With games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4, Skate Story, and the upcoming EA Skate, 2025 looks to be an interesting year for skateboarding games. While fans were quick to appreciate the love and polish shown with THPS 3 + 4, there is a bit of valid skepticism surrounding EA Skate. Skate is a beloved franchise after all, so it makes sense that people have high expectations.
There’s also a lot of valid criticism you can find online from people who have played the Early Access, but we won’t dwell on that today. There are still a lot of things the game is getting right, and here are five features that I’m most excited for as we build up to the full release.
New Tricks
The classic “flick-it” mechanics aren’t going anywhere with the upcoming Skate game, but it will feature some new tricks. The “wallie” is a new trick that lets you directly ollie off a wall or any vertical surface. This gives you a quick pop to get on edges or nearby rails, and it’s a satisfying way of continuing a line.
You also get variable speed flip tricks and held tricks. This unlocks more control over your board, allowing you to perform either quick, snappy flips or hold to achieve a slower, more realistic rotation. In turn, this allows for continuous flips, where you can chain multiple flips together in the air. Slappies are another new trick that lets you approach a curb and grind it without having to ollie.
The final standout mechanic is a sort of “prewound three-sixty”. Essentially, you can pre-wind your skater by moving the right stick to build momentum before you ollie. When you release, the stored energy can be used to initiate a 360-degree rotation with a bit more style and speed.
Gameplay Customization
This is a major new aspect of the upcoming game, and one that more people need to talk about. Under the Gameplay tab in the settings, you can find an on-board tab that lets you switch between three control styles: Streamlined, Classic, and Experienced. You can also turn on the Hold Fakie Stance setting, giving you more control over your stance when rolling backward. This means you can just skate while doing a Fakie for the rest of the session.
Other than that, you can adjust the grind assist amount to increase or decrease how much the game helps you lock onto rails and ledges. Finally, there are a lot of camera controls to adjust to your liking. There are multiple camera angles, but you can permanently adjust the camera’s position and how it behaves in different situations. For fun, try out the low angle with a super wide FOV for a more cinematic look.
Unique Traversal System
Polished climbing mechanics are not something you’d expect in a skateboarding game, but they’re here in EA Skate and they work well. In previous games, you could only get off your board and walk around with limited movement. The new game’s off-board control feels more like a dedicated parkour game, allowing you to easily scale buildings, climb ledges, and skydive from massive heights.
This means you can start a line from a rooftop, dive off of it, and land on another rooftop, and drop off that one to finish off with a grind at the bottom. This is going to take quite a fair bit of skill, but it’s certainly doable. These types of sandbox-friendly mechanics are exactly why Skate 3 was such a big success, and the traversal system helps take those fun mechanics further.
The New Map: San Vansterdam
San Vansterdam is the new map in this game, and it shines mainly because of the parkour mechanics and skateability of almost every surface you see (more on that later). The map is essentially a city map full of skyscrapers, and yes, you can skate on top of (or off of!) the buildings. This is a deliberate design choice by the developers, as they wanted to make a more focused map with variety rather than a single sprawling world with hidden spots.
There are also collaboration zones spread throughout the city, meaning you can work with other players to add new obstacles or even create entire mini skateparks.
All that is great, but some might miss the gritty realism and hidden gems from the older maps, especially if you compare San Van to Skate 2. San Vansterdam does seem sterile by comparison. It works for the type of gameplay that the devs are going for, but time will tell how it holds up in the long run.
A Social Sandbox
This is the biggest departure from previous entries to the franchise, and perhaps the most controversial one. Skate is going free-to-play with a live service model for monetization. It’s also going to be an always-online game, meaning you can’t play it offline. Of course, people will have gripes with that, as live service games tend to get a bad rep.
However, in this persistent online world, you’re always connected and will see other players skating around. You can enter collaboration zones to create fun new experiences, challenge them to in-game activities, and participate in community events.
This essentially changes the game for what the Skate franchise means to the modern gamer, which is why old fans are so skeptical. Still, if they scale it back on the microtransactions and make the online element interesting over a long period, the game could be a long-term hit with a thriving community.
