Author: Rich Meister
Skateboarding games are pretty great. As a kid growing up on Long Island, skate culture was rather prominent, and skating up through my high school years was almost as important as gaming. Outside of skateboarding (an activity that my knees no longer permit), The Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series largely shaped my taste in music and pro skateboarders to admire.
Luckily those games are also fucking amazing and just as fantastic today. It is today’s unfortunate reality that skateboarding games are few and far between. For that reason, I gobble up pretty much any skating videogame that comes my way in the case of games like the Pro Skater remasters; that’s great. When it comes to games like SkateBIRD, you manage to get some fun over a package that’s more than a bit rough around the edges.
SkateBIRD (PC [reviewed], Xbox One/ Xbox Series X/S [avaliable as part of game pass], Nintnedo Switch)
Developer: Glass Bottom Games
Publisher: Glass Bottom Games
Released: September 16, 2021
MSRP: $19.99
To get to the heart of what works and doesn’t work about SkateBIRD, we should talk about what kind of skating game it is. It’s more Tony Hawk than Skate. You press buttons to do grab tricks, flip tricks, grinds, tilt the thumbstick to enter a manual. All of those things should be familiar to THPS veterans. Still, the overall feel of the game is different, and it’s that change that both immediately turned me off but eventually made me appreciate SkateBIRD for the unique thing it is.
You see, you’re playing as a bird, and the game doesn’t forget that. You’ve got wings and hollow bones! Traits like this make things feel real floaty compared to other skateboarding games; you can even flap your wings to do a second ollie while in the air. The strange nature of controlling these light little fuzzy birds makes the game pretty awkward, and it’s hard to tell what’s by design and what is just less than tight controls.
Your bird stumbles a lot, so much so that you can change quick reset points when attempting more intricate combos. This game presents the sort of chill vibes and upbeat Punk and Ska soundtrack from bands like We Are The Union that it constantly feels at odds with the clumsy controls and occasionally frustrating mission design.
The game is spread out over five levels where you and the rest of these little birds are skating to improve the life of “Big Friend,” the avian’s owner. This ranges from cleaning up big friend’s apartment to destroying server rooms at their office, all by skateboarding! You don’t have to complete every goal in each level, but you do have to clear most before the story can naturally move you onto the next park.
The levels ranging from a simple apartment to a rooftop or an office building all have their charms, but the levels that hinge on more vertical design can feel tough to navigate with the games less than stellar controls. I found myself getting stuck on geometry in spots the game didn’t necessarily want me to be one too many times, and even certain mission objectives can seem frustratingly out of reach even when you feel like you’re doing exactly what the game is asking of you.
On a more positive note, the part about being a bird is real cool, and let’s be honest, that’s why most of you are here. From the word go, there are a ton of customization options for your bird. Not only can you choose what type of bird you are, but equip them with all sorts of hats: belts, capes, and other weird accessories. There’s also a ton more to unlock by finding it in the parks, along with new skat decks and new songs to add to your mixtape.
Verdict: The birds are dope, and everything else is just okay. If you don’t already have access to this via gamepass, it’s hard to recommend dropping money on it before it goes on sale for cheap. The physics and overall polish of the game aren’t where they need to be, and the overall difficulty is all over the place, making it less accessible than it seems to be aimed at. I wanted to love SkateBIRD, but maybe I’ll love SkateBIRD 2.
Skip it
[This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer]