The time has come to freshen up the grip tape, tighten the truck bolts, and grease those bearings as we flip-trick our way into our next grind in the oddly brilliant Skate Story. Developed by Sam Eng and published by Devlover Digital, Skate Story backside board-slides its way onto Steam on December 9th, and I’ve been blessed enough to be able to play the full release early. Without further ado, let’s drop into the review, and we’ll see if this title shreds.

In Skate Story, you play as a demon in the Underworld, made out of glass and pain. The Devil has given you a skateboard with a simple deal: Skate to the Moon and swallow it, and you shall be freed. Ollie, Kickflip, grind, and manual 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 tre-flip. Skate fast to destroy the vicious demons, help a forgetful frog, and save other tortured souls on your journey from fragile beginner to hardened skater. Push through hell and discover The Devil’s greatest weakness: humility, perseverance, and a disgustingly sweet nollie-backside tailslide.

Players are in for a wild ride as they make their way through the campaign. Initially, I made numerous assumptions about the story while playing through the first couple of chapters, but nothing could prepare anyone for the twists and turns that lie ahead. I loved how the story explores the philosophy behind why skaters choose to skate.

As someone who enjoys the shred, I really felt very connected to the story’s message, taking me back to times when I would punish my body with hour upon hour of attempts trying to kickflip-indy grab over a shopping trolley. On the flip side, there are sections of the story that lean a little too far into weirdness, which can cause some confusion. However, it never ceases to be exhilarating.

Souls are the currency of The Emptylands; players will need to successfully land tricks, grinds and complete objective challenges to acquire souls. I found that collecting souls was easy enough to achieve, provided the combo was high enough, and I banked them early enough with a stomp to complete the combo. With enough souls gathered, players can spend them on learning new tricks by interacting with the red obolyiscs, and even purchase new decks and trucks from the various shops, which adds a nice little customisation option.

Skateboard customisation doesn’t stop there, though; players can also collect some pretty sweet stickers hidden in each freeroam hub section. Chasing down each of the Moons that serve as the vast majority of the story’s boss battles provided me with a great deal of satisfaction. While all of the boss fights had the same basic objective to whittle down the health before pounding it into the pavement, the game does a fantastic job of keeping them challenging enough that they don’t become stale.

Describing the art style used throughout the game is actually pretty hard; it is a blend of realism that almost becomes an aetherial dreamscape. I particularly loved that the skater’s design was made almost entirely of glass prisms. This character design choice does such a brilliant job of portraying the frailty of the human body as it shatters under the pressure of a hard slam.

It also delivers the very solid message of what goes through a skater’s mind as we try out new tricks and seek perfection: no matter how many times we slam and break our bodies, we will always pull ourselves together and keep breaking ourselves until we nail it.

As much as I loved a heap of the art direction, I am left with a question or two about some choices, though I can’t really ask them here without spoiling the game. I’ll just simply say this: Why?  While I appreciate the weird and wonderful, this particular decision just doesn’t suit a hellscape and slams face-first into the concrete.

Sounds of scuffing griptape, bearings screaming, truck rubbers creaking, and decks popping fill the air as players skate their way to earn their freedom, and it is music to my ears. These sound effects have certainly earned their triumphant “Yeeeewwww”.

The backing soundtrack delivers banger after banger during boss encounters, but it seems to fall to the wayside during quieter moments of shredding reflection. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, it just feels like a piece or two is missing.

Skate Story delivers an incredibly unique perspective into the mind of a skater’s journey to perfecting their favourite tricks. As a skater myself, I couldn’t have found it easier to connect to the campaign’s challenges that it throws at every turn.

This journey through The Emptylands is a wild ride that can get a little too weird for its skate shoes, but delivers a solid story well worth playing. Skate Story Kickflips onto Steam on December 9th and will also be available to play day one for PS Plus members.

Written by: Gary Nielsen