Tix Change = NO NO NO NOOOOOO

Too many good ideas were thrown out there to devs for this game to fail.

Everything I’ve seen in this game so far suggests they haven’t made it for existent fans and what we want from the series, but have pitched for a young audience who are new to skating.

You can see this target in everything from the cartoon art style, the saturated colours, the cutesy board stickers, and the censored music. Even the name Isle Of Grom suggests they were aiming heavily at youngsters.

The gameplay loop itself, with its emphasis on climbing, ragdolling, and ‘stunting’, shows that they felt they needed something beyond the core skating experience to draw in and entertain this audience. In a way, I’m not surprised they cut the most identifiable elements of the existing franchise, such as S.K.A.T.E. or Hall Of Meat, as they are likely considered too hardcore, skater-oriented features. Ditto for pros. Their rationale was likely, ‘Why waste money on pros that kids won’t recognise or care about’, fallacious as that is.

EA’s calculation was likely that the rest of us would be carried by nostalgia, but the tonal whiplash, combined with the bait and switch marketing, has been too severe for many players to swallow. They stripped out too many features and too much character in their pursuit of a child friendly sandbox, and I think that will ultimately sink this game.