Skater XL | PS4 Review

Growing up with the luxury of arcade skaters like the Tony Hawk's series kind of has me spoiled I think. To a point it does impact my thoughts on 'Skater XL'. While I get what the developer was trying to do with physics based mechanics I think it was an attempt that fell flat on it's face. For one of two reasons. Reason number one being it's more fun to actually skateboard in real life than it is to skateboard in a simulation of real life skateboarding. Secondly there's really no incentive to continue playing after you've completed all of the challenges. The way the game is setup with every customization option available upfront, and with a list of challenges that does not require precision execution it feels like a hollow attempt at mimicking something that would have otherwise been fun.

Skater XL, for those of you who don't know, is a skateboard physics simulator that has the player manually performing tricks with the characters, their two feet, and a skateboard. The feet are themselves tied to the left, and right thumbsticks respectively. Left being the front foot, and right being the back foot. By pressing down or forward on these thumbsticks after kicking off with X you will cause the player to jump. Follow that up with additional direction inputs via thumbsticks and rotation tied to the L2 and R2 shoulder buttons, and you will perform tricks. Said tricks play out in conjunction with the map obstacles. Changing the nature of the tricks from flips, to grinds, and even grabs or manuals.

In total you can skate pseudo-realistically across five large as life maps in 'Skater XL'. This includes a school named after the development team, L.A.'s city limits, the desert, a courthouse parking lot, and one other locale fit for such activities. Within these locations you can change your spawn position on the fly using UP and DOWN on the DPad after bringing the option up with TRIANGLE. It is in these locations that you'll either engage in free play for replay video capture, or grind out a list of preset and demonstrated tricks for challenge/completion sake. While there are static challenges available in a challenge list that covers everything from the basics to tricks, to grabs, and manuals among other things you will find that free play is where the intended fun is supposed to be.

Before getting into the thick of it all you can partake of the game's skater customization options. It is a customization offering that does manage to outdo Tony Hawk's customization, but still feels less than optimal in that fairly much everything is unlocked from the get go. That, and it's bland. You'll find male, and female genders to choose from, their attire, and their assortment of skateboard parts. The attire comes with branding as does the decks, grips, and wheels. There is some really cool looking deck art to choose from, and out of all the available custom content the deck art is what stands out the most. Sadly custom character options seem generic making physical changes go almost unnoticed. Characters are merely skin tone palette swaps with a select few hairstyles, and clothing articles to choose from. Nothing all that impressive.

When it comes to gameplay it is burdened heavily by frame rate drops that causes in-game action to stall significantly at times. So much so that pulling off a lot of the challenges becomes frustrating. I think the game's leniency on precision landings shows that the developer knew there was a problem with control functionality, and execution in general. One issue I constantly happened upon myself was with the thumbsticks not allowing for crouching before a jump. This would cause an automatic jump that would more often than not result in a fail. With the physics the way they are gameplay felt rather stiff across the board. Again, I understand the developer was trying to mimic real life skateboarding with independent foot actions, but it is in that attempt that I believe they failed. In the end what you get is more of a cross bred simulation, and less of a video game experience. There is no real incentive, or reward for playing this game. Even showcasing properly executed tricks would come off as nothing special as what you are looking at is not the spectacle that arcade skateboarding games provide, or the real life counterpart either. The added soundtrack also does little to impress as it is an indie assortment of what could best be described as new generation tunes that no one can, or will connect with. There are no pulse pounding hits, or lyrical masterpieces that I heard while playing. Mostly forgettable tracks of a similar soft sound.

The Verdict ...

On the scale of skateboarding mishaps I'd say "Skater XL" did a crotch split on the rails like one of those funny videos shown on the idiot box. It was truly a trial to play through. It felt broken, and it felt quite boring in all honesty. I'm not sure it would even be something actual skateboarders would appreciate. It lies somewhere between arcade and manual in execution, but not fully either or. I think the developer could do better in a lot of areas within the game, and there's definitely some more patching that needs to be done.