We got some hands-on time with Session: Skate Sim ahead of its launch via a launch event hosted by publisher Nacon.
When you think of skateboarding what do you think of? Do you think of popular names such as Bam Margera, Tony Hawk, Jason Lee, Rob Dyrdek, or Bob Burnquist? If not a specific skater, do you think of a specific game series? What skating franchises come to mind?
Does Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Skate, or SkateBird come to mind? If none of these came to mind, why are you even here man? On Wednesday, we headed to New York to meet with Nacon and Crea-ture Studios to preview and celebrate the upcoming launch of Session: Skate Sim.
You’re probably going, hey wasn’t that game already out? The answer is no, well mostly. The game had previously been in early access on Steam and on Xbox. The game officially launched on September 22nd, 2022; the day after the event. For the event, Nacon and Crea-ture Studios booked the Substance Skatepark in Brooklyn.
The event’s festivities were comprised of playing the game with the developers’ assistance, watching the developers play the game, watching the developers skate and attempt to land tricks, and finally, a game of horse between a skater and their character. Brooklyn-style pizza was provided at the event alongside refreshments. Personally, we’d recommend avoiding the Brooklyn-style pizza.
At the event, I attempted to skateboard, and fell on my ass multiple times. Luckily, I didn’t break anything and was able to laugh it off. Ultimately, we didn’t go there to skateboard. We went to check out Session: Skate Sim. So how was the game?
Session: Skate Sim impressions
Going in, we were definitely at a disadvantage. The primary two Skateboarding games we played were Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and SkateBird. In the past, we previously attempted Skate, but found the gameplay style to be too different from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2.
Session: Skate Sim aims to be the spiritual successor of Skate 3. Session: Skate Sim focuses more on the mechanics of how to skateboard rather than trying to nail the biggest combos or extravagant moves. Players must control the character’s movements ranging from pressure applied to each foot to even how the character leans.
Playing Session: Skate Sim is by far no easy task. Even hitting an ollie in the game took practice and time. If the foot stance change, players would have to use the opposite stick to control the foot movement; each stick controls an individual foot.
Once we figured out how to Ollie somewhat, we attempted to Manual. Doing a Manual was an even harder task than learning how to Ollie. Control-wise, the player must apply a little bit of force on the back or front foot in order to manual in that direction. In fact, hitting a grind was easier than trying to Ollie or Manual.
Session: Skate Sim also games players the ability to hit a variety of flips on their board. The only thing missing from the game was the ability to do grab tricks, but that is not surprising since the game mainly focuses on footwork.
The game has three starting locatinos: San Francisco, New York, and Philidelphia to start with – but there are other locations to come in the future. Each area is massive and can be skated at different times throughout the day. The game features a camera mode to also photograph and commemorate special occasions.
When landing tricks in iconic locations, the trick is marked to compare with other famous pro skaters. After the trick has been landed, players can watch videos of the trick being performed. Most of the character name’s in the game you will not recognize but each has their own unique feel. If you are looking for a skating sim game, it is worth checking out.
We want to thank Nacon and Crea-ture Studios for inviting us out to preview their game before launch and showing us how hard skateboarding is in real life. If you want to check out Session: Skate Sim, it is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Steam, and the Epic Game Store.
