ScooterFlow Review (Xbox Series X|S & PC)

ScooterFlow takes the middle child of extreme sports—the neglected one, sadly—to the heart of the gaming scene in an attempt to fill the void and illuminate the vast possibilities in scootering. Skateboarding, which has more than its fair share of representatives in the field, is, at least beneath the beacon of two wheels, the benchwarmer, and scootering, finally, is a newfound flag bearer. With this, it feels as if we’ve stumbled upon an alternate timeline—a world in which a sport that, frankly, barely anybody mentions in gaming, wears the glass slipper. And you know, I’m all for it. But that still leaves a rather heavy question: does the sport work well in terms of gamification? Let’s talk.

Forget about Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and forget about Skate’s Hall of Meat. Hell, forget about the silliness and the lack of technical grace that make up most extreme sports video games. ScooterFlow, in an effort to represent the world of scootering as an equal match for the likes of Skate XL, opts for realism—a take that favors the slow but immensely gratifying process of learning a trick and implementing it into a screenshot-worthy line. Rather, it shuns high scores and exaggerated expectations, and instead focuses on the art of physics-based analysis and execution. Alas, it abandons an arcade-like feel, and fully embraces the realistic nature of the sport. In other words, it does things a little differently than, say, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. You can’t tap a button and land a sickeningly complex combo here, basically. Everything requires a hands-on approach.

ScooterFlow isn’t about mouth-watering high scores or devastatingly high ratings on a leaderboard; it’s about patience, calculation, and understanding that even the smallest things can take time to fully grasp. And if ScooterFlow does anything at all, it highlights the importance of committing to experimentation. Unlike most extreme sports games that simply hand you the tools to swivel heads and break records, this chapter provides you with a weighty customization suite that houses dozens of branded components, and it tasks you with learning to enhance your skill set over a long and oftentimes challenging period of time. It doesn’t hold your hand; it drags you by the wrist and forces you to jump through the hoops, all in the hopes that you’ll eventually land a tail whip.

As with most games of this kind, ScooterFlow doesn’t generate an overnight masterclass in scootering. No, it makes it clear right from the get-go that, to truly enjoy the experience, you need to commit to the journey and mull over the motions at a snail-like pace. With an authentic physics-based system behind it, everything that you accomplish here comes with a lot of legwork and dedication. However, once you master the basics, the real journey begins to take shape. And I suppose that’s where ScooterFlow finds a reason to keep you coming back for more. It’s reaching that point, of course, that’s the tough part.

With no major progression-based milestones or career-oriented modes to carve through, ScooterFlow can feel a little pointless and, more importantly, like a game without any real structure. In most cases, you would have something to work towards—a reward that comes with a new high score, or a promotion that befalls a significant milestone in the scootering cycle. But in ScooterFlow, it is what you make of it. There are no goals to achieve, and there are no beacons of light that usher you towards the next “story” beat. You decide how you want to approach the world, and you roll with it. It’s a liberating experience, albeit one that, at least to some, might feel a little boring. Yet, if you can accept the fact that ScooterFlow isn’t your bog-standard career-focused video game, then you should be able to enjoy for, well, the ride.

While the early teething eras can feel a little daunting to the casual scooterist, the latter portions of the game do manage to balance out the learning curve and provide you with a lot of great moments. Once you land your first trick, and once you memorize the patterns, the weight, and the dynamics, everything begins to feel smoother, more relaxed, and incredibly satisfying. And it’s at that point where ScooterFlow becomes less of an uphill battle and more of a sandbox for interpretive play. The customization soon begins to play its part, and before long you have an entire park to tailor and wax to your own tastes. The social aspect begins to reveal itself, and the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle all slowly move into alignment.

Speaking of parks and sandboxes, ScooterFlow has a solid foundation for its asphalt kingdom. With a world that fosters a huge variety of ramps, rails, and objects that allow for creative trick work, you essentially have an unlimited range to flex your scootering wizardry. The world feels worn, but not without a heart. There are few barren areas, and almost every quarter has its own unique charm that makes each line a photogenic moment in itself.

As mentioned earlier, ScooterFlow might not appeal to those who want a scootering game with a plot. In this case, entertainment and progression is locked in the hands of individuals’ interests. If you feel that there is more to unearth, then it’s highly likely that you’ll find it. However, if you think that you have seen all that there is to see and do all that there is to do, then you probably have. The point is, at no time does ScooterFlow tell you to stop or keep going. It simply hands you the tools and the breathing room and lets you decide when enough is enough. The question is, is there enough to warrant the price tag?

Verdict

ScooterFlow fills a gap in the world of extreme sports with an authentic, albeit structureless physics-based experience that can leave you feeling satisfied beyond your wildest dreams. With a quality collection of parts and components, as well as a full spectrum of tricks to learn, master and experiment with, you probably won’t find a shortage of things to do here. The only thing missing, sadly, is a plot—a sense of purpose, or a desire to clamber up the leaderboard or earn your stripes as the Belle of the scootering ball. For a creative sandbox, it’s liberating. But for a video game, it’s a little light on content and incentives. Can’t win ‘em all, though, I guess.