SkateBIRD
OpenCritic Rating
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
SkateBIRD Trailers
SkateBIRD - Official Trailer | Summer of Gaming 2021
SkateBIRD - Announcement Trailer - Nintendo Switch
Critic Reviews for SkateBIRD
Skatebird is a cute and original arcade skating game supported by great music, but the skating itself is crude, the objectives are boring, and the camera is a regular hassle.
A chirpy spin on the skateboarding sim genre, undermined by poor level design and frustrating gameplay.
It’s just overall not that well executed. The physics and gameplay are not where they should be. The levels are just okay. The goals are rarely entertaining. But you’re here for the birds, right? There are definitely skateboarding birds, I can guarantee they are in SkateBIRD. I’m not even being sarcastic, the birds are absolutely great. Just try to focus on that and nothing else.
SkateBIRD is a charming game with fun writing and a great soundtrack, but can't strike a good balance between offering precision boarding and silly physics chaos.
There a lot of elements of SkateBIRD that are great. The birds are fun, as is customizing them and finding more things with which to dress them up. Their little adventure is also fun, the soundtrack is excellent, and the levels are fun miniaturized takes on the normal skatepark fare. It’s just that there is so much dragging these charming elements down, the most noticeable of which is the actual skating and the physics involved with it. SkateBIRD might be fun to experience for its premise and cuteness, but those looking for a good technical skate game experience will likely find their expectations crashing and burning frequently, much like most of my sessions with it.
SkateBIRD is a wonderful skateboarding game that plays familiar to THPS, but is as much its own game to separate the two.
In an odd way, then, Glass Bottom Games has captured the truth of the situation; contrary to its mission of cuteness, it has made a game that feels hollow-boned, caged by unflattering mechanics.
I’m not going to say “buyer beware” in regards to the Switch version of Skatebird. By all means, if you have younger gamers or Switch is your primary gaming device, then playing Skatebird on Switch will probably be just fine for you. However, if you have the option, go with the PC version of the game, especially considering that the game is coming to Xbox Game Pass next month. Even though many of its tropes are a bit played out within the genre, Skatebird is a game that knows it’s silly, and embraces it in a way that makes it fun to play (on PC).