Skate City Reviews
When the easy flow and music clicks just right, it hits well, but there is little else on offer here. Its lack of deeper mechanics or aspects for players to sink their teeth into is rather disappointing and leaves Skate City with nothing to hook players after experiencing the vibe it offers.
Skate City takes being casual a little too seriously. If you have the money to spare, but don't wish to splurge on an Apple TV, you can fire up Skate City on a big screen with its release on consoles and PC later this week. You'll probably enjoy the relaxing visuals with some lo-fi music playing in the background. If it were up to me, I'd just boot up Tony Hawk's Underground 2 instead.
With headphones on and the right mindset, the lo-fi vibes are enjoyable, but this is far from a competent Skate 4 sit-in without the tight controls or the engaging level-design and challenge.
Skate City is buoyed up by its excellent and mellow lo-fi soundtrack, a veritable repository of chill beats to skate to. This defining aspect helps elevate a simple concept to put you in the right mood to engage with it. While the visuals are nothing to write home about and the finnicky controls can sometimes cause frustration, there's still something special about chilling out with a 20 minute skate session after a hard day's work, and discovering yet another great lo-fi tune. However it should have launched for consoles with at least all of the content and modes from the mobile version, if not more for its bigger platform debut. While Skate City is a relatively engaging and mellow experience overall, it's one I have a hard time recommending on console at its new premium asking price.
Skate City isn’t terrible, but I can’t help but feel that I could just spend my time playing a lot of much better skateboarding games out there instead of this one, be them indies or AAAs. It has good ideas, but its execution feels undercooked due to its unnecessarily confusing control scheme and pitiful amount of content.
Skate City is a chilled-out but ultimately shallow experience. Don't go in expecting anything too involving and you should have fun.
Skate City is a laid back, chilled out alternative to the more hectic skateboarding action of the likes of Roll7's OlliOlli series. The various tricks and skills here won't take you long to master, putting together little runs through Los Angeles, Oslo and Barcelona feels satisfying and the overall aesthetic suits the rather simple, straightforward nature of proceedings. However, there's an undeniable lack of actual challenge and variety here, alongside a few niggling framerate issues on Switch, that result in a game that's reasonable enough value for a quick bash, especially given its budget price point, but one that won't last anyone beyond the most avid of skateboarding fans for much longer than a couple of hours.
Aesthetically, Skate City fares well. The visuals are simple, but Snowman has nailed the grunge look that the sport is known for. The original score is excellent, and soaking up its relaxing lo-fi beats makes even the most frustrating challenges enjoyable. Unfortunately, the three courses are a tad too realistic and end up feeling interchangeable. However, the addition of a slow-mo function and a dynamic camera make capturing your tricks to craft your own videos a neat additional feature. Take the time to master it, and there's fun to be had in this city.
When I think of skating titles, flashes of things like Tony Hawk or the X-Games come to mind...
Skate City provides an enjoyable few hours of gameplay. However, I have to lower my score by half a point, due to the frame drops in the Switch version. I can only guess that there is no such problem on other platforms, so you will probably have fun on the next-gen or PC.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Skate City could dare more when it reached the consoles. Its attractive visual composition and sound track achieve a certain level of immersion, which unfortunately is broken by some slips. Maybe with some additional content, the feeling of being playing a mobile title will be changed and it will be seen as the fun indie that it has the potential to be.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Skate City isn’t the most engrossing of skating sims, but it still manages to offer a relaxing experience that’ll appeal more to the casual crowd. It’s not particularly difficult, it doesn’t have a ton on offer content-wise, and it can be a bit too easy to string together tricks, but it’s fine – it isn’t trying to constantly test your skating skills, but instead absorb you in its relaxed world of skating. Skate City won’t be for everyone, but if you’re looking for an extreme sports sim that never feels TOO extreme, it might just be for you.
Skate City is nice and offers very intuitive systems, with a list of well-balanced challenges that value the learning of different skills. However, as it is an experience initially thought for mobile, it offers very little in terms of aesthetics, is repetitive and has limited and uninspired content.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Simplistic, light on content, and if played in longer sessions, repetitive. However, when played in short bursts and after you have got to grips with some of the games nuances it can be fun and rewarding. There are better skateboarding games out there without a doubt but if you have played them all and want to shred, Skate City does have its merits.
Skate City is a cozy and casual experience with nice visuals that can quench the thirst of the skater inside you. The touch controls have been adapted quite nicely to controllers and mouse & keyboard.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Skate City isn’t going to wow you. If you have the patience to master its awkward controls, however, it’s a game you can keep going back to, delving into it for as long or little as you please. With its action more grounded, it’s not as exciting to play as some of its competitors, but some will enjoy its more technical gameplay and showboating element that arises out of its video editing features.
That's what Skate City brings to the table. A breezy, no-stress experience that's addicting for 15-minute intervals. If you are looking for some low pressure coffee shop skateboarding, this is the game for you.
Though admittedly basic, Skate City has brought a bit of the "pick-up-and-play" mechanics of mobile to PC, with mixed results. The basic visuals are countered by fairly complex controls, that are a fairly substantial time-suck to perfect. Some may not find this to be their cup of tea, but if your willing to invest the time and effort to 'git gud,' there's plenty of fun, just waiting to be uncovered.
Beyond the actual gameplay, Skate City has some serious merit as an introduction to the world of lo-fi hip hop. These tracks will haunt you in the kindest fashion possible, quiet and blissful beats that bounce around your subconsciousness for weeks afterwards. If you’re looking for a more soft-focus, laid-back skateboarding game, Skate City is not to be missed.