Session: Skate Sim Reviews

Session: Skate Sim is ranked in the 28th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
Andy Kelly
Top Critic
Sep 22, 2022

Session is the skating game I've always dreamed someone would make, where performing even a 'simple' trick is significant and challenging. There are no mile-long grinds or 900-degree kickflips here: just real skating in its rawest form. It doesn't just simulate the sport, but the art of skating too. You need to get creative, looking at the everyday clutter of a city and dreaming up ways to make something rad out of it. That's what street skating is all about, and why Session is the best virtual expression of the artform yet.

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9 / 10
Sep 22, 2022

Crea-ture Studios have achieved a great feat by making the most authentic skateboarding game to date, seconded only by going out and practicing kickflips yourself. The physics-based controls are incredibly intuitive and satisfying to learn. There’s a steep learning curve that may put players off but if you stick with it, there’s no other game that does skateboarding as well as this. It’s not without its minor flaws, but look past them and you’ll find a game with endless replayability.

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8.7 / 10.0
Sep 28, 2022

A game clearly made by skaters for skaters. With a high learning curve, Session brings the ultimate simulation of the sport, leaving your mouth watering for what the crea-ture will bring next.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review

Sep 22, 2022

Session: Skate Sim is not a casual skateboarding game - it's a simulation game designed to give you the closest experience you can get without actually getting on the board.

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8 / 10.0
Sep 22, 2022

Session: Skate Sim is unique amongst its peers. Its control scheme, while taking time to master, is massively rewarding. Rolling around the streets and finding your own skating lines is addictively entertaining. It's a shame about the quest system, its overall presentation and some of the rough edges but do I feel Session is a few patches away from greatness.

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Sep 24, 2022

With the presence of multiple pro skaters including Daewon Song and Samarria Brevard, as well as a semi-open world with legendary skate spots like Black Hubbus and FDR Park, Sessions: Skate Sim is a well-written love letter to the sport. While some may feel underwhelmed by the lack of customization and find the controls too difficult to adjust to, players that have a love of skating and are itching to dive into a new skateboarding title will eventually feel right at home.

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7.5 / 10.0
Sep 23, 2022

Although Session: Skate Sim is a difficult game to get used to, the joy of pulling off tricks far outweighs the frustration. It faithfully recreates skateboarding culture of the 90s, and offers tons of freedom to play however you want.

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GameGrin
Top Critic
7.5 / 10.0
Oct 5, 2022

Despite the 1.0 release, Session: Skate Sim still has a few issues. However, this shouldn't keep any skating fan away from this deeply rewarding simulator that can, at times, feel just as rewarding as the real sport.

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7.5 / 10.0
Sep 22, 2022

Session: Skate Sim lives up to its name as it’s certainly the most realistic skateboarding game ever made. However, realistic skateboarding doesn’t always translate to a fun time in the virtual space.

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7 / 10.0
Mar 9, 2023

Session: Skate Sim on Switch feels better when controlling the board, but the visuals certainly suffer in both handheld and docked.

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70 / 100
Sep 27, 2022

Session: Skate Sim is the most authentic skateboarding experience you can get from a video game. Though you will fall down (a lot) and may get frustrated, you will undoubtedly leave this experience with a greater appreciation for skating and the culture that surrounds it.

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JVL
Jivé
Top Critic
14 / 20
Apr 26, 2022

Session Skate Sim is strictly speaking by the long-awaited Skate 4 and not really a spiritual sequel. If it is indeed the simulation of this most advanced discipline on the market, it is exaggeratedly complicated to take in hand and still quite empty, closer to a big nostalgic sandbox game of the early 2000s.

Review in French | Read full review

70 / 100
Sep 30, 2022

Sim games approach their subjects with a mix of reverence and intense focus. Unlike more arcade-style skateboarding games, Session is a pure, unfiltered experience. If you want to recreate the slow, careful process of learning how to skate, this is your game. But be warned! The mix of intense difficulty and self-directed gameplay isn’t for everyone. Anything less than a pure, powerful love for skateboarding will leave you feeling dissatisfied with this game. But if you’re looking for a pure challenge, and don’t mind a few bugs, you’re in luck. Session: Skate Sim is exactly what you’ve been waiting for.

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7 / 10.0
Sep 28, 2022

Session: Skate Sim is the best skateboarding simulator you can play today. It might not be the best skateboarding game, though, with so much focus on getting the feel of the ride just right. The learning curve is such a steep cliff that many more casual skateboarding fans (or especially those without huge chunks of time to dedicate to a game) will likely give up before being confident on these virtual decks. Still, Session: Skate Sim is a challenging simulator worth your time if you’re a hardcore skateboarding fan.

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6.5 / 10.0
Nov 2, 2022

This skateboarding simulation will really torture you. Hardcore players will enjoy it, others not so much. Session: Skate Sim is just an unfinished version of a project with good ideas.

Review in Slovak | Read full review

IGN
Top Critic
6 / 10.0
Sep 28, 2022

An unapologetically tricky ode to street skating, Session is packed with a palpable love for the sport, but bugs and unsympathetic tutorial and mission design decisions undermine its approachability.

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6 / 10
Sep 28, 2022

In particular, it’d be nice if the game did more in the way of teaching you the ropes, offered different control schemes, and provided a wider array of accessibility options. In general as well, it’d be nice if the game offered more in the way of incentives, excitement, and action to keep you coming back for more, regardless of its punishing difficulty.

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6 / 10
Sep 22, 2022

The mission structure of the game devolves into going to a place, doing a trick or route, strung along by forgettable story dialogue. The missions have a habit of being poorly explained, furthered by being unable to re-read text boxes explaining what you need to do. And rarely do the inputs needed for specific moves get shown during these prompts. For better or worse, Session is a game for the hardcore skater. While its dedication to realism is impressive, the frustration in the early hours is likely to turn most off.

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GamingBolt
Usaid
Top Critic
6 / 10.0
Sep 26, 2022

With a steep learning curve and bland presentation, Session: Skate Sim ends up being a disappointing package for hardcore and casual fans of the genre.

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60 / 100
Oct 2, 2022

Session: Skate Sim is undoubtedly a love letter to skateboarding enthusiasts that embraces the realistic aspects of the sport, but it might not appeal to everyone with its convoluted control scheme, and it still needs more polishing.

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