You've had Skate Story, now get ready for Skate Style, a 'next-gen skateboarding game' that lets you customise your character's animations
The skating game revival of the last few years has been an unexpected, but welcome surprise. Vicarious Visions' remaster of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 heralded a new wave of aspiring skate sims, ranging from the ultra-authentic Session: Skate Sim to the abstract brilliance of Skate Story, with EA's online playground Skate landing somewhere between the two.
Now, another challenger has, er, entered the half-pipe (I apologise to all skaters). Skate Style is a new game about risking shredded knees for the thrill of mild propulsion that leans closer to the Session end of the authenticity scale. Developer Zellah Games bills it as a "next-gen skateboarding game" focussed on realism and physics-powered tricks.
What separates Skate Style from other games of its ilk is its extensive customisation. Not only can you customise the look of your skater and board, but Skate Style also comes bundled with an in-game animation editor. This allows players to adjust numerous variables like body movement, foot placement, and timing. This combines with a physics-based trick system where your character's feet can actually catch the board.
As for where you'll be skating, Zellah Games highlights two maps based on real-world locations. The first is Barcelona's Museum of Contemporary Art (known as MACBA), where you can take advantage of its modern concrete exterior, as well as surrounding squares and hidden alleys. The second is Prague's Stalin Plaza, which the developers describe as a "legendary flatground spot". The trailer also shows off a dedicated skate park, presumably where you can hone your skills before jetting off to Skate Styles' European locales.
I think Skate Style has a chance of catching some attention, given how some of last year's skating games didn't quite live up to their promise. PCG's Kara Phillips thought EA's Skate felt like it was made by men in suits, and that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 was inhibited by the decision to implement time limits for every level.
The exception here is Skate Story, which thoroughly impressed Lincoln Carpenter in how it pays off its premise of a more narrative-driven skating experience. "It culminates in a stunning closing sequence that's on an altogether different tier of audiovisual and presentational ambition," he wrote in his Skate Story review. "In my last hour skateboarding became a cosmic force with such biblical-scale intensity that the game as I knew it up until that point started to buckle around it."
There's no word on a release date for Skate Style yet, but you can try the game yourself through its recently released demo.
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