Best Indie Skating Games

Highlights

• Skateboarding games can offer a blend of fast-paced action and rogue-lite elements for an exciting gaming experience.
• Indie games like Helskate, SkateBIRD, and Rollerdrome provide unique skating adventures with accessible gameplay.
• Gamers can explore futuristic metropolises, downhill longboarding, and vertical skateboarding in a variety of indie skating games.

Skating is a rewarding and satisfying thing to do in and of itself, but developers have shown throughout the years that it’s also a great source of fun in video game format. Games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Skate 3 are just a couple examples of well-crafted skating games.

As indie games have entered the mainstream in recent years, becoming increasingly popular as time goes on, a broad variety of genres have been represented. One of the most underrepresented, though, is the skating game genre. That said, there are a handful of polished and fun skating experiences to be had in the indie scene.

7 Helskate

Steam User Rating: 83%

• Platform: PC
• Released: February 15, 2024
• Developers: Phantom Coast
• Genre: Action Rogue-Lite

Helskate is a unique combination of the action rogue-lite and skateboarding genres, blending fast-paced skating with character-action gameplay and a rogue-lite structure. Helskate is great for fans of the rogue-lite formula, Tony Hawk games, and even light spectacle fighters such as Hifi Rush.

Although Helskate is currently in Early Access, it’s already a promising and unique title. The game’s vibrant visual style, fast-paced action, and satisfying movement provides a well-crafted package, and the unique mash-up of mechanics makes it worth a shot in and of itself.

6 SkateBIRD

Steam User Rating: 84%

• Platforms: PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch
• Released: September 16, 2021
• Developer: Glass Bottom Games
• Genre: Skateboarding

This light-hearted, straightforward skateboarding game tasks players with skating as a small bird in miniature skate parks. SkateBIRD doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is apparent from the get-go with its rag-doll physics and silly tone.

SkateBIRD is a relatively accessible and affordable skating game that features intuitive controls that fans of the Tony Hawk skating games will likely get to grips with fairly quickly. The game’s straightforward, objective-based gameplay loop may not be for everyone, but it provides a solid experience that fans of skating games should enjoy.

5 Rollerdrome

Steam User Rating: 93%

This rollerskating action game’s theme and tone is clearly inspired by science-fiction films like Rollerball and The Running Man, with a visual style that possibly takes direct influence from games such as Sable. However, Rollerdrome‘s action-packed and Tony Hawk-adjacent gameplay is a unique boiling pot of fun ideas.

Rollerdrome is an extremely stylish game in which players rollerskate around several arenas, attempting to complete objectives while taking out enemies with a variety of weapons. Players can also perform a variety of tricks, which in turn will provide them with more ammunition.

4 OlliOlli World

Steam User Rating: 94%

While the original OlliOlli and its sequel, OlliOlli 2: Welcome To Olliwood, are both successful and satisfying skating games in their own right, it could be argued that OlliOlli World is the most polished of the lot. The game’s stylized 3D visuals, from its fun characters to its vibrant environments, are reminiscent of cartoons such as Adventure Time, and the gameplay is both accessible and rewarding to engage with.

Like many skating games, OllliOlli World features a scoring system that attempts to encourage players to strive for high scores. OlliOlli World does this rather successfully, as its accessible gameplay rarely punishes the player outside a reduced score.

3 The Ramp

Steam User Rating: 95%

• Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, Mobile
• Released: August 3, 2021
• Developer: Paul Schnepf
• Genre: Skateboarding

This minimalist indie game features a simple but satisfying gameplay loop based around vertical skateboarding. The game comes with a clean-cut, minimalist visual style and satisfying movement that aims to put players into a flow-state.

The Ramp was developed by Paul Schnepf, one of the key developers behind the unique tower defense game, Thronefall. The Ramp features no unlocks, no missions, and no score, making it closer to a digital toy than a fully-fledged game, but it’s a worthwhile way to spend a lunch break.

2 Driftwood

Steam User Rating: 96%

• Platform: PC
• Released: June 1, 2023
• Developers: Stoked Sloth Interactive
• Genre: Exploration

Driftwood is, more specifically, a game about longboarding. In particular, longboarding downhill at breakneck speeds as a sloth named Eddy. Driftwood is a relatively tranquil experience, allowing players to sail downhill through picturesque, mountainside landscapes.

However, it’s not an entirely serene experience; players will have to worry about incoming traffic and other obstacles as they drift along the road, making sure to take extra care on the abundance of tight corners they will come across. Driftwood is a fairly minimalist experience, but players can unlock new boards and wheels by scoring points with tricks.

1 Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

Steam User Rating: 98%

This hyper-stylized action-adventure skating game takes clear and heavy inspiration from the Jet Set Radio games, which can be seen both in its gameplay and its visual style. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk takes place in a futuristic metropolis and tasks players with writing/painting graffiti all across the city.

Throughout the game, players navigate the city via a variety of different modes of transport. These include a classic skateboard, BMX, and inline skates. Furthermore, players will have to maneuver around the militarized police that roam the city, which adds a welcome level of difficulty for those looking for it.

Special Mention: Skate Story

• Platform: PC
• Released: N/A
• Developer: Sam Eng
• Genre: Adventure

This unreleased skating game by Sam Eng is being published by Devolver Digital and looks to be a visually distinct adventure, similar to Devolver’s recently published Children of the Sun, which had an equally individual style. Skate Story is set to be a psychedelic action game with a uniquely striking visual style and a high-stakes narrative.

Set to take place in The Underworld, Skate Story will task players with tackling demons as they perform tricks and customize their board. In fact, the game’s store page currently boasts that the game will include over seventy tricks for players to perform. Although the skateboarding gameplay looks like a fluid experience, two of Skate Story‘s biggest draws are its visual design and its atmospheric, psychedelic music. The soundtrack is predominantly performed by Blood Cultures, a collection of experimental musicians, and sounds like the perfect fit for Skate Story‘s trippy atmosphere.