Skater XL review: feel the board on your feet at the flick of a switch

If you love sports and skateboarding or skate is your passion you have an unavoidable appointment with our analysis of Skater XL. It comes to your PC and consoles the most realistic simulator of this urban sport that has ever been developed. Forget about a simple and arcade proposal for all audiences. If you want to become the new virtual Tony Hawk you will have to sweat it out and get to know its complicated and realistic controls. Do you dare to get on the board with us?

A new installment of the Skate saga

The Skate video game series has been producing video games for fans of the genre for many years. Together with the videogames signed under the name of the famous sportsman associated with skateboarding, Tony Hawk, they are the great alternative for fans of this type of freestyle sport. After many years of drought in this genre of games, Skater XL arrives now and in September a remastering of the first two Tony Hawk will do it to show that the players missed this type of proposals that give a breath of fresh air to an industry full of Battle Royale

Stick-based gameplay

Skater XL is one of the most realistic skateboarding simulators on the market, perhaps only surpassed by Session. The feeling of being on a skateboard is real, and that we were some cracks playing a title like Tony Hawk or Olli Olli does not give us license to say that we are good players to Skater XL. It is not so much realistic in terms of the tricks being 100% a reflection of the reality of what can be done by a professional athlete, but the control feels very similar to being on a skateboard on the street or in any park

With the left stick we control the left foot and with the right stick, the right foot. We will have to control both sticks to change the feet position and act as if they were an extension of our own feet. If we turn the stick while we are in the air we can make turns of up to 360 degrees and the combination of foot movement plus the rotation of the sticks and the pressing of one or more buttons will make us leave our audience speechless

Skate, skate and ... skate

If you are expecting a video game full of objectives, missions and epics in the form of a worked story, Skater XL is not your best option. Easy Day Studios brings us an alternative proposal whose only final objective will be to enjoy the ride. Having the same feeling as taking the skate, go to our favorite park and do a few tricks before returning home. Nothing more

We can ride on our board in the scenarios that incorporates the game and even three scenarios created by the community that are at a very high level and probably the ones we play most often. The only objective or challenge that we will have throughout the game will be to perform x tricks in certain places that will be indicated in the menu. We will see a tutorial on how to perform that trick in that particular location and if we succeed we unlock that goal. Enjoy the 8 scenarios included in the game and get carried away by the feeling of adrenaline that accompanies us throughout all our games

We can create our own character with an editor or choose from the 4 professionals available in the roster. We can also customize our skater with clothes, boards, wheels, axles and sandpaper.

A visual section and a BSO that go along with it

Skater XL does not stand out for having excellent textures or last generation graphics that blow our minds as Death Stranding or The Last of Us II did

However, it does have loading times that are next-gen and will allow us to play the game without interruptions, just as Ghost of Tsushima has already done, surprising the most skeptical with what some consider to be "black magic" loading times. The video game moves at 60 fps and the soundtrack goes hand in hand with its playable proposal: relaxed melodies that invite to a very personal skate ride

The best

• One of the most realistic skate simulators on the market
• Very varied and great scenarios to do tricks
• Short loading times

The worst thing about it

• Control is very difficult for unaccustomed players
• Little content to extend its duration or feeling of progress

We have made this analysis thanks to a PS4 download code provided by Koch Media