Whether you’re playing on Switch or PC, by far, the best feature in Skatebird is its music. I was about as non-zen as I could be while playing Skatebird on Switch – a stark difference in comparison to our preview of the game. Okay, that’s a bit dramatic, but with the typewriter and graphical issues, along with the unresponsive controls (which I mostly attribute to the terribly designed Joy-Con controllers), it just wasn’t an enjoyable experience. Unfortunately, the entire Switch experience gave me a sour taste in my mouth and had me ready to hurl my handheld device out my second story window and onto the street below where perhaps a skateboarder would ollie directly onto the device, shattering it into a million pieces. I initially began my review by playing the game on the Nintendo Switch, since it seemed to be the platform of choice that was shown off during various gaming showcases in the build-up to its release. With that said, I need to disclose that I’m approaching this review a bit differently than other reviews, as I reviewed Skatebird on two different platforms at basically the same time. While playing, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a really, REALLY well-done remaster of 1998’s Rugrats: Search for Reptar levels mixed with 2000’s Grind Session (I promise this is a compliment). Don’t expect to be blown away if you’re already a hardened veteran of the genre. In that sense, the game is a great entry point for those just starting to cut their teeth on the skateboarding genre. You do, however, have a double jump ability and a slower descent back to the ground after catching big air. If you’ve played any games in the THPS series, you will be immediately familiar with Skatebird’s single button flip tricks, grabs, rotations, stalls, and grinds. Each level has a different theme, such as a bedroom and an office, where Birb will kick flip and tail grab its way over ramps, rails, and big air jumps made out of everyday objects like leftover pizza boxes and straws.Ĭontrols are about as straightforward as you can get. It does not get any better because the image update on the Nintendo Switch is sometimes way too low, which often becomes a big problem in a game that relies a lot on timing and precise controls.Related: Xbox Game Pass Adding 13 Games, Including SkateBird, Aragami 2, And SableIn terms of its overall gameplay, Skatebird puts you in the skate shoes (talons?) of Birb – a house bird who skates throughout sandbox-like levels while taking on missions and collecting hidden objects. The textures are sticky and nothing looks visually striking. Perhaps the problem is partly that the environments never feel inviting, as Skatebird is not very beautiful. Just as in the case of Pro Skater, there are a variety of smaller missions to tackle and there are also collectibles to collect. The desire to explore and try on all sorts of missions was great, but that desire never really shows up in Skatebird, even though the two games are basically so similar to each other. I played a lot of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 when I was younger and I really loved it. As you might expect, these are not normal skate parks that the birds are at, but just what you would expect birds to have done, if they were skating in reality. Pizza boxes serve as ramps and bowls filled with noodles provide grinding opportunities. skate parks, available to visit, with the first being a bedroom that you have turned into a skate park. In addition, you can decorate your bird with headphones, a Roman helmet, fisherman's hat, goggles, scarf, necklace and, of course, your skateboard. Owls, parrots, a raven, a kookaburra, the list goes on. When the adventure starts, you can choose between different kinds of birds to play as. Skatebird allows you to create an avian skater from a broad range of options. But, the fun of that series is unfortunately not nearly as present here. There are buttons to grab your board, grind, do a flip and other things you expect to be able to do, and the controls feel very much like Pro Skater. In other words, it's not like Skate at all. Those who have played one or more games from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series will quickly see Skatebird for what it is. When it comes to Skatebird, which is the closest a player could come to this desire, the dream is hardly captured in the way I had hoped. Being able to flip and trick, while tweeting away just seems like something gamers would be all over, with that presupposing that the game is good, of course. Skating as a magnificent bird is something that all video game enthusiasts have probably had a desire to do at one point in time.
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