SkateBIRD review

SkateBIRD tells the story of a small pet bird who’s sad about their unnamed human owner no longer skateboards or is around much due to their new job that they hate. In order to get the attention of its owner, the bird gets into skateboarding to try and make them happy.

SkateBIRD is an arcade skateboarding game akin to the long-running Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series. As a custom-designed bird, you’ll be thrown into a playthrough where you’ll need to skate around and pull off moves using the face buttons and joystick for movements. You can either play around and practice or attempt challenges given by fellow birds.

SkateBIRD plays more similarly to the Tony Hawk series than the Skate series’ more sim-like controls which can make it less daunting for newcomers to the skateboarding gaming genre because like a lot of fighting, you can basically mash your way to (repeated) combos. Each area, much like THPS, will have a handful of objectives to accomplish before moving forward; such as cleaning your master’s room by using flips and tricks or grind to set off fireworks; these are just a few examples of the quirky shenanigans you’ll get into as your feathery little friend.

While I had high hopes for this game, ultimately, I realized that it’s far from perfect. SkateBIRD’s biggest problem is its a clunky skating experience where trying to do the simplest trick or objective becomes a frustrating trial and error (where failure by far surpasses success) chore. You’re given obstacles to jump onto or over it, but no matter the speed you can’t reach specific areas and sometimes you don’t even have enough spaces to gather up speed.

As a whole, SkateBIRD looks great; levels are uniquely designed, the birds give the game a unique and cute presentation. It’s not the best-looking game, but it does the job. The limited custom options for your playable bird are pretty decent. The soundtrack is a fun, smooth electro score that will remain in your head after you’ve stopped playing. If you’re curious, it’s currently available on Spotify.

Whereas SkateBIRD doesn’t bring anything to the arcade sports genre, the usage of birds as skaters is cute and intriguing, but the gameplay is really subpar with sometimes nauseating camera movement that flickers when crashing. Unfortunately, don’t expect these birds to overthrow the Birdman. This is an easy pass.