Skate Story Is The Decade’s Most Memorable Skateboarding Game
Nirvana on four wheels.
This year saw a mini-renaissance in skateboarding games. We got a new Tony Hawk Pro Skater remake, compiling two of the best games in the series. EA’s Skate finally returned after half a decade in development. There were even weirder games, like the underrated roguelike Helskate added a compelling twist on the genre.
I can say definitively that while each of these games is great in their own way, none of them is bursting with as much creativity and flair as Sam Eng’s Skate Story. This trippy odyssey through the inexplicably urban underworld is one of the most euphoric games I’ve played all year. And I can make an easy glowing recommendation for it to close out 2025.
Skate Story puts a supernatural twist on the classic objective-based skateboarding game that was common 20 years ago. It has you playing as an unnamed demon made of glass who signs a contract with the devil to obtain a skateboard. His mission is bizarre but simple: eat the many moons of the underworld. If he’s able to accomplish his goal, the devil will free him from this plane of existence.
Along the way, you meet other abstract beings who either help or hinder our hungry hero. Disembodied statue heads, adorable working-class frogs, and bespectacled penguins give the demon quests, which in turn provide access to a final boss or obstacle course testing the player’s skating abilities. Sharp, concisely written lines of dialogue and narration, as well as a series of poetic excerpts recapping the surreal events unfolding in each chapter, funnel the player through this dream-like story. The narrative has themes of rebellion and perseverance, one that feels more authentic to actual skate culture than any of the other skating games released this year.
Skate Story reminds me most of story-based skating games like Tony Hawk’s Underground. You buy new skateboards and stickers, and keep on improving. Tricks are performed using the shoulder buttons, and modified with the face buttons and D-pad. Landing tricks is easy, but timing and positioning are key to excelling. While it doesn’t have the variety of Skate or Tony Hawk Pro Skater, it serves this eight-hour adventure well enough.
Skate Story’s trick system is just deep enough to serve the elements that surround it.
What sets this game apart is the total spectacle of audios and visuals. Skate Story looks like nothing else. Its world is a spacey, dream-like version of New York City, one that will ring familiar to those who’ve ever skated or watched people skate in the Big Apple. You experience it all from an intimate skate-cam perspective that pulls you into this world closely, emphasizing every trick landed and every painful fall.
Tying it all together is the absolutely bananas licensed soundtrack, courtesy of experimental indie pop band Blood Cultures. Their range is as surreal as this game’s premise, switching effortlessly between psychedelic funk, hype Daft Punk-esque electronica, and laid-back chillwave from one track to the next.
Your goal is simple: skate well enough to eat the moon.
Whether you’re bombing down a hill at 40 miles per hour to the ethereal sounds of the song Emptyland or cruising around at your own pace to the nostalgic vibes of Set It On Fire, Skate Story’s soundscapes are tailored to put you in a trance. The soundtrack here elevates the game’s set pieces and story crescendos to an absolute must-play. Save for Lorien Testard’s work on Expedition 33’s all-original soundtrack, Skate Story is the best-sounding game of 2025.
Skate Story is the most memorable skateboarding game to come out in decades. It’s a visual and auditory feast. Underneath the sensory hype is a mind-bending yet compelling story worth experiencing at least once, and one that I will surely play through again. Skate Story is a must-play game for both long-time fans of this estranged genre and for players looking for something totally fresh to play.
