Session: Skate Sim

I love this game but the new update ruined my favorite part. With the new update switch tricks now mirror regular. Why would we want that? Do they not skate? Switch tricks should look different. That’s part of why they’re cool. Heath Kirchart once said “switch is boring”. I don’t agree with that but now in session, switch is boring.

As much as I hate to make this review negative, I kinda have to. Was looking forward to playing this for forever, got it in a star deal at fanatical so it was incredibly cheap, so it's not too much of a loss. But when it's been almost 4 years since release, and the tutorial/advanced tutorial missions are so bugged and don't even register that you're doing the correct flicks of the joysticks, despite the trick counter on the hud recognizing, and none of the discussions or any help on reddit indicates that there's not been any changes or reworks, idk man. For what the game is worth, the camera is okay but clunky. Changing the rotation speed in settings does ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Music is nice, as well as the open world(aside from the random times I got knocked off my board for going over a slightly raised ramp) Definitely not worth $40/whatever the price is for all the dlcs. Especially if they're just gonna tag on more content and not address what's keeeping a lot of people from playing the damn game past the "tutorial".

Despite its flaws, I simply can't go back to EA Skate style of controls. I've tried. Coming from the perspective of a life long skateboarder and almost as long gamer, Session is the most satisfying skate game I've played since I started playing THPS 1 on N64 (Unc alert). And a recent update really helped with the buggy ankles. However, the game can be very "floaty". What should be you just grinding down a double kink handrail, is actually you flying off the thing at the first kink straight to flat. You know if you skate how ridiculous that would be to do. I believe with some lead shoes and balanced speed, this could be fixed and be a great help to the overall "space boots" feel it currently has a lot of times. Being able to catch your board primo doesn't make a lick of sense if I can only primo slide 4ft at top speed. Some grinds, like frontside/backside smith for example, need tweaking because why are my front trucks bobbing for apples every time I attempt a fs/bs smith. (Could be a symptom of the sim controls being overly too sim) Almost zero vert/transition support. Doing a trick on any vert is mostly luck and jank outside of a flip trick over coping. The recent change to limit FPS to 60 is dumb and I wish I could understand the reasoning. However, everyone ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about the camera change I think is overinflated. It took a bit of getting used to but now I don't even remember the difference. To other reviewers, If you wanna complain about not getting unlimited free updates to an already solid list of locations given in the game every time a DLC comes out to support further game updates, then download a mod manager my guy. Boom I literally doubled your library of already great locations to skate. You were satisfied with 3 districts in Skate 3 for $60 weren't you? Oh yeah and Skate 3 also had paid DLC. Not to mention this game recreated a lot of the most famous skate spots in the US to skate. Like...wasn't that the literal dream to be able to do this in skateboarding games the whole time?! That alone should be enough to want to give this game a try. Finally, if they added multiplayer with some classic game modes like S.K.A.T.E. or Spot battle, this game would easily be a 9-10/10. But alas, my playlists and solo sessions will suffice. Patiently waiting for the QOL updates. Thank you devs for making this game for what it is already. No regerts. EDIT: Only a couple months after posting my review, the devs put out a major update that addressed pretty much every problem I outlined. So much so that as I was reading the patch notes, it literally felt like they were addressing my points bar for bar. Coincedence? I'm not sure but I knew my confidence in their team wasn't misplaced. Thank you again crea-ture Studios and I'm looking forward to the future road map updates.

The dual stick system is really innovative and gives you a lot more control than games like skate. And I can see potential. But the ragdoll system is so infuriatingly bad. Touch a wall at super slow speed? Ragdoll. Try to push with your foot on a curb? Ragdoll. Its so annoyingly bad. Doesnt need to be arcadey, I get the games not going for that. But your dudes bones dont need to crumble every time he farts. It makes the game almost unplayable, especially trying to learn the ropes.

Look I have 400 hours in this game so I'm not gonna tell you there isn't great things about this game, or that you can't have a good time with it (especially if you grab it on sale), but as development of this game winds down, it is a left is a mess of unfinished features and buggy animations. "Fully released" but still feels like EA. Trying to constantly sell you DLC. Years go by with only minor changes, features moving from 'experimental' to '... slightly less experimental'. Like this isn't even fussy stuff, this is "Missions regularly fail to register successful tricks, still, years after missions were added". If you want a game where you can actually mess up a kickflip, it's still fun, but you gotta buy it with the same type of caution you'd buy a dead early access game. edit: The skate core update was great. The game feels way more polished. Transition skating now feels somewhat reasonable. A lot of buggy mess is resolved... but the game is still fundamentally kinda incomplete. If they can keep this up I'll definitely change my recommendation, but we're not quite there yet.

This is a game I can recommend pretty easily but with some caveats. - This is a street skating game, don't expect much vert skating/grab tricks - It's much more technical and less new user friendly than something like Skate. You really have to work to get good - Mechanically it's very good but it's still a bit janky. Expect tricks to register incorrectly occasionally or to randomly fall because you tapped a curb - Customization is pretty limited, which is fine by me, but will leave some wanting - It's a great sandbox but the missions don't last too long. After you burn through them, you need to learn to make your own fun and challenges - Soundtrack is fine but you'll probably want to supply your own tunes after a few hours Overall I love this game. It feels way less hand hold-y than Skate, which is tough at first but very rewarding later. Don't buy this if you want to "Tony Hawk" it with 30 move combos and magnetic rails. Do buy this game if you want a simulation of what it's like to bust your ass and learn to shred

EDIT: I've changed my mind on my recommendation of this game. I would highly recommend this game to other skaters, especially over the alternative that is the mess/garbage of the skate. game franchise now. After spending more time on the game and altering some settings this game is definitely the best skateboard game out there. My previous review still stands on what needs to change for this game to imrpove, better rewards, more items to buy (chains, watches, different hairstyles and the like, along with clothes), the manual system nees to be way smoother as far as getting in and out. But overall if you love skateboarding there is a lot to love in this game. FYI I read comments about the game being "barren" and the pedetrians are retarded, I had to turn them off, always in the way and always where you're trying to skate. That system needs a complete overhaul. Maybe make some hotdog vendors and other people in the area where you can purchase goods for them to give you small boosts to performance and stuff (like increased push speed or something) I love this game. I really do. But there is a lot of work that needs to go in for this to be considered a great game. Grinding is not smooth on gap to rails, manual balance is super finnicky, rolling over the edge of the curb and just eating ♥♥♥♥ is frustrating, and the setups to some of these challenges have terrible run ups. Earning cash and buying stuff seems....boring? I dunno Having a stat system to improve certain capabilities would be cool. Maybe adding a way to play SKATE against some homies online would be good. There is a lot of beauty in the game but changes need to be made to make it more fun. 6/10 for now. I'll update this if the devs can PICK UP THE PACE on updates and content.

I'd like to preface this review by saying I'm a skater. I've been skating since 1998 and still skate to this day, though not at the level I once did. This is the best skateboarding simulator type of game, as of 2026. Many are turned off by the difficulty, and I'm sure a lot of people will blame the game for their inability to learn the controls and have enough patience to learn. Its beneficial to understand how tricks work, as when using the advanced 'each stick controls a foot' controls, everything makes sense. As a goofy skater, the goofy control update made all of my gripes about the game go away, besides the obvious inability to grab the board issue that is still current. However I will take no grabs over broken grabs that a competitor game is currently showcasing. I bought this game early on, and honestly is feels like I stole it for the $30 I paid. I will continue to buy DLC, the devs deserve it. This is the ultimate skate sim, and if they continue updating and implementing the changes that the community is asking for - I believe this will be the greatest skate sim of all time. Thank you to the developers, the community knows that you care and that means a lot to us skaters.