I genuinely don’t even know where to start with Skate Story, the new skateboarding game from Sam Eng and Devolver Digital. I could tell you it’s one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever seen, with incredible, dense, otherworldly environments and a protagonist made of glass, and one of the best soundtracks of any game ever. Or, I could mention how strong the skateboarding is, with each new level and space a blast to fly through, every new level of Hell a joy to ollie and grind through. I might even mention how insane the story is in the best way, a skate park acid trip mixed with a philosophy essay that grabbed me and did not for a second let go.
What I can tell you is that it hasn’t left my mind since rolling credits, and that even if there are minor technical issues, it’s one of this year’s best games. Even though it’s launching at the end of the year, this one can’t be missed.
A Demon And A Rabbit Walk Into Hell
Skate Story follows The Skater, a demon who made a pact with the devil. It’s simple enough: eat the moon, and The Skater gets their soul back. Quickly enough, The Skater descends through the different layers of Hell, chasing down seven different moons for the Antichrist. While this sounds simple enough on the outset, it goes very Alice in Wonderland very quickly, down to a rabbit helping guide you.
Each new level of hell is entirely unknown and otherworldly, mixed with just enough of the real world to ground it slightly. A cityscape is peppered with floating philosopher heads who comment on life as much as they do your skating, pigeons working on manuscripts in coffee shops with creatures that have no mouths but want coffee, and permits for sleeping. Every new space is as integral to the storytelling as the narrative itself. Every chapter ends with a long poem recounting on events, and I looked forward to reading every single one.
Despite finding words to explain all this, the feelings Skate Story brought out of me were genuine confusion and intrigue. It goes full Kojima mixed with Gurren Lagann at points, and even after finishing, I still don’t know if I totally understand everything that happened, but I do know how it made me feel and the imprints it left on my mind. It begs for multiple playthroughs to dig in and try to understand from another perspective or with the gift of hindsight. It’s very heady and strange, asking questions about purpose, motivation, and impact, while also meeting a frog that serves you milk so you can sleep. I haven’t experienced this sort of feeling since the original Death Stranding, where things seem familiar and not all at the same time.
Otherworldly Ollies in Skate Story
On the gameplay side, Skate Story is pretty simple, but that’s by design. You won’t struggle to pull off ollies, heelflips, or other tricks, with even the most complicated tricks being just a few button presses. An ollie pops off with a press of the circle button, but as you press it, a squiggly bar appears, rewarding a perfectly timed press with a bigger jump. This extends to the combat, if it can be called that, as you fight massive bosses, pulling off tricks before slamming in certain spots to do damage. Skate Story intelligently draws on skateboarding tropes and plays with them, where collecting letters becomes a quest rather than just a checkbox, and hitting higher scores is only really necessary at specific points. It’s more about the platforming and speed than the core skateboarding design, but you’ll need every trick you know to make it through.
Skate Story heelflips through a few core gameplay loops. The first is quick levels where you need to get to the end, warping through short spaces, you need to ollie and flip through to reach the end. These sections are tense and electric, whipping through as they try to carefully interrogate the environment to jump or grind at the right time. These hallway-like sections give way to new layers of Hell, open areas with manholes to trick over, characters to meet, and souls to collect, a currency for buying new skateboards, wheels, stickers, and so on, and more. These areas slow down the pace, offering time to master tricks and customize The Skater’s board, while learning more about the inhabitants of Hell.
Glass And Neon
Graphically, Skate Story is one of the most visually distinct and beautiful games I’ve ever played. The mirror-clad Skate reflects in constant light, a prism of multicolour and nothingness all the same. The environmental design is incredible, with some environments unlike anything I’ve ever seen. A normal-looking city is twisted with darkness and neon, where a bagel shop is as typical as the fish made of refracting pieces of crystal soaring overhead. It constantly challenges itself to be different than the space you just left, carrying forward a design philosophy that stays roughly uniform and different all at the same time.
It also doesn’t hurt that the soundtrack is wall-to-wall with wonderful music. The entire soundtrack is by New Jersey experimental band Blood Cultures and Joh Fio, pairing gorgeous visuals with incredible tracks that complement each other perfectly. A mix of lo-fi airy tracks with light beats and vocals gives way to dense and heavy tones as you skate and encounter bosses. Every new track is an auditory delight that elevates the skating and graphics on screen.
Playing on PS5 Pro was largely great, but Skate Story does suffer from an uneven frame rate. It drops frames regularly, especially when a lot is happening on-screen. It feels buttery smooth at points, and jittery at others, especially when turning. Hopefully, the performance gets ironed out with some patches, but other than that, it runs and looks great.
Verdict
Skate Story is a brilliant skateboarding game unlike any other. Even after rolling credits, I’m itching to replay it to revisit some of those locations and songs. Skateboarding is tight and accessible while also pushing the player to learn the tricks The Skater can pull off. The story is a trip, one that is constantly ridiculous and heady in the best way. While the frame rate can be uneven, it’s just one minor flaw in an otherwise incredible experience. Don’t sleep on Skate Story, especially without a permit.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5 Pro
Great review—Skate Story sounds like a beautifully strange, unforgettable experience that blends surreal storytelling with stylish, accessible gameplay. The way it explores purpose, confusion, and impact through such an otherworldly lens really stands out, especially how emotion carries through even when everything doesn’t fully make sense.
Interestingly, that feeling of navigating a world that looks familiar but behaves differently is something many people experience in real life with invisible conditions like POTS. If anyone reading this resonates with themes of disorientation, fatigue, or navigating environments that don’t always play fair, resources like pots.net offer clear, grounded information and support for understanding Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.