Ladies and gentlemen the moment I’ve been waiting YEARS for is finally here.
Well… kind of.
Take my hand as I transport you back in time three years to when I first saw the trailer for a little game called Skate Story by Sam Eng published by Devolver Digital.
The gritty, VHS-punk visuals captured me immediately. The tortured demon skater made of glass and pain is so evocative; capturing the feeling of skating not just as a sport, or an individual, but as an entire culture.
Skating is a dangerous thrill seeking activity performed by delicate squishy meat people. Society targets skaters as social deviants, but they skate nonetheless. They skate because they love it, because it’s the only thing that allows a disgruntled youth to take their mind off the rapidly deteriorating state of society.
The hypnotizing visuals aren’t the only thing that captured me about this trailer. The teaser music by Blood Cultures is magnetic. A cool, catchy song, about taking your dreams and setting them on fire.
The presentation of Skate Story says more about skating than entire franchises dedicated to skateboarding. Games like the Tony Hawk and Skate series pull their inspiration from the chaotic whimsy of something like Jackass. This is one aspect of skateboarding and the naivety that comes with hormones and an underdeveloped pre frontal cortex, but there is far more of the sport to explore.
The demon in Skate Story is trapped in hell, and the only way from them to escape is seemingly to do the impossible. Swallow the entire moon.
Symbolically we can understand what this means, and I think it’s just so genius. A skater trapped at the lowest of lows using what they know to escape their situation. So they skate. They skate towards an impossible goal as it seems the only tangible way to release them from the shackles of their current existence. Is it even achievable? Does it really matter? It gives the skater hope and so they skate on.
To my delight, out of nowhere, a demo for the game released on Steam. I saw it in an email after work. The demo dropped along with a release date.
I downloaded the demo and played it.
What did I think?
After three years of buildup could the game possibly deliver in a way that felt satisfying?
Absolutely! The demo is what can only be described as “Fucking awesome!”
Pardon my French.
The demo is only the first chapter of the game, but it delivers exactly what I was hoping for. The tone, the vibe, the music, the feeling of skating. I could not have hoped for more, and I can’t recommend the demo enough.
Please go give it a shot.
Link to the Steam page: Skate Story
Thanks for reading!