SkateBird Review (Xbox Series S)

by Jim Smale · Published September 16, 2021 · Updated February 10, 2022

In our SkateBird Review, we play as a lonely lil’ bird, and your Big Friend has hung up their board for good. Their job sucks, and lately, they’re barely ever home to play with you. You’re gonna fix all that with the power of being a chill little skateboarding bird. You may be tiny, but the more you skate, the more friends you’ll make. Birds will come to check out your park, help you find more parks, and together you’ll (somehow) fix Big Friend’s life! Above all else, skate birds try their best.

SkateBird Review Pros:

Nice graphics.
3.3GB download size.
1000 Gamerscore.
Skateboarding gameplay.
Controls just like Tony Hawk’s games.
Game settings – Invert axis, set game speed, high contrast dialogue, big contextual help, holding Ollie pushes, Ollie also grinds and Ollie also flip tricks, the field of view slider, particle density, bail difficulty, balancing enabled, sensitivity sliders, dead zone sliders, drop the camera, fixed drop camera, dude the bird, steering boost and bird level.
Unlock music and set up your own playlist.
Five locations to unlock.
Each location has missions, hidden tapes, clothes to find, decks to find, and wheels.
Cool 8 Bit loading screen animation.
Controls show up on the screen.
The game is laid out in such a way that you freely ride around and rack up scores and when you are ready you take a challenge from the big bird.
Challenges are timed and do have a handy little arrow to help find things.
Customize your bird with 38 bird species to choose from, headwear, face wear, neckwear, backpack, waist, Skateboard, and wheels color.
How to skate menu section.
Moves show up as you do them along with a combo counter.
Manual reset point – you can quickly and easily set a reset point to restart from if you bail or restart.
Being a bird you can flap your wings to go higher when executing tricks.
Wide variety of tricks from grinding to ollies, manuals, transfers, and grab moves.
Quick restart after bailing.
Play how you want.

SkateBird Review Cons:

No leaderboards.
The camera is erratic.
Getting into tight spaces is a nightmare as the game puts you where and how it wants you rather than what makes sense.
Doesn’t have any multiplayer.
The size of the birds makes it hard to judge tricks.
Little in the way of trick animations so you never quite know what you have done.
Hard achievements list.
Having missions timed is an unnecessary evil.
Little replay value.

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