Street Skater 3D for Android

A skateboarding game for people who don't like skateboarding

Street Skater 3D has very little to do with the actual sport. It is a typical three lane racer, in which the skateboarding hook could just as easily have been a gingerbread man chasing down gum-drop buttons as someone tries to eat him... no, wait, that may have been better.

No comply

There is little real inspiration behind Street Skater 3D. It is Temple Run again, only this time it's on a skateboard with all of the three-lane-switching and coin-collecting lifted wholesale.

Free-to-play hooks are immediately apparent. Using collected coins it is possible to purchase extra skaters, as well as powering up your coin gathering abilities. On the plus side, if you decide you want to purchase these extras in-app rather than earning them through play, paying to unlock everything isn't too expensive and also stops the constant, intrusive advertising.

Manual

Despite having two interface options it is hard to control your border as he or she speeds down the track jumping and ducking obstacles. This is because Street Skater 3D has decided to use proportional, analog controls - great for some titles but not so great here when you need to quickly flick between lanes.

One option is to guide your boarder with virtual buttons. You must hold the desired button to move sluggishly across the lanes. This sits in contrast to the digital duck and jump buttons which, with a single tap, have you spring into the air or duck for a set period of time.

If this doesn't sound like your thing, but you still think there is hope for Street Skater 3D, then let me explain why the tilt controls are not much better. Oddly, the offender here is not the left and right motion between lanes (which work well) but the swipe to jump and duck. This results in a woolly feel to the action that sits in contrast to the precision required, a juxtaposition that frequently had me cursing at my phone as I once again felt cheated of my prize.

Were these two schemes mixed (with tilt to move and buttons to jump and duck) then there could be some hope for Street Skater 3D, but as it stands it just feels sub-par.

Switch stance

On the plus side the 3D visuals look great as you race through the world. Crisp visuals do a great job conjuring the mood of the various areas as you shoot through city streets gathering coins. Depending on the current location, you are met by a variety of themed obstacles. These vary from boxes and barrels, to cars and skips, all of which perfectly suit their environments.

Unfortunately, despite (or perhaps because of) this detail, there are a lot of obstacles you only see when you're almost on top of them with no way to escape. Chain link fences are the worst offenders here, proving almost invisible at a distance even on larger screens.

To help with this (partially) there are two viewing angles; one behind the racer, and one off to the side that creates an isometric perspective. Each of these have different advantages (behind has a longer view distance, and off to the side provides a clearer idea of distance from impact). Like the controls, however, neither is perfect in isolation.

Stalefish

If you like skateboarding then there are far better games out there out there that include some actual skating. For the rest of you, there are just better games out there.