By Brandon Bocanegra, October 21, 2025
The wait is finally over as the highly anticipated Season One for the new game “Skate.” was released for early access gameplay Oct. 7.
The Skate series has been a staple of the skateboarding world since 2007 by being a realistic alternative to the Tony Hawk game series. It’s most iconic installment was Skate 3 released in 2010 and grew in popularity in the late 2010s with the rise of social media and a call from fans for a Skate 4.
The difference from 2010 to 2025 is night and day, and it certainly lived up to the expectations of the new game’s mechanics. EA made improvements based on social media trends with large air tricks, extending flips and focusing more on arcade style gameplay. Now, flips and gaps are a breeze and are a selling point for many new players who want to emulate what they have seen online.
Overall, skating feels cleaner and more defined than what we were left with in 2010. New mechanics include cleaner physics, when maneuvering to different grinds while grinding, “slappy” grinds, and an updated flick system. These additions create more variety to the game and revamp the older system, nearly perfecting it.
Due to numerous flying glitches seen in Skate 3, EA listened to communities’ concerns and added a parkour mechanic to climb to the top of high buildings. However, many players end up teleporting to each other due to the poor execution of the new mechanic.
While the new additions to the game are great, the community is missing some of the fan-favorite mechanics such as darkslides, underflips, hippy jumping over cars, hand plant variations, fingerflips and skate hitching cars.
Mechanics are not the only features missing from the game, as character customization is very lackluster in terms of style. Customization is now confined to height, skin color and facial adjustments, where in earlier versions you could have tattoos, wear jewelry, change your skate style and even take off your shirt.
Clothing and accessories have been a hot topic since the launch with many items locked behind a paywall as EA generates revenue from in-game purchases. If you want to own a pair of virtual Vans shoes for your skater, you will need a special currency called “San Van Bucks” that have the following purchasing options: $4.99 for 500 SVB, $9.99 for 1,050 SVB, $24.99 for 2,800 SVB, $49.99 for 5,900 SVB and $99.99 for 12,000 SVB.
Unlike previous renditions of Skate, all name brand gear from names like Chocolate and Dickies can only be obtained by spending these “San Van Bucks,” as they could previously be unlocked for free by just playing the game.
The items players are able to unlock for free are often over the top and have limited variety. Before, a plain black T-shirt was free to own from the start but now needs to be obtained in a chance box by using the free in-game currency, “Rip Chips.” Even wearing a hat backward requires you to own two variants of a hat, one forward and one backward, instead of the old flip hat mechanic.
A new introduction to what seems to have become a video game industry staple is a battle pass system called the “Skate Pass” which released Oct. 7. Players can unlock new rewards with pass tokens for free or opt to purchase the premium edition for $10. The rewards are disappointing, to say the least, and its only redeeming quality is acquiring “San Van” Bucks for free. The pass will rotate each season, offering new unlockable gear.
In terms of the visuals, many players are upset about the graphics of the game. The Skate franchise is known for looking realistic and offering an authentic skating experience in the palm of your hands. Now, the game is cartoony and tailored to a younger audience with more vibrant colors, smoother surfaces and very little realism in wear and tear aspects like getting your clothes dirty and suffering scratches and bruises.
There is also no storyline like previous games. In the game, you are a new skater in a new city, and every mission is essentially a tutorial and does not feature any real pro-skaters. Your guide to San Vansterdam is an AI bot named Vee, which is better on mute. The community wants their old coach back: pro-skater turned actor Jason Lee’s persona Coach Frank, who gave genuine interactions and was fun to learn and hear from while playing.
Skate. is good in terms of actual skating, but it has been a large miss in skate culture for the community. It doesn’t feel authentic and is missing many features for being gone for 15 years. However, I have high hopes for the game, as it is still in early access. EA has also been very responsive to criticism in the past and listens to the community when it comes to change.
I want to see a bigger highlight on transition skating and introduce mechanics like disasters, foot plant variations and board rails as a feature to make slides longer on coping and rails.
Skate. is and looks to be a continuously updating game the community will have for many years to come and as the road to a complete game is being paved by the potholes players experience being filled.
The full release for Skate. is set for some time 2026 but in the meantime early access is free to play on Playstation, Xbox and PC.
Feature image courtesy of EA
