With players stuck in lengthy queues for online-only Skate, those who made it in are comparing its bouncing, belly-flopping traversal to Mario 64
By Ed Nightingale
Copyright eurogamer
EA’s Skate has now released into early access and has already proven so popular there are long queues to get in, with the team fixing ongoing outage issues.
Yet when players do get in, they’re discovering skating isn’t actually the optimal way to get around. In fact, videos on social media make the game look more like Super Mario 64.
One player shared a video of their character rolling and jumping without a skateboard to overtake traffic and speed around the city.
Another player responded with a video of their character similarly rolling and jumping before belly flopping to slide over the ground.
Yet another player has found jumping from their board and flying to be an optimal way to build up speed.
It’s clear, then, Skate is not quite performing as expected. But for now, the studio is busy improving wait times, with the team “hard at work adding more servers and getting more skaters into San Van”, it wrote on social media. “We appreciate your patience.”
As per the game’s subreddit, many players have been sitting waiting in queues, while others have joined a session but been shortly kicked out due to server issues.
The gameplay so far byu/BittaminMusic inSkateEA
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As a result, many players have complained about Skate’s online requirement. Developer Full Circle confirmed back in April the game would require an online connection.
“The game and city are designed to be a living, breathing massively multiplayer skateboarding sandbox that is always online and always evolving,” it wrote in an FAQ. “You’ll see bigger things evolve, like changes to the city over time, as well as smaller things, like live events and other in-game activities. In order to deliver on our vision of a skateboarding world, the game will always require a live connection.”
Still, that only works if players are able to get in, for which the studio is at least prioritising a fix.
For more on Skate, check out Eurogamer’s interview with Skate’s executive producer Mike McCartney on its iconic Flick-It trick system.
