Growing up alongside the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series, I was inclined – probably overly so – to play every single skateboarding game that I could get my hands on. This, of course, extended to the other major extreme sports games of the time, such as Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX and any sort of snowboarding game that was released. Everyone was trying to ride the same wave of success that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater had seen, though, and trying to replicate what made the Birdman’s series so special.
That’s not to say there weren’t any great games. As iconic as the THPS soundtrack is, I’ll still argue until I’m blue in the face that Street Skater’s soundtrack was actually the better soundtrack to feature licensed music. ALL, H2O, and Less Than Jake? C’mon. No contest. However, there was no real change up in game design with any of the THPS clones. This has changed over the years, most recently coming in the form of more minimalistic skateboarding titles, such as Skate City (which originally released on Apple Arcade), along with skateboarding sims such as Skater XL and Session. The Ramp – from indie developer Paul Schnepf (aka Hyperparadise) – falls into the former category, providing skateboarding fans with a bare-bones, minimalistic take on vert skating that is as calming to play as it is addictive.
In terms of control and gameplay mechanics, The Ramp is about as simple as it gets. After running through the short tutorial that teaches you how to control and perform grabs and grind tricks with your skater, you’ll have access to just three other levels – all of which feature vert skating, namely a pool, a dual bowl, and a mega ramp.
Related: This Week's Indie Game Releases (August 1 – 7)Although there are Steam achievements (and one that is appropriately named after Tony Hawk himself), there are no challenges presented, nor are there any time limits. You’re left to your own devices as you string lines of combos together, whether you’re soaring high in the air with a grab or grinding across a rail. It’s an oddly therapeutic and calming experience, even if you manage to fall or, say, fly off of the mega ramp. A quick-restart button is there to reset your skater so that you can get back to it quickly.
I think the calming factor has a lot to do with the pumping mechanic for keeping your skater thrashing fast. There is no traditional jump button. Rather, you pump and release to increase your speed, not unlike in real life vert skating. Then, when you get to the lip of the ramp, you simply let gravity do the work as your skater goes high into the air where they can spin and grab their board before landing their trick. The mega ramp is definitely my favorite level in The Ramp. Performing a 1440° off of the launching ramp, landing, and then nailing another 1440° rotation on the massive quarterpipe is both satisfying and rewarding. Don’t be fooled by the simplistic nature of The Ramp. The game still takes its fair share of practice and skill to properly land tricks.
When it comes to the skateboarding genre, it’s great to see that developers are coming to grips with the fact that they don’t need to create the next Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. While I wasn’t overly impressed with Skate City and have no plans to revisit the game any time soon, I can certainly see myself loading up The Ramp at least a couple of times each week just to take the edge off of a long day as I listen to its easy-going soundtrack while “going down, Homer. Then back up. Then down. Then back up again. That's how the game is played.”
A PC code was provided to TheGamer for this article. The Ramp is available now on PC via Steam.
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