Skatebird review: It’s no Tony Hawk, nonetheless it choices tiny hawks
MSRP $19.99
“Skatebird’s robust skating mechanics are offset by its charming internet-age humor.”
Execs
- Snigger-worthy writing
- Often pretty
- Killer skating soundtrack
Cons
- Controls terribly
- Wonky physics
The skateboarding recreation fashion has a lot of established royalty. In case you’re looking out for one factor very arcade-y, you play Tony Hawk’s Skilled Skater, whereas Skate 2 or 3 will provide a barely further sensible (nonetheless nonetheless absolutely bombastic) experience. Regardless of the best way you check out it, these two franchises private the skating fashion, very like Identify of Obligation and Battlefield private multiplayer shooters. There are others in the marketplace, nonetheless they don’t stack up.
Now we now have Skatebird, which swoops out of nowhere and immediately displays that whereas it’s not going to take away the crown from Tony Hawk’s Skilled Skater, it was moreover on no account designed to. In its place, Skatebird is correct right here for folks to have a gratifying, albeit sometimes irritating time. It’s a goofy arcade skateboarding recreation filled with gratifying dialogue and silly references that doesn’t promise to supply anyone the skating recreation of their wishes. Nevertheless it will a minimal of brighten up your day.
For the birds
The entire premise of Skatebird is written in its title, and within the occasion you’re not used to jokes like that, merely depart this review now. You’re a hen that skates. Skatebird appears like skateboard. Get the picture? Good, shifting on.
In Skatebird, you grind, flip, and chirp (or as the game calls it, “screm”) all through mundane areas as a tiny, gnarly hen. The game has all of the trimmings of a typical arcade skating recreation, starting with character customization, with players ready to determine on what kind of hen they want to be and what goofy gear they want to placed on. Naturally, I went with a cowboy hat that always stayed on.
You thought Skatebird wouldn’t make a Tony Hawk joke?
After a quick introduction, players are thrown correct into the game’s first area: An infinite mattress room that belongs to their hen’s Large Good buddy. Sadly, Large Good buddy is feeling down, so the skating hen, along with a flock of others, decides to flee from the room, work out why the nice buddy is so miserable, and restore the problem with the power of skating.
Skatebird‘s story is one pun after one different, all with a fragile background of anti-capitalist sentiment …
Briefly, the hen’s proprietor has a crappy job at a crappy tech startup, which the birds naturally sabotage, first by diverting the boss’ AC out of his office and to everyone else, after which by destroying servers and further. Skatebird‘s story is one pun after one different, all with a fragile background of anti-capitalist sentiment, and if the considered capitalism-hating birds doesn’t put a smile in your face, I’m begging you to get a humorousness.
Increased off flying
It’s a bummer to say, nonetheless Skatebird‘s goofy story and silly jokes are the celebrities proper right here. The game sticks to its arcade sort, with each face button controlling one switch. One button does an ollie, one different does grinds, one different does grabs, and so forth. That’s concerning the excellent part of Skatebird: It’s easy to control. You establish when your hen does a seize or grind. What’s quite a bit, quite a bit more durable to have any have an effect on over is whether or not or not you actually effectively land after performing a trick.
Skating in Skatebird has all the grace of a hen on a skateboard, which is precisely none the least bit. The hen is further like a fish inside the air, flopping spherical with none sense of route. I’ve executed ideas after which tried to land on the underside, solely to have the board pointing at a 45-degree angle for some trigger, which results in my hen fully consuming tar. The game seemingly plans for that, though, giving players administration of their bailed hen, which might be rolled spherical for gratifying, nonetheless that feeling solely lasts through a few failed landings.
Getting spherical with wheels on the underside isn’t any increased, as Skatebird‘s wonky physics engine generally decides {{that a}} small come across an object is ample to knock your hen off. At totally different cases though, you’ll assemble up tempo and hit a wall, unable to point out spherical because of the game seemingly nonetheless thinks you’re accelerating, meaning you have to bail out.
Situations like which may be made way more infuriating when you discover it’s not quite simple to assemble tempo in Skatebird. Birds, naturally, can’t pump on a skateboard. In its place, the game has a “Fancy” meter, which players fill by going up and down ramps to go faster. Sooner than performing any huge leap or prolonged grind, you have to snake your means through some ramps, whereas nonetheless guaranteeing that you simply simply don’t come across one factor or fall off the board, which makes for a irritating drawback.
Skating in Skatebird has all the grace of a hen on a skateboard, which is precisely none the least bit.
What Skatebird lacks in grace, it makes up for in attract. Whereas spherical half of my moment-to-moment gameplay was spent aggravated at my hen for deciding to see what pavement seems to be like like shut up, the alternative half was spent grinning like a goofball. Skating spherical to the game’s implausible soundtrack, which inserts in fully with totally different skating recreation soundtracks and might most likely end up on my Spotify rapidly ample, is an absolute blast. Small touches like this made each half else bearable.
Our take
I don’t contemplate Skatebird was made to be the proper skating recreation ever, primarily because of it’s so faraway from incomes any such achievement. In its place, Skatebird‘s proper right here to be a distraction — one factor gratifying and goofy to take your ideas off points. It’s admittedly exhausting to contemplate paying lease or totally different heavy subjects when you’re participating in a silly little recreation a couple of silly little hen on a silly little skateboard.
If you end up purchasing for Skatebird, don’t anticipate it to reinvent the fashion. It doesn’t. Nevertheless this recreation could have been about birds that dive underwater and uncover (working title: Skubird), and as long as it launched the equivalent attract and humorousness, I might need beloved all of it the equivalent.
Is there a better totally different?
In case you’re looking out for an excellent arcade-y skating recreation, Tony Hawk’s Skilled Skater 1+ 2 is a simple go-to.
How prolonged will it last?
I’ve put about 5 hours into Skatebird, however once I tried to assemble every collectible and beat every mission, it might most likely take upwards of seven.
Should you buy it?
Certain, albeit with the caveat that you simply simply temper any expectations. Skatebird isn’t a recreation about skating birds, nonetheless a recreation about birds that will skate.
Editors’ Solutions
