I have nothing but respect for a Steam update that promises gameplay details then quickly melts into an impressionistic tone poem about fighting the moon. Really though, what else does Skate Story need to say? We’ve already known how lovely it looks since not-E3 of 2022, then we found out even more about it from a demo last year. Do you want to miss out on the action of a game that made Brendy use words like “abstract rhythmodivinity” and Graham use words like “popeye’s elbow”. Of course you don’t. Here’s the new trailer.
“How do you take down the Moon? You skate. Charge toward the Moon’s Front, breaking through electric barriers,” reads the update, which has (details) in the title after the word ‘deets’ like a fusty copyeditor took a stolen bank biro to it. “Every trick you pull off lands a hit on the celestial beast. Stay close, ride fast, and mix up your moves—grinds, flips, and spins. Repetition is your enemy; stale tricks lose their bite. Keep it fresh, keep it flowing”.
“Boss fights are pure rhythm and motion,” it continues. “When the music kicks in, lock eyes with the cosmic giants. Feel the beat, keep your speed, and time your tricks perfectly. Land enough hits before the song fades, or watch yourself shatter like glass. Stay stale, and you’ll fall flat. Stay fiery, and you’ll burn through the stars”.
Ok, so there are actually some tangible details in there alongside the trapezoid-tongued wibble prose (it’s very nice prose). Brendy described the skating itself as fairly straightforward at its core, with “no sense of exaggeration to your movements compared to something like Tony Hawk games”, nor the control complexity of Session or Skater XL. “Sometimes my hands – trained on years of OlliOlli – want it to be quicker, more sensitive to my own twitchy pace. But the game won’t budge on that, a tempo I will learn to respect”.
Skate Story is due out sometime this year.