To make sense of Skate Story is a futile endeavour. Like the moment you roll credits on a David Lynch film, or buying your fifteenth game when you’ve not beaten the first one, you try to rationalise that experience. Instead of seeking meaning from secondary sources, you conclude with your own, and often those conclusions are beyond words. Developer Sam Eng is figuring things out in Skate Story. On the surface, the game is an experimental skateboarding arcader that follows similar gameplay conventions to those that came before it; think Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series, EA Skate and even Skater XL or Session: Skate Sim.

But if you pry into the game’s flowery, oftentimes nonsensical dialogue and bold nightmarish vaporwave aesthetic, there’s more to glean than just skateboarding. It taps into the personal examination of what keeps people moving forward. Whether this is an exploration of Sam Eng’s journey of developing Skate Story, or his journey with skateboarding, it’s almost as if neither matter because Eng’s conclusion is Skate Story.

You play as a demon encased in glass and with an appetite for the moon. After signing a contract with the devil, you’re given the ability to skateboard to satiate your hunger. However, skateboarding is a sin – one of many sins in the underworld you reside in, so the pushback to eat the moon and stop the endless night is on full display. What proceeds is the skater fliptricking, grinding and varialing through various depths of the underworld to eat the many moons that keep the demons from ever sleeping. It’s trippy, enigmatic and indulgent as far as narratives go, but the indulgence is instinctive to Eng’s in-game vernacular.

Despite its encrypted narrative, there is a sense of realism at its core. Whether that’s the New York-esque structures scattered around the blackened backdrop, the VX1000-style camera work (fisheye lens necessary) akin to your favourite skate videos or the physically accurate animation of the skater, it all wrangles the unfamiliar and mysterious into something fairly palatable.

Had Skate Story not felt like a game where the skating was a core component to its challenge, I don’t think I’d feel nearly as compelled to understand what is quite blatantly obtuse about its storytelling. And this is what gnaws at a skater’s purpose. Why do we do it? Doesn’t falling mean pain? Why carry on? There’s nothing really driving any of it apart from self-achievement, which is somehow how Skate Story plays out.

This also bleeds into the gameplay. Whilst it doesn’t have the fluid functionality of EA Skate’s “flick-it” controls or Tony Hawk’s plethora of trick combos with a mixture of direction and face buttons, Skate Story sits snug between the two. L1, L2 flick your front and back foot one way, whilst R1, R2 the other, with ‘O’ (Circle) acting as your pop. This is then all manoeuvred with timing as you press a combination of those buttons, kind of how you would pull off the tricks in real life. For instance, a kickflip would be R2+O. It’s easier in action than explaining it. Although it doesn’t feel instinctive or as responsive to your inputs like other skating games, the requirement for precision and execution is not as strict.

This results in Skate Story being far less demanding in that aspect and much easier to get into the game’s flow state. You also have a powerslide mapped to ‘Square’, your push mapped to ‘Cross’ and movement/manuals tied to the left analog stick. It’s a humble configuration that takes a little getting used to if you’re new to skateboarding games or entrenched in others, but I found that it did exactly what it needed to.

It toes the line of simulation by attaching proper physics to the skater and their board, whilst leaning into its more arcade-y aspects by creating levels that complement the style of navigation. Big ramps, bigger ledges, open spaces to trick in and stellar boss battle scenarios all make Skate Story feel like the fever dream it visually presents. A bail means you shatter into pieces, but the game respawns you a few feet back to try whatever you wanted to again, with no real penalising for failure.

All of this culminates in a style of gameplay that’s fun to learn and really satisfying to master. Some of the scenarios in the later game feel earned by throwing harder obstacles at you and shorter timers to fulfil those score requirements, and it starts to feel a lot like skateboarding.

Then you have the game’s audio/visual design to elevate this whole experience to another level. Just like Lakai’s “Fully Flared” expanding the art of a skate video with its explosive intro, then going straight into one of the best video parts soundtracked by Arcade Fire, Skate Story exudes that same energy. New York’s anonymous psychedelic indie group, Blood Cultures, alongside John Fio provide the music here, and if you’ve watched any of the trailers, you’ll know why it’s the perfect pairing. Blood Cultures go from trip-hop to electronic to dream pop with a kaleidoscopic soundtrack that befits the narrative and gameplay.

Then you have the game’s style. Refractions from the environment, lens flares bouncing off the skater, sparks flying from grinding/powersliding, flashing lights that fill the space – it teeters the line of being almost too much, but it’s just too cool to complain about. As I mentioned about the game’s demand from the player, these visual flares don’t necessarily distract because you’re rarely punished; instead, you’re just enveloped in this underworld. Then, some of those heightened moments, like the boss fights, where the visuals are popping, and the music is blaring, took me back to those skate parts I’d watch to hype myself up before skating. Which I think is the biggest compliment I can give it.

It’s not all skateboarding bliss, however, as the game becomes confusing to navigate in the final act. The game presents a manageable formula of tricking to create a higher score and stomping your last trick to lock in that combo in various scenarios. However, in the final act, where it gets trippier (believe it or not), you’re left to work out what to do, and it’s not necessarily anything you’ve done before. This left me in a few moments where I was just skating around to figure it out, because the game doesn’t tell you well enough.

That said, it’s a minor design choice that slightly brings down what is otherwise a sensationally made skate odyssey. It’s been a few snazzy trailers and even more years to wait for its arrival, but that time to tinker with and let Sam Eng figure out what this game is to him and what he wants to present has been well worth the wait.

Whether you like the design choices made or the visual cascade on screen is kind of superfluous, because this is one person’s vision seen to its fullest. And I can’t help but respect that, even if I don’t completely understand it all. But that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Finding your own meaning, enjoying the process and basking in the outcome.

Skate Story is out now for PlayStation 5 (review platform), Nintendo Switch 2 and PC via Steam.

Developers: by Sam Eng

Publisher: Devolver Digital

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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