Third game in the series, available now on all formats (PS4/PS5/NSW/XB1/XSX/XSS/WIN)
For ref: I previously played quite a lot of the first game and a fair bit of the second, finishing both. Was reasonable at it! Stuck this new one on for a couple of hours last night.
A lot of the core elements of the series remains unchanged - like the controls and the way you generally play the game - but there's a massive visual overhaul to this charming, colourful 3D world. Individual levels have goals - 3 score goals, 3 'tasks', and then level clear / single run status - and each area has a number of levels, tutorials, and side-missions. I'm at the end of the second world, and I'm still being drip-fed tutorials on some of the finer points of scoring. There's quite possibly lots more of new stuff to come on the mechanics front, but so far the biggest changes stem from the added depth allowed by 3D environments. In specific parts of levels, a button press can switch you to a different (usually tougher) route, and there's now sections where a quarter-pipe will launch you into another qp in the foreground/background and then have you skate back in the other direction. The camera's able to rotate, zoom, and pan a lot more freely too, doing plenty for the scale and momentum of more challenging stages.
Another big change is less to do with the gameplay, and rather building on the look and feel by adding story elements on top of progression. This is a bit less of a positive. There's a cast of characters that follow you through the levels, and there's a scene before each one that may potentially offer some kind of advice, but often just boils down to inane chatter. That you usually can't skip these until a few lines in (following a specific prompt), or that you have to watch them when returning to past levels? That's not great. As a whole, the game world is really pretty, the character customisation options are fun, and the cast of supporting characters are pleasant enough, but they currently feel like too-regular interruptions to the flow of the game.
Still though - enjoying it, first impressions are positive.
For ref: I previously played quite a lot of the first game and a fair bit of the second, finishing both. Was reasonable at it! Stuck this new one on for a couple of hours last night.
A lot of the core elements of the series remains unchanged - like the controls and the way you generally play the game - but there's a massive visual overhaul to this charming, colourful 3D world. Individual levels have goals - 3 score goals, 3 'tasks', and then level clear / single run status - and each area has a number of levels, tutorials, and side-missions. I'm at the end of the second world, and I'm still being drip-fed tutorials on some of the finer points of scoring. There's quite possibly lots more of new stuff to come on the mechanics front, but so far the biggest changes stem from the added depth allowed by 3D environments. In specific parts of levels, a button press can switch you to a different (usually tougher) route, and there's now sections where a quarter-pipe will launch you into another qp in the foreground/background and then have you skate back in the other direction. The camera's able to rotate, zoom, and pan a lot more freely too, doing plenty for the scale and momentum of more challenging stages.
Another big change is less to do with the gameplay, and rather building on the look and feel by adding story elements on top of progression. This is a bit less of a positive. There's a cast of characters that follow you through the levels, and there's a scene before each one that may potentially offer some kind of advice, but often just boils down to inane chatter. That you usually can't skip these until a few lines in (following a specific prompt), or that you have to watch them when returning to past levels? That's not great. As a whole, the game world is really pretty, the character customisation options are fun, and the cast of supporting characters are pleasant enough, but they currently feel like too-regular interruptions to the flow of the game.
Still though - enjoying it, first impressions are positive.
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