Since its initial announcement in 2018, SkateBIRD has piqued the interest of many fans of the extreme sports genre of games with its classic 90s-2000s inspired gameplay complete with transfers, grinds, and flips. The twist is that instead of playing as a professional skateboarder, players take control of various house birds, each with their own unique personality and flair. The cuteness of the birds paired with a familiar control scheme drew attention to gamers almost immediately.

The gameplay for SkateBIRD is reminiscent of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater as players build up combos and rack up points in familiar levels similar to what players would expect a bird to shred on. Kitchen counters, rooftops, and toy car tracks are among several skateable environments. While the game was in development for several years, a release date has finally been revealed at the IGN Summer of Gaming Expo, following several unfortunate delays.

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SkateBIRD will release on August 12 of this year, allowing players to enjoy the high-flying acrobatics of skating birds as early as this summer. The "skatebirding" game was expected to release in 2020, however, due to the effects of COVID, SkateBIRD was pushed back a year to fine-tune its development.

The game also features what appears to be a story mode, as dialogue is spoken between the bird characters, including references to various pop culture including author Stephen King and Splinter Cell protagonist, Sam Fisher. Aside from the expected PC release, SkateBIRD will also release on consoles, allowing players to scratch that traditional skateboard gaming itch that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 revived in 2020.

SkateBIRD's development had seen its fair share of shakiness outside of delays due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as the developers, Glass Bottom Games, had made the decision to pull its game from a certain storefront in advance. In December 2020, the company's founder, Megan Fox, released a statement that Glass Bottom Games will not release SkateBIRD on GOG following a controversial removal of the game Devotion. While Devotion has no direct connection to SkateBIRD, the decision was made in solidarity with fellow indie developers.

Instead, alongside Steam, the game will be offered on itch.io, a website that has been an avid supporter of indie developers, as well as openly engaging in philanthropy in the past. The games hub had raised over 7 million dollars to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund last year in proceeds from their massive $5 game bundle in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

SkateBIRD will release on PC, Switch, and Xbox One on August 12.

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