16 people found this review helpful
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 10.9 hrs on record (6.5 hrs at review time)
Posted: 27 Sep, 2021 @ 5:27am

You're a bird on a skateboard riding around finding other birds to talk to. They give you missions via humorous and whimsical text-based dialogue as the only voice acting here are bird chirps. The NPC birds have personalities (there's one obsessed with snacks, another who likes to set things on fire, etc), some re-occurring between multiple levels, making you feel like part of a team trying to accomplish something, as opposed to a lone skater wrecking havoc.
The level design is mostly basic, taking the form of typical human environments bastardised as skate parks.

I used to play a lot of THPS 2 & 3 a very long time ago and in those games I remember the controls being: flip trick is button 'c', grind is 'v' and grab is 'b', as well as movement being the arrow keys, so I didn't need to use the mouse at all besides menus. I used those controls for SkateBird and I got through the whole game with those but it never felt as crisp as those games before. There was quite a bit of struggle involved in dealing with the controls and camera. Things like when you ride off a ledge the bird and skateboard will just tumble to the side, making it near impossible to land wheels first, when you ollie once the bird will jerk backwards wanting to have the skateboard land on the backside, and when the camera is facing forward, and you push forward, the camera immediately turns 180 and you end up going backwards.

With those shortcomings, all the missions are still doable, you can still string long combos, and the game is really enjoyable. The story was silly and cool in the right way that made things fun and made me want to finish each mission to see the next joke and story bit. Nice soundtrack as well.
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3 Comments
Amelia.C 13 Oct, 2024 @ 12:09pm 
Just wanna say, your review rocks! It's so full of insights and cool stuff. You really nailed it
76561199768168251 5 Sep, 2024 @ 5:48am 
Your review is lit! 🔥 It's like reading a mini novel, so much detail and passion. You're a pro at this, seriously!
phong 28 Sep, 2021 @ 5:18am 
Nice review!