Skate early access review – how to be pro skater according to EA

EA’s long-awaited skateboarding reboot revives the cult classic for the modern era, but the early access version already has some teething problems.

Few franchises have been willed back into existence quite like Skate. For over a decade, fans have flooded forums, spammed EA livestreams, and begged for Skate 4, as if it were gaming’s holy grail. Now, after 15 years and countless wishful hashtags, that call has finally been answered with the confusingly titled, free-to-play Skate. Or skate. as EA is hoping people will call it. The board still feels incredible underfoot, but as with so many dreams made real, there’s a nagging sense that you should be careful what you wish for.

From the first push, it’s clear that developer Full Circle has placed a lot of love and care into replicating the series’ trademark Flick-It system, providing the kind of tactile, analogue stick trickery that’s closer to the real thing than Tony Hawk’s arcade chains. There are simplified controls for newcomers, that offer the same buttery smooth street skating, but it doesn’t quite carry the same magic. After all, the mechanical depth of mimicking movement is a big reason why fans kept clamouring for a revival. Credit where it’s due, the fundamentals are solid.

Step off the board and things get jankier, but not without a unique charm. You can clamber up ledges, wall run, or fling yourself about like a ragdoll, and while it lacks the polish of skating itself, it feeds into the same playful spirit. The ragdoll physics in particular are endlessly funny, turning San Vansterdam into a slapstick playground where bails and pratfalls are as entertaining as landing a perfect line. It’s not refined, and a little hollow without Thrasher’s Hall of Meat system underscoring failure, but it’s still disarmingly silly and exactly the kind of chaos that reminds you games don’t have to take themselves too seriously.

San Vansterdam’s map is an odd one. Split into four districts, it’s a broad playground with rails, ledges, and hill bombs aplenty, but it lacks the iconic landmarks that defined the trilogy. EA plans to expand the map beyond its early access roots, so there’s still hope we might yet see something as memorable as Danny Way’s Mega Ramp, but everything currently blends into one. You’ll find yourself skating for the feel of it, not for the world design. But with the roadmap promising seasonal overhauls, EA clearly wants to keep the city fresh in the way Epic has done with Fortnite. Whether that works for a subculture defined by permanence and iconic spots is another matter.

The bigger shift is how progression is structured. In the old days, you’d meet pro skaters early, film clips with them, and gradually carve your name into the scene. Several hours into Skate, I still haven’t seen a single pro – only a barrage of challenges, cosmetics, and loot rewards rubbing shoulders with microtransactions. You can grind secondary currency, but that mostly buys loot boxes, which dance on the line between gamification and gambling. Premium items sit front and centre in the storefront, with shirts costing roughly £10 each. In a game so obsessed with style, cosmetics carry weight, so the paywall feels more intrusive than ever.

It doesn’t help that the challenge pool is shallow. Right now you’re flitting between three types: collect the bearings, beat a time trial, or hit a trick line within a defined zone. They’re fine for short bursts but grow repetitive quickly, and without versus modes like SKATE or more narrative-driven missions, they lack staying power. The game’s spine is there, but it’s weak.

Skate shines brightest with its multiplayer antics. The social sandbox is riotous fun, whether you’re gesturing at friends, collapsing into heaps of ragdoll limbs, or chaining together impromptu lines with strangers. Quick Drops allow you to plonk a ramp, rail, or sofa in front of you and instantly reshape the environment. It’s not as flexible as Skate 3’s park editor, but what it lacks in personalisation it makes up for in situational hijinks. I cobbled together a janky half pipe with two quarter pipes and, within minutes, five people were queuing shoulder-to-shoulder trying to get air. Build it, and they really do come.

The problem is that all of this is tethered to a broadband connection. Skate is always online, whether you like it or not. That means disconnections and server hiccups have plagued my short time with the game, alongside introducing a lingering anxiety about longevity. If EA flicks the switch, the game is gone, unlike Skate 3, which you can still boot up today. It’s a fairer deal than some live service games, since you pay nothing up front, but you’re still spending time instead of money, and it’s a point of failure that fans of the trilogy never had to worry about.

It’s hard to ignore the shift in philosophy. Skate has always been about capturing the culture, not competing with Battlefield. Yet this iteration leans heavily on seasonal updates, social features, and monetised cosmetics. It’s courting the metaverse crowd more than the skaters who remember late-night sessions at the Super Ultra Mega Park. The result is a game with a wonderfully satisfying feel on the board and endless potential in its sandbox antics, but one that risks alienating the very audience that wished it into existence.

In its current early access state, Skate is a contradiction. It tows the line between giving just enough of what we asked for by bringing the Flick-It system to modern platforms, while also being something of a storefront on wheels. It has the mechanics to last forever, being an outright hoot with friends, but the infrastructure could vanish overnight. 15 years on, EA has delivered a game that captures the joy of skating, but whether it can capture the heart of skateboarding remains very much in question.

Formats: PC (reviewed) Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, PC, iOS, and Android
Price: Free (cosmetic purchases available)
Publisher: EA
Developer: Full Circle
Release Date: 16th September 2025 (early access)
Age Rating: 12

Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.

To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.

For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.