Fifteen years since its last release, the Skate series returns with an entry that turns a whole city into a skater’s paradise. The newest Skate is a free-to-play open world where you can take on a series of challenges, spectate other skaters, team up with friends, or challenge other players to throw down and trade tricks.
Electronic Arts pulled the curtain back on Skate with a hands-on preview of Early Access ahead of its September 16 release. I shredded and slammed across the city of San Vansterdam for nine hours and saw a whole lot of what developer Full Circle has to offer. Let’s get into the nitty-gritty.
Flick-It returns — When it was released back in 2007, Skate introduced the “Flick-It” control system, where executing tricks is done with fast flicking movements of the right control stick, to better simulate the sense of pulling off ollies and kickflips. Full Circle says that it didn’t rebuild Flick-It, it “resurrected” it, with improvements to the controls to make them easier to learn and use for newbies, but with all the nuance veterans expect.
Flick-It comes with three control schemes. The Streamlined version makes snapping off tricks intuitive and a bit easier than in previous games, with flicking up on the right stick enough to ollie and your character pushing your skateboard automatically as you steer with the left stick.
Classic feels familiar to Skate fans—pushing the skateboard is done with Square or X, and you need to flick the stick down to set and then up to jump, with lots of different patterns for more complex tricks.
Finally, there’s the Experienced level, which provides even more nuanced control but removes the Flick diagram from your screen.
If you need a hand remembering the moves, Skatepedia is always just a menu away to show you how to do every trick in the game.
A city of skating — San Vansterdam is a big, open place, and the game dots many locations with challenges to put you through your paces.
Lines task you with doing tricks and hitting a certain score along a specific series of obstacles, grabbing icons