VR SKATER PUSHED ME TO MY LIMITS 

They say don’t judge a book by its cover but when I saw a virtual reality skateboarding game where you control the board with your hands I immediately thought to myself how would that work? That couldn’t be more awkward , and wouldn’t all the movement give me insane motion sickness? It didn’t help that the early access reviews were saying the game is “Tricky” and too difficult. So I had to experience this game and see for myself. This is VR Skater from indie Developer Deficit Games. After my rough first sequence I knew there was a lot of work to do it was time to hit the tutorial. At first glance I couldn’t help but notice the beauty and simplicity of the environment around me. This game looks fantastic. The training facility gave me immediate nostalgia as it felt like I was in one of those old Tony Hawk Pro Skater maps.

After learning the basics an Ollie, Grinding, then nailing my first Kickflip . I was feeling confident thinking I’m a natural . I mean how much more difficult could it get? I had mastered what I thought was everything in skating and was ready for more challenging tricks…. Boy was I wrong ..Before I knew it an hour went by of me in the lab, and I was dog tired! My arms felt like spaghetti it was time for a break ! I began to understand the criticism of “learning curve” but I had come too far to quit or let it deter me. It was time for new scenery. I decided let’s go into Practicing tricks and doing runs on the first map “neighborhood”

 I have to admit The level design in this game does a great job building up confidence as it takes you through with 4 game modes:

Spot Challenge where it breaks down the biggest jumps of the map

 Highest Trick which will give you 4 tries to land the highest score you can

Street Run where you’ll go the level with a limited amount of bail outs before your run ends

Sudden Death where when you fall once game over!

It’s crazy that somehow this game made me work backwards as I found it easier to just get out there and shred versus staying in tutorial mode being in the neighborhood felt  like a light bulb went off! I began really getting the hang of the game! Not to mention how smooth everything was running . Mind you I had been in VR for over 2 hours and didn’t have any signs of motion sickness. I had gotten so comfortable and skilled I unlocked the ability customize my board ! The Board customization was simple yet effective, you can customize the entire board from the deck, bottom of board, wheels, and trucks. As you level up more customizations become unlocked. Now that I had a new board you couldn’t tell me nothing ! From that moment on I was able to chain together some impressive combos and even got my first gold medal!

Afterwards I went back into the Skate Shop and discovered that my board was all scratched up I couldn’t help but smile not only because it was a cool feature but also because it was a representation of how much work we had put in. No pun intended but “The grind had paid off”. VR Skater tested me in all the right ways! This game is about the journey not the destination! It allows your creativity to thrive as you replay maps over and over and explore the many ways to shred! It’s not about beating the game it’s about continuing to cultivate new innovative combos , new routes and enjoying yourself while you do it. This a game that I see myself continuing to just jump in and skate around every so often! As long as this game continues to get support via DLC maps (and hopefully Multiplayer support down the line) I think VR Skater is a huge step in the right direction for VR sporting games.

We give it a taco rating of 4.5 out 5 Tacos!