‘Skater XL’ is a Neverending Skate Sesh: A Review

Dropping In Easy Day Studios’ Skater XL plays no games. Which is to say, it’s a game, but it comes with no frills. At all. So, it’s more of a skateboarding simulator. There is no story mode, no coy and cliché ‘skater talk,’ nothing but the skate. It is a pared-down piece of gaming that is perfect for those looking to find the zen of skating in the age of corona. This is not Tony Hawk Pro Skater. You will never do a front or backflip. Not a one. You can land a 900 right out the gate, but you will not be skating as Spider-Man doing web-flips off of a rollercoaster. Not even close. Skater XL looks to stand out by doing the exact opposite of the more popularized frenetic pacing of most extreme sports video games. If you can land a simple tail grab, you just might strut around your house like a peacock. The gameplay makes you earn every trick. For better or for worse. Kick, Push If a game doesn’t have a dynamic element to it that makes players want to experience, it falls flat. BulletStorm had…Bullet time, and Sekiro had the grappling hook and Skater XL has independent foot control. Sounds like a tiny thing, but to control both feet of a skater means that the player executes every trick. Every little hop, flip of the board, each minute aspect of the game is controlled by you. The layout is super simple, the left and right sticks control their respective feet. It does exactly what is says it does, which might be summed up as Skate with more realistic trick execution but the jump fl…