By Jon Scarr
Skate Story arrives on Nintendo Switch 2 as a game that immediately sets itself apart once you start moving. It blends skateboarding with a surreal underworld setting, then asks you to learn its rhythm through motion rather than explanation. You play as a glass demon on a skateboard, skating through hell with the goal of consuming the moons that loom overhead. It sounds strange on paper, but it starts to make sense once you are actually on the board.
On Nintendo Switch 2, that sense of movement is where Skate Story makes its strongest first impression. Much of the experience is built around speed, balance, and learning how to keep a run alive without shattering. You are rarely stopped for long tutorials or heavy exposition. Instead, the game encourages you to skate, crash, reset, and try again until routes and timing begin to click. That loop defines the experience more than the story moments that frame it.
The underworld itself stays abstract and unpredictable. Environments mix skate-friendly paths with strange architecture and unfamiliar shapes, creating spaces that feel built for motion rather than realism. Characters appear briefly, offer odd requests, and then fade back into the background. This approach keeps skating front and centre, even as the world around you remains intentionally unclear.
On Nintendo Switch 2, Skate Story has its own highs and rough spots. Some moments feel great once the skating gets going, while others make the limits of the hardware easier to notice.
Skate Story Details
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, PC (Steam), macOS
Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch 2
Developer: Sam Eng
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Genre: Skateboarding action adventure
Available game modes: Single player
ESRB Rating: Blood, Fantasy Violence, Language
A Deal With the Devil and a Lot of Side Roads
In Skate Story, the story starts simple and quickly veers into strange territory. You play as a demon who cannot sleep because of the moon hanging over the underworld. The solution is direct. Eat the moon. To make that possible, you sign a contract with the Devil, get handed a skateboard, and begin moving through different layers of hell in search of the seven moons you need to consume.
Each chapter introduces a new area with its own characters, short tasks, and routes to skate. You might be helping odd figures with small problems, clearing corruption from paths, or doing chores that feel mundane despite the setting. The contrast between everyday tasks and the surreal world around them gives the story its tone. Characters speak plainly, sometimes casually, even when what they are asking you to do is clearly absurd.
The story is delivered in small pieces rather than long scenes. Conversations are brief, often ending just as you think they might explain more. Transitions between characters and moments can feel sudden, especially when moving from one task to the next. On Nintendo Switch 2, this fragmented delivery can feel a bit uneven, particularly when performance dips make scene changes less smooth than expected.
I often felt like I understood what I was doing without fully understanding why. That worked most of the time, but the pacing can start to feel stretched later on. The game revisits the same chapter structure repeatedly, and by the final stretch, the story feels like it is wrapping up more than once before finally reaching the credits.
Still, Skate Story does not rely on its story to push you forward. It exists to give context to the skating, not to dominate it. If you are comfortable letting some moments pass without clear answers, the story provides enough direction to keep you moving while leaving the focus on what happens once you are back on the board.
Where Speed Matters More Than Style
At its best, Skate Story on Nintendo Switch 2 feels all about keeping momentum alive. Skating is built around speed, balance, and committing to a line once you start moving. You push forward, carve through turns, and link tricks together without ever really stopping. When everything lines up, runs feel smooth and deliberate. When it doesn’t, you shatter, reset, and try again almost immediately.
Tricks use simple inputs, but the challenge comes from pulling them off while moving fast. As speed increases, timing matters more than variety. Tight corners, narrow rails, and sudden gaps force you to plan a few seconds ahead, especially in the stronger linear sections. I often found myself less focused on doing something flashy and more concerned with making it to the end of a route without breaking apart.
Each chapter mixes two types of spaces. The linear downhill runs are where Skate Story shines. These sections ask you to race toward a goal, pass through gates, or build enough speed to reach the end while avoiding hazards. Music, movement, and level design come together here in a way that makes skating feel urgent and rewarding, especially once you start chaining tricks naturally.
The open areas are slower by design. These spaces let you practice new tricks, take on small tasks, and collect Soul, which can be spent on boards, wheels, and other cosmetic items. While it’s nice to have room to experiment, these sections tend to interrupt the game’s momentum. The rewards rarely change how skating feels, so spending extra time here can start to feel optional rather than meaningful.
Boss encounters sit somewhere between the two. To defeat them, you need to chain tricks, build a combo, and finish it with a stomp in the right place. Some bosses stay fairly stationary, while later ones add movement or turn into races that blend skating and combat. These moments stand out, especially when they build directly off the linear sections, but they are not demanding enough to push your skills much further than what the main routes already require.
On Nintendo Switch 2, performance can influence how these sections feel. When the frame rate stays smooth, skating feels responsive and satisfying. When it dips, especially in busier areas, timing tricks and holding a line becomes harder than intended. It does not break the experience, but it does make some runs feel less consistent than they should.
Built for Motion but Pushed by the Hardware
Visually, Skate Story keeps its identity intact on Nintendo Switch 2, especially while you are moving at speed. The abstract shapes, glowing surfaces, and sharp colour contrast still work well in motion, and the glass skater remains easy to track against busy backgrounds. Rails, slopes, and paths are readable enough to skate confidently, which matters more here than fine detail.
Docked play is where the game looks its best. Effects are clearer, lighting reads more cleanly, and the overall image holds together better during faster runs. Handheld play takes a noticeable hit in resolution, and that drop becomes more obvious in slower moments or story scenes. While skating, the style does a good job of hiding those compromises, but when things slow down, the limits are easier to see.
Performance is less consistent. In lighter areas, the frame rate feels smooth and responsive, which helps skating feel natural. In busier sections with heavier effects, drops become more noticeable. Fire, particles, and larger spaces can cause the game to stutter between frame rates, especially when moving fast. In handheld mode, these dips are easier to feel during longer runs.
Audio remains one of the strongest parts of the experience. The soundtrack from Blood Cultures fits the pace of skating well, and tracks tend to pull you into longer runs without becoming distracting. Music, sound effects, and movement work together best during the linear downhill sections, where speed and rhythm stay aligned.
There are also a few small technical quirks. Audio can occasionally linger longer than expected, and scene transitions during story moments can feel abrupt. None of this stops you from progressing, but it can break the rhythm briefly, especially on Nintendo Switch 2, where performance already asks for some patience.
Skate Story on Nintendo Switch 2 Is About Momentum First
Skate Story works best when it trusts you to stay in motion. On Nintendo Switch 2, the moments that land are the ones where speed builds, music kicks in, and the path ahead asks you to commit. Skating feels good when everything lines up, and the quick reset loop makes it easy to keep trying until a run finally comes together.
The strongest parts of the game are its linear sections and later boss encounters, where skating, timing, and rhythm all come together. These moments show what Skate Story does differently from other skateboarding games, focusing less on score chasing and more on holding a line under pressure. The open areas, while useful for learning and experimenting, slow the pace and rarely offer rewards that meaningfully change how skating feels.
On Nintendo Switch 2, performance plays a bigger role in how consistent that experience is. Docked play generally holds up better, while handheld mode shows more noticeable drops and resolution cuts. The visual style helps mask these issues while moving, but slower moments and heavier effects make the hardware limits easier to notice. It never fully falls apart, but it does demand some patience.
By the time the credits roll, Skate Story leaves a clear impression. It is a focused, unusual skating game that values feel over structure and momentum over content volume. If you are drawn to games that reward repetition and rhythm, there is a lot to appreciate here. Just know that on Nintendo Switch 2, the ride is at its best when everything clicks and less forgiving when it doesn’t.
Skate Story Review Summary
Liked
- Momentum-focused skating that feels great once a run gets going
- Linear downhill sections deliver the best flow and pacing
- Boss fights make combos feel useful without slowing you down
- Visual style stays readable while moving fast
- Blood Cultures soundtrack fits the rhythm of skating really well
Didn't Like
- - Open areas slow things down and feel optional more than rewarding
- - Cosmetic unlocks do not change how skating feels
- - Performance dips show up in heavier sections, especially handheld
- - Story scenes can feel abrupt and a bit scattered
- - Difficulty rarely pushes you to master the full toolset
Overall Assessment of Skate Story
Gameplay: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4 / 5)
Presentation: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4 / 5)
Performance: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ (3 / 5)
Story: ⭐⭐⭐½☆ (3.5 / 5)
Fun Factor: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4 / 5)
Overall Value: ⭐⭐⭐½☆ (3.5 / 5)