Video Game Review: Skatebird

Developer & Publisher: Glass Bottom Games

Genre: Sports

Reviewed On: Nintendo Switch

Also On: PC, Xbox One

It’s a tale as old as time in the video game world. Take something existing that does well in another medium, alter it in a cute way and send it out into the world. We’ve seen this time and time again not only in gaming, but also in movies. Remember when Air Bud was an unexpected success so large that it generated a ridiculously long line of sequels and franchisements? That’s just because a dog, and not a plucky youth, was playing basketball. People like cute things, it’s the cornerstone of an entire market of advertising and memes. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that Skatebird is merely that: a cute skateboarding game that features birds instead of Tony Hawk. But don’t worry: there’s plenty of bird related puns to ensure that you’re aware that they’re aware of the names.

Skatebird is the story of a lovely little budgie that you can customize to be any color or size that you want. The bird in question dreams of getting better on the tiny skateboard that his owner has given him, so, aided by his fellow birds, he seeks out to improve his skill. In order to do so, our resident Skatebird must also do a few fetchquests to better explore the room, which, to be honest, seems MASSIVE (more on that in a moment). Skatebird has all the aerodynamics of a little lovebird or budgie, so be prepared to flip, squawk, flap and grind your way around an incredible amount of faux park setups.

The concept, to be honest, is both realistic and adorable for Skatebird. We’ve seen people set up some incredible things over the pandemic and even beforehand, and someone constructing a sprawling yet miniaturized skate park for their pet birds is not beyond the bounds of imagination. Everything that you could have imagined might be ripped off from Pro Skater and the like are here: you’ve got pipes, full ramps, insane transfers and long, meandering rails to grind and get points on. Beyond that, there’s also bird centric actions, so keep those in mind. You can go from an ollie into a flapping chirp, which only increases your Fancy meter and thus increases your points. Bigger and better tricks net you even more energy and points, so get good at doing nosegrinds, one handed (winged) grabs and any number of other elements. But, keep in mind: you’re a bird.

That’s seriously one of the biggest caveats of Skatebird, but it’s also the main draw of the game. You see, as a tiny, colorful bird, your center of gravity and the way things move feel vastly different than, say, skateboarding as a person. There’s a lot more methodology in figuring out timing, and this is where you need to take the time to really pay attention and read the notes about the game before playing. Whether you’re doing story mode or just free skate, there’ll be button reminders in the bottom right hand corner that pop up whenever trick options become available. Problem is, they flash VERY quickly and disappear the second the window for the trick closes, making it essential that you memorize what you’d like to do within the game. This actually puts a lot of pressure onto the player to understand things better than they would, say, OlliOlli or the like, because the 3D world of Skatebird presents challenges very quickly with very little time to react.

Additionally, the notion of the game being cute can also grow wearisome very quickly. Great, you’re a tiny bird on a skateboard with a tiny helmet, grinding on a rail made of straws or doing a jump off a ramp made of dominos and it’s all quite adorable, thank you. There is some simplification to the game rules, but, ultimately, Skatebird is a faithful skating game, which means you need to be ready to completely eat asphalt (or rug, as the case is) should you fail, and your character is still a bird. So when you fail, there’s a lot of indignant squawking that isn’t my favorite sound in the world (and the very blase soundtrack certainly doesn’t help mask it). I feel like there was a lot of time dedicated to ensuring Skatebird looked the part more than played the part, which results in a lot of frustration. My bird took a ramp too slowly and got wedged between the rail and the domino, resulting in just being stuck and looking impatiently incredulous as I tried to ollie my way out (I could not) and had to respawn. There are a lot of moments when you wish the game would have put more thought into the skating instead of trying to fill the whole bedroom with items to play with: I’d rather have better controls and better execution than more places to fail.

As Skatebird exists on multiple consoles and platforms, I don’t think it’s impossible to imagine a lot of my issues come from this being a Nintendo Switch port. The load times are shockingly long (though I did like the pixel bird monitor loading screen), and the limited draw distance sometimes means not being able to gauge what you’re able to encounter and trick off of. It’s a cursed caveat that comes with the Switch and Nintendo’s welcoming of almost any title onto the eShop: I never know if my poor experience is across the board, or just for people trapped in Nintendo’s walled garden. But as someone who enjoyed Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 Remastered, I can say that skate games run well on the Switch, even in handheld, so Skatebird doesn’t really have that crutch to fall back onto.

Having said all that, I recognize Skatebird as an indie title with a cute concept and decent gameplay. It’s fun enough, and the bird customization is a welcome changeup from the constant humanoid configuration that’s grown stale over the years. As long as you trim your ambition, prepare for some meandering moments and have someone to play with as you bobble along, it’s not a bad little game, just not for me.