarding game. Controls are tight, and the soundtrack is legendary. Blood Cultures is one of my favorite bands, and the use of their music in this game is superb. If you liked the control scheme from the Tony Hawk games, and enjoy good music, then I highly recommend this game.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3620443327 DEMONS! TONIGHT.... WE STEAL THE MOON!!! -Pulowski "One solo developer just made the kind of game that shouldn't exist. A game that big studios would never even dream of trying. You're a glass demon in hell dealing with failure and anxiety. Surreal, twisted, weird, and the only reason it exists is because one person refused to make something safe. Skate story isn't just a game. It's an art piece about failure, pressure, and climbing out of hell. The kind of game that actually makes you feel something. And somehow one person managed all of that while still nailing realistic skating better than EA or Activision ever have. This all comes from the mind of a solo developer, Sam, who's an award winning New York-based artist who treats games like art, not products." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B88NvXonv8U

such an eye candy, ear candy, brain candy, emotional candy, style candy... get it already? THIS GAME IS CANDY PLAY IT EVEN IF YOU HATE CANDY, IT WILL MAKE YOU LOVE CANDY (suitable for diabetics)

quite similar to worms 3d

Skate Story is an aggressively okay video game that has brief moments that are so emotionally overwhelming that you just kinda wanna go gaaaaaaaaah and shoot tears out of your eye sockets and wave your stumpy arms around like a little anime character. I'm not exactly sure what to make of that to be honest. I guess I'd recommend it for people who play enough video games to wanna check one out for spectacular bits spread out inside a dazzling but otherwise a somewhat underwhelming affair. The music and visuals do most of the work for sure, but there's also jjjjjust enough of a skateboarding game in there to let you swerve in and out of moments where it all Comes Together™ and turns your brain into a laser beam shooting disco ball kaleidoscope of pleasure. It can't be overstated just how striking this game sometimes is. But the thing is that the skateboarding game in there is not a very complete feeling arcade skater in its simplicity. Instead it feels like a few chunks lifted from a more simmy skater, enough to remind you of EA's og Skate games, but like an eigth of what you get up to in those games from a mechanics standpoint. This doesn't feel simplified so much as it feels like things are missing. And you wouldn't want this to feel complex, anyway, so it's kind of distracting to root it, to a degree, in realism. I suck for saying this but... maybe this should've been... a fundamentally different game. If you compare something like a Jet Set Radio even to a Tony Hawk Pro Skater, let alone Skate, the games are ostensibly similar but in reality their respective movement options facilitate very different experiences. You wouldn't want the involved tricks of THPS in JSR, and THPS would feel mind numbingly shallow with the handful of arcadey manoeuvres afforded to you in JSR. Skate Story truly soars when it goes for its linear, almost platformer-esque levels that mixes Downhill Jam with Thumper, and although the skate park bits are absolutely a good idea for the pacing overall, they quickly highlight just how limited the game is as a skateboarding game. All the while the tricks are so grounded in reality that they basically all look the same, lost in the game's razzle dazzle lightshow. More broadly there are also more egregious pacing issues eventually. The last third of the game seems to completely abandon all semblance of structure and throws things at you willy nilly. You'll finish one linear section only to immediately launch into another. The nonsensical cutscenes that start out endearingly random turn downright obtuse and annoying before it's all over, and the final bits were so glitchy and random I had just completely given up on parsing anything at that point. Skate Story peaks early, and glitchily stumbles over the finish line at the end. So aggressively OK, then. But also! I haven't emphasised this enough - a game with moments when your heart swells from how breathtakingly beautiful it can be. Moments of music and visuals and gameplay working so well in unison that they would make Tetsuya Mizuguchi proud. If I based the entire review on those fleeting moments I would call this the coolest game I've ever played. But it's sixish hours, in which it also finds plenty of time to be understimulating and annoying, unfortunately.

Tony Hawk's divine comedy

i can't really recommend it based on the price. i did enjoy the game, i think the story is a little obtuse, i didnt like the ending, but i overall enjoyed my very short 5 hours with the game. the issue is 20 dollars could buy you either hollow knight game, both of which are like at least 50 hours long. this game feels more like the 7-10 dollar price range for me. i want to make it clear, i did not expect this game to be super long. i did expect it to be more reasonably priced though. wait for the game to go on sale, then buy. i dont think its really worth 20 bucks.

Very cool concept, I never quite know what's actually going on but I love it. The soundtrack slaps and the skating is super satisfying overall just having a lot of fun with it.

I was loving this game. But it has a weird issue where it "skips frames", or I don't know how else to call it. Basically I'd see the skater start an animation and then the game would skip to the completed animation. Or for example when speeding down a straight line, I would just do a lot of mini-teleports ahead instead of smoothly running forward. This makes the game unplayable for me, I hope it will get fixed down the line for the game is great.

im 14 and this is i think the deepest game i have ever played

This game is a product of labour of love and care. It is a short but powerful experience, it's packed with some of the prettiest visuals I've played in a game in so long, the soundtrack is phenomenal and the gameplay is just so fun, it's got a few core mechanics that work so well together. And for 20 USD? hell yeah. I absolutely love high quality games under 8-10 hours that scratch this itch I always have. It's also got tons of fun references to all sorts of different media, albums, shows, etc. It's just clearly made with so much love, I really hope it goes mainstream and succeeds. Sam Eng, you cooked hard.

Skate Story just *feels* SO damn good, every effort being made to provide just the most brain-sparking skateboarding experience possible. The low grinding sound of the wheels as it changes from asphalt to concrete to bumpy textured parts of the side walk, the skidding of sliding to the pitch of a manual. The physics and how you can just slowly roll down hill and let momentum carry you across the level, how when you crash, you eat shit in *just* that right way where the foot catches the rail and your glass body is launched forward into a thousand pieces. How the weight of the board is just slightly different depending on if you're in a switch stance or not due to how your body's positioned. You're given plenty of opportunities and environments to do this skating in as well, from wide open asphalt lots where you can build up plenty of speed to claustrophobic corridors and skate unfriendly parks of steps and cliffs. The games environments are obviously inspired by NYC, and it gives it that certain authentic flair and taste you only get in games where the developer(s) really live in that area. The unique demonic trimmings the game provides, alongside the real life things like scaffolding, water barriers and street markings give it that lived-in spice that makes everything play and feel so much better. The initial trailer of this game introduced me to the Blood Cultures, and their ethereal tracks tie the entire experience together with a bow. Skating in the surreal mash-up of environments, wheels gliding and grinding as the soundtrack has the most scintillating synth and bass, punctuated with skate tricks really is just one of the most wonderful soundscapes presented in games. The game is divided into more linear-ish corridors and open 'trick-battle' arenas, to hub worlds where you're given the ability to just freeform skate about with relaxed objectives. That I can spend an hour upon hours just freely skateboarding about, exploring and seeing everything without really a concern speaks volumes. It just feels good to skateboard, it feels good to land a long combo as you naturally flow from point to point, it feels good to fuck up a trick and crash horribly into glass. Skate Story just makes me want to learn skateboarding myself, which is probably the greatest praise I can give it. It just captures the speed, feeling and freedom of the sport so perfectly. Unfortunately, while I'm not made of glass, it certainly feels that way at times, and respawning is a lot less possible in real life than in game.

looks like moon back on the menu boys

mmmm yummy moon yum yum