These 2 Skateboarding Games Are Tempting Me to Ride the Steam Early Access Half Pipe
Session and Skater XL, two promising but unfinished skateboard games, have caught my attention. But do I devote my valuable time to titles that may never see their final forms?
As a general, self-imposed gaming rule, I refuse to purchase Steam Early Access games. If you aren’t familiar with this sub-section of the Steam catalog, here’s a quick explainer: Early Access lets you buy games that are currently still in development. Think of it as a pre-order that lets you explore a title before it’s ready to ship.
That behind-the-curtains access comes with the typical bugs you’d find in a beta product, but with the ability to leave feedback in Steam’s community forums. Some developers like receiving the early, pre-launch money, and the opportunity to add or fix features based on user feedback; some gamers like being beta testers. I can’t rock with the concept, as I should be paid to test a product.
That said, Skater XL and Session-two Steam Early Access skateboard games-really make me want to dive in and do digital flip kicks.
Skate Sessions
Billed as “The Ultimate Skateboarding Game,” Skater XL is a game that came to my attention as I scoured Steam looking for a well-designed, contemporary skateboard game. It’s been a long, long time since the Skate and Tony Hawk series were at their heights, so I’ve been eager to digitally ollie and grind.
Upon researching Skate XL, I rediscovered Session, an E3 game I wrote about in 2018. Like Skater XL, Session’s developers fancy the title as a true-to-sport experience. I don’t know which dev team has issued the truer statement, but it warms the cockles of my heart to see skateboard games in the works.
My Skater XL and Session thirst comes from being a skateboarding fan from roughly age 10, when I received a board from a friend who grew tired of face planting onto Flatbush sidewalks. Skateboarding opened my world; that poor, latchkey kid didn’t come from a household with the funds to purchase a BMX, so wood and wheels took me to neighborhoods that I had never seen before. It also connected me to other children in similar situations, who longed for the freedom and independence that skateboarding brings. Plus, practicing for hours on end to finally bunny hop over sticks, rocks, and sidewalk cracks was ridiculously dope.
I rode the concrete waves until my early 30s, when two separate hyperextended knee incidents made me make the hard decision to give up the life. The love, however, never vanished. Every now and then, as I’m walking around New York City, I’ll eyeball a handrail and imagine grinding it. Fortunately, I’m wise enough to not actually attempt a rail slide. I have video games for that.
Tony Hawk Flies
In the time frame that encompasses my first skate session to my last, I became obsessed with skateboard games. 720, Skate or Die, Street Boarders, and T&C Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage let me hit half-pipes that I didn’t have access to in real life. But it was the arcade-flavored Tony Hawk series, particularly the third mainline entry, that took my skateboard game love to the next level.
Not only did Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 have professional skaters, such as Tony Hawk, Kareem Campbell, and Steve Caballero, it introduced a revert system that made it possible to combine vert combos and manuals for big moves in the skate-friendly environments. Plus, the game had a banging soundtrack that perfectly captured youthful energy, with tracks from Del Tha Funky Homosapien, Motorhead, The Ramones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Redman, and others.
If I had the ability to clock the number of hours I put into that game, it would easily fall into my top 10 most-played games of all time. So, I’m hoping that either Skater XL or Session can fill that role, even with the games leaning more into the sim category.
Potential Early Access Blues
Still, I hesitate to pull the trigger on either title. Not that I haven’t done it before: I’m such a Fire Pro mark that I bought into Fire Pro Wrestling World’s Early Access period. While Fire Pro Wrestling World’s core gameplay was on point, many non-wrestling aspects need work, such as entrance glitches and the confusing, laggy menus.
I had amassed close to 80 hours of gameplay hours by the time developer Spike Chunsoft fixed the issues. As a result, I was ready to take a break from Fire Pro Wrestling World before the game got its major repairs and new features. I’ve yet to play the finished game. I don’t want to experience that with Skater XL or Sessions.
Honestly, my biggest Steam Early Access concern is that the games I become invested in will never see a final form. In fact, the Steam Early Access FAQ states:
“It’s up to the developer to determine when they are ready to ‘release’. Some developers have a concrete deadline in mind, while others will get a better sense as the development of the game progresses. You should be aware that some teams will be unable to ‘finish’ their game. So you should only buy an Early Access game if you are excited about playing it in its current state.”
That’s a risky proposition. Even as someone who receives free media codes to evaluate games. No one wants to pour time into a product that will never see a full release. Imagine buying, say, a new St. Vincent album that suffered a bad audio mix and missing instrumental tracks, but there was a studio promise that a full release is on its way. That would be unacceptable. What would be the point of it all?
Decision Time
Yet, here I am, suffering a game-related existential crisis. Do I wait for Skater XL and Session to ship as final products, or do I dive into them and satiate my thirst? Do I pretend that they don’t exist until they’re released? Do I have the willpower to resist sending the games’ PR teams code requests?
I don’t know. Right now, I’m resisting the temptation, but there’s a chance that by the time you read this, I’ll be gripping a virtual deck, ready to push my way to glory.
Originally published at https://www.pcmag.com.
