Skateboarding games seemed to dip out of the gaming spotlight around the turn of the decade. Even though Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 came out in 2015, the game was largely panned and didn't sell well compared to its superstar predecessors. The other EA powerhouse skateboarding franchise, Skate, had its last mainline release in 2010. Since then, likely due to the waning popularity of skating in general, there just weren't any more skateboarding games being made. Now Skater XL has helped bring about a resurgence of skateboarding games.
Since then, at least in recent years, fan interest in skateboarding games steadily returned. Eventually it got to the point of a fever pitch, when fans would bombard EA with messages asking for Skate 4, which evidently seemed to have willed the game into development. Now Skater XL, an independent game by Easy Day Studios, has officially ignited the return of skateboarding games. While Skater XL is out now, there's still several games available and in the pipeline, like Session, soon to be Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 Remaster, and eventually Skate 4.
Skateboarding Games' Long Hiatus
It's been a long time coming for skateboarding games. Arguably the last good skateboarding game, in any capacity, was EA's Skate 3 back in 2010. Since then there's been almost zero triple-A or incredibly popular skateboarding games released in the last decade. Even the pedigree of the Pro Skater series lost some of its distinction when Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 was rushed through development and launched as a buggy mess. Even the biggest franchise was incapable of bringing back the extreme stunts genre of gaming back from the brink, so skateboarding lie dormant for another five years.
While skateboarding has lost all of its pop culture resilience over the years in sports, the video games always had a sustaining factor that in some ways kept the real-life sport alive. Much of that has been attributed to Activision's Tony Hawk's series, with the immensely popular Pro Skater games and just as successful spin-offs like Underground and American Wasteland. The arcade-style gameplay emphasized the spirit of skateboarding on a massive and fantastical scale, garnering acclaim from gaming fans and skateboarding fans alike. Skateboarding fans who were perhaps looking for a more simulation based experience were gifted Skate by EA, which sported a revolutionary twin-stick control layout. Both franchises lead the charge in the success of skateboarding games during the 2000-2010 decade.
Skater XL is Just the Beginning
Now both of those landmark gaming franchises are making a long-awaited return, and both have to thank games like Session and Skater XL for kicking off the resurgence of skateboarding games' popularity. Skater XL leads the charge with its full release this week, finally bringing skateboarding back to all platforms. Reviews are genuinely positive, with main criticism only being that the game itself is a bit barebones in terms of challenge or story mode offerings. Otherwise, the gameplay is very Skate-like with a high focus on simulation based gameplay. Employing a similar twin-stick design, each leg is controlled by each joystick to perform each move
With Skater XL out to the public, that means the wait for further skateboarding games is not much longer now. While it's undetermined how long Skate 4 will take to develop given the developers have only stated that it exists in an early state of development, fans can look forward to the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 Remaster this fall. Additionally Session, which made a big splash at Xbox's E3 showcase back in 2018, is available now in early access. While the spiritual successor to Skate doesn't have a full release date set, Session is in a similar state to Skater XL and is just as mechanically robust despite being in early access on Steam.
The State of Skateboarding Games in 2020
Skating is in a really good spot, at least in the games industry. Fans of the overtly absurd and extreme gameplay of the Tony Hawk's series will get to re-experience the magic of the original two games in September. To many fans, this Pro Skater 1+2 Remaster can hopefully serve as a gauge for either further remasters, or an official sequel/spin-off to the long dormant Tony Hawk's franchise. Unfortunately Skate fans may have to wait quite a while, as the state of development for Skate 4 is likely very early on. In the meantime, fans can bide their time with games like Skater XL and Session, which capture a similar mechanical depth of the original Skate games despite being independently developed.
Plus other niche titles are coming as well, admittedly for more specific indie audiences like SkateBIRD and Skate Story. There's a new wealth of skateboarding games coming to all kinds of fans. For years there's been a severe lack of skateboarding games, and now in 2020-2021 there's a whole collection of new titles coming all at once. At one point, skateboarding games was one of the biggest genres in the industry, and could be making its grand return in the coming years.
Skater XL is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. A Switch version is also slated for launch this year.