Skating games were my life for months at a time. Whether it was the next Tony Hawk iteration or EA’s SKATE, every time a shiny new skating title would hit my doorstep, I’d be engrossed in that world for weeks on end. I wasn’t the best skater in the real world, but digitally I was a pro, ready to ride with the best of them. That feeling has been missing for quite a while now after both franchises have been put on hold, but Skater ($5.99) for iOS recreates some of that magic on the go.
As you’d expect from a touch-based skating game, the controls take some time to learn. In that sense it’s a lot like riding a bike, or learning any new concept — and it’s surprisingly well designed for the medium. In essence, you’re controlling two feet as they manipulate the board around your gestures. It’s a picture-perfect viewpoint, as you see exactly what you need to, and with a more zoomed-in view it’s easy to flick and tap away without crowding up the screen real estate.
The trick system is surprisingly robust. To kick off and gain speed, you’ll tap and drag from the side of the board to push with your virtual shoe. To steer, you just swipe and hold to the left or right to change your direction. To jump, you can hold/release (or just tap) the back of the board to ollie, and the front to nollie. From there, you can queue up a number of tricks with specific taps, or spins with swipes. It’s all very intuitive, and all you really have to do is memorize a few specific sequences and you’re good to go on the basic concepts.
You can also grind with a simple tap gesture when approaching a rail, and manual by sliding and holding your finger from the middle of the board. Grinds feel extremely smooth although it’s tough to figure out when to jump onto the actual rail at first, and manuals feel more realistic and down-to-earth than other skating games. With Skater, you’ll basically be able to do anything outside of grab tricks, which could have been incorporated in, but are absent in general.
Rather than progress through an epic career full of secret tape collectibles and score attack requirements, you’ll skate your way through three full parks and two smaller “skate spots", serving as sandboxes of sorts — Woodward Plaza, Stoner Park, and The Berrics for the parks and Hollywood High and the Carlsbad Gap for the spots. The goals aren’t extravagant, and any sort of exploration elements are non-existent. What you see is what you get.
Social features are built-in and aren’t just “share your run on Facebook" throwaways. You can actually see runs from other people online, learn from them, and adjust accordingly. Once you have everything unlocked the game really opens up and lets you experiment — you just have to get there first.
This is where Skater starts to lose a bit of its luster, as a real career mode would have done wonders — in addition to some extra levels. The method of unlocking is also a bummer, as you’ll have to repeat the same goal over and over to get to the next area. The goals are pulled from others’ saved replays online, meaning the quality of them is very hit and miss. Having said that, all of the parks feel authentic, and skating fans will recognize a few legendary spots.
With a few extra parks as free updates and some tweaking with how things are unlocked, Skater would feel like less of a slog and more of an homage to the sport. It’s amazing how well the controls have translated to touch, but the actual game needs a bit of work before every skating fan needs to pick it up.
