TRICKS AND MOVES ARE PULLED OFF THROUGH THE STICK-FLICKING SYSTEM

This skating game is far from perfect, but it's got potential

- Robert Jones

As I lie face down on the cold, hard concrete of the skate park, I take a deep breath and confirm that, yes, I've definitely won the Best Dressed Corpse Award. My huge 720-degree Christ Air looked incredible as I, the flying Jesus of skateboarding, pirouetted through the skies of San Vansterdam, Skate's fictional city. But I got greedy like the dwarves of Moria and, stretching for just a little bit more rotation, failed to get my skateboard fully back under my feet in time. The rest, as the grinders say, is skating history.

So far, this has largely summed up my time with the return of the Skate series, which, after a long hiatus, has relaunched into this free-to-play Early Access game. There's been plenty of pleasure, with the skating game becoming my new go-to for a short gaming session to unwind. But there's also been plenty of pain, with some frustrating design decisions on behalf of the game's developers, Full Circle, leaving me both scratching my head and raging against the corporately cloying skating machine you can suddenly find yourself in.

OK, let's talk about the good stuff, which pleasingly starts with some smart and slick skating mechanics. The majority of tricks and moves are pulled off through the game's stick-flicking system. Make a few right-stick flicks, either singular or in a sequence, and your skater will instantly pull off some sweet skating tricks, ranging from varial kickflips and pop-shuvits, to laserflips, nollies, and tic tacs.