Your player character touching what looks to be a moon, carefully putting his hand on it's surface. A red backdrop lights up the area.

Skate Story Preview – Anime NYC 2024

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The Lords were live at the Anime NYC Convention show floor. During the convention, Lord Sonic got a closer look at Skate Story, developed by Sam Eg and published by Devolver Digital.

Skate Story Trailer and Overview

As stated on the official Steam Page, Skate Story can be described as the following;

Ollie, kickflip, and grind your way through the ash and smoke of The Emptylands as you take on a seemingly impossible quest. Learn to master your weight and motion to conquer the weeping concrete. Savour the ritualistic beauty as you set your feet to pop a perfect kickflip.

Skate fast to destroy vicious demons, help a forgetful frog, and save other tortured souls on your journey from fragile beginner to a hardened skater. Push through hell and discover The Devil’s greatest weakness: humility, perseverance, and a disgustingly sweet backside tailslide

Gameplay

Playing the demo at the Anime NYC booth, the player character is told they need to collect specific objects to open a doorway of some kind. After that, you are guided to a more open area to explore, where I was learning the overall controls of the game.

While the camera perspective reminded me a lot of Skate, the overall gameplay leaned harder on games like Tony Hawk, with me using a mixture of the face buttons and shoulder buttons to kick-flip. One major difference between this and other skating video games is that you don’t press a button to grind. You do it automatically when you land on certain objects.

Like any great skateboarding game, you can grind on some objects in the world of Skate Story. Nailing a great grind can be quite the challenge!

Also worth noting is that there is a health system of some kind, with your player character being able to take a few hits before they bail out and re-spawn. In the demo, I usually re-spawned close to where I bailed out/died. But this could present an additional challenge in the full game.

One ability featured is the ability to walk off your board, giving you the ability to reposition yourself. You can’t swing your board or do much outside of walking, something that the later Tony Hawk titles and Skate 2 & 3 gave players the ability to do.

Skateboarding through a mysterious location in Skate Story

Progression, from what I could tell, stems from helping NPCs in the open areas. They tell you about an action they cannot perform, you perform the action and then you get alerted to a ‘level’ of some sort. Finding the doorway, you do the action you just learned and are tested your mastery of said ability. In the demo, I was tasked with jumping over various objects for a few areas, and then I landed back in the open area and was able to continue.

The best way I could describe this game flow is the mission structure of a Tony Hawk title but without the timer that was present in the PS1/early PS2 era installments. I was in the zone during my 20 or so minutes with the game and excited to see how the level design evolves as I learn more moves and master various tricks.

Skate Story Presentation

What made Skate Story such a stand out at the Anime Expo was its art style, which is visually stunning. Going for a vapor-ware, 90s-inspired look, the title looks unlike any other skating game on the market.

My favorite element of the presentation was the player character, who looks as if they are made out of glass. This is further empathized with bailouts having you shatter like glass, giving further impact to mistakes on the player’s part.

One of the many striking locations you will be skateboarding through in Skate Story, with a bright red moon lighting the area.

Also worth shouting out is the immersive soundtrack. When asked about licensed music, a trademark for skateboarding games, I was told they already have one artist lined up. If the demo implies anything, the music they crafted will match the striking visuals.

Platforms and Engine

When talking with the person running the booth, I was told Skate Story runs on Unity. This a common engine other developers at the Anime Expo were also using for their titles.

Regarding platforms, only Steam is confirmed. However, when asked, the rep at the booth told me that consoles would be considered in the future. Considering Digital Devolver typically releases most of their titles on consoles, they could get a studio to help port Skate Story after its PC launch.

Closing Thoughts on Skate Story

As someone who grew up playing the Tony Hawk games, seeing such a stylized approach to the genre is exciting. Even if the overall gameplay is similar to other skateboarding games, having such a striking art direction and using that to allow creative-level design can go a long way in making an engaging experience.

Something that impressed me was the overall tone of the game as well, going for a dark humor approach, very much in line with Digital Devolver’s breed of humor.

I can’t wait to see more about this project and stay tuned for future updates on Skate Story in the future at Lords of Gaming! Stay tuned for further coverage we have on games and more that were at the Anime Expo NYC!

Robert Kellett

Lover of video games of most kinds and passionate writer wanting to make a difference. My favorite franchises include Sonic, Zelda, Ratchet & Clank and Persona.