The Ramp: new impressions of skateboarding game

I wrote on The ramp a few weeks ago when i thought it sounded like a cool little skate game but i write about it again now because it came out and i played it and it’s Magnificent.

Let’s set some expectations before we begin: The ramp is a very small game. It costs $ 4.79 at launch. There are a handful of skaters to choose from, it takes place on just four stages, there is no campaign, no licensed soundtrack, no extravagant sponsored content or unblocked guest stars.

What it has are two things: an isometric point of view and a beautifully tuned set of controls, with which it wants you to sit, relax, and skate as you please. That’s it! This game is a toy, a set of four blank webs, each with slightly different challenges, from standard vertical ramps to huge jumps, which you are free to skate on however you like.

There is no stress on your combo score, no time limit that eats away at you, no leaderboards and no multiplayer. If you prefer Skate more than THPS because it brought things a little closer to just skating, so The ramp take things as far as possible while continuing to skate.

Although the subject could not be further away, it pushes a lot of the same buttons as Landscaper do for me, in that it takes a kind of video game that I’m passionate about and brings it back to its most essential elements, where with no additional consequences or layers of gameplay, you can just … enjoy it the way they are.

The ramp is a skating sandbox then, a fantastic exploration of the fun of skating, crashing (crash physics here is insanely cute) and getting back up maybe when you’re just doing it for yourself and the inherent joy to be found in the act itself.

This is now available on Steam.