From all the intrusive Vaporwave Aesthetics of Skate history has the chance to overwhelm my senses, I notice something surprising – the sound of skateboard wheels rolling across a slightly gritty surface. It sounds exactly how skateboarding should sound. It’s a small detail, but one that immediately makes me feel that, despite all the visual sophistication and absurd story, the core of this indie skateboarding game is a deep love for every aspect of the sport. The rest of the demo surprises me just as much with complicated but not over-the-top mechanics. Skate history was one of my most outstanding games from the Tribeca Film Festival Game Selection and you will fall in love with skateboarding.
Everything I really knew about Skate history before my hands-on demo, which consists of the first chapter of the game, was that it’s a skating game where a glass protagonist jumps over flowing obstacles in hell. Normal stuff for a skateboarding game, right? When I start my demo, I get some of the normal stuff: it teaches me how to turn the board, slide, and push forward to gain speed.
When Skate history finally teaches me how to do a trick, it’s a simple ollie, something you’ve probably done a million times without thinking in a game like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. The in-game text praises the trick and says how fundamental it is to all of skating, and finally it teaches me to hold the controller bumper and press a button. I do a little jump and it feels good. I mean that both mechanically and just as a reward – I feel successful for doing something so small.
This applies to all Skate historyTricks. I only learn three of them in the first chapter and all of them have a button combination that must be performed, adding extra jump height if timed correctly. None of them are as flashy as most skateboarding games today. Skate history features short tutorial screens for each trick, showing you visually how a skater’s feet move on the skateboard to perform the trick. This is completely unnecessary since you’re not actually doing it, but it’s clearly about showing love for the little aspects of skating.
During an interview after I played the demo, developer Sam Eng (who showed up to the demo with a skateboard in hand) referred to the flow state of skating and how the game tries to capture that mood. “It’s almost like a dance,” says Eng. (If it’s a dance, there’s also the perfect music to move to thanks to indie band Blood Cultures, which adds to the game’s already amazing sound profile.)
Eng said things like the tutorial videos teach the player a little about real skating. “I want people to feel like, ‘maybe I can skate’ at the end of the game.” That’s one reason why you don’t see the Glass Skater in the game doing wild triple flips and spins while making massive jumps. It just doesn’t feel like real skating, especially Eng’s personal experience. “I can’t do crazy shit,” he admitted.
Even though ice skating is treated with a sacred reverence, Skate history also parodies society’s perception of skate culture. The premise of the entire game is a joke about skaters being criminals, as you are a glass demon skateboarder trapped in hell but wanting to eat the moon. Eventually, you are sentenced to prison for the crime of skateboarding, which is a “sin beyond all sins” according to a floating bust of an ancient Greek philosopher.
At the end of the chapter, everything comes together (the full game will have nine chapters to explore the nine circles of hell from Dante’s Divine Comedy). The player must face the philosopher statue in a test of their skating skills. It’s basically a boss fight, but you win it by stringing together tricks to deal damage. But even though there was a time limit and I was seemingly in a fight, all I could think about was how to string together the perfect trick combo that felt fluid and looked cool. Despite the vaporwave aesthetic, giant statue heads, and giant moons waiting to be eaten by demons, I came away from Skate history an incredible feeling of peace. This is the flow state that Eng talked about.
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