Skate House Review (PC)

Like a well-oiled Caveman, Skate House is barebones with its minimalistic approach to chalking the outlines of a generic shopkeeping simulation experience. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it looks any less graceful. True enough, it doesn’t have the same flair as a mountainous business management game, nor does it pack the same punch as an in-depth strategy RPG with all of the bells and whistles, trucks and decals that comprise a full-fledged deck-building gig. Sadly, there are no customers to serve, nor are there any lifting milestones to pursue over the course of a sizable campaign. Instead, you have the absolute basics to work with—an empty store, a display rack, and a series of options for promoting your products.

Skate House takes that traditional formula that we’ve clocked countless times before and single-handedly liquidates its most crucial aspects. Not that this is a bad thing, mind you. Sure enough, it lacks the depth of a familiar shopkeeping sim, and it transforms its goal to full throttle the hustle and bustle of a prolific store into a slightly more sophisticated affair. It has the capacity to deliver much more, yet it settles for an experience that can only keep you for a few hours at a time. Again, not a bad thing — but a dissatisfactory one, to say the least.

With all of the above said, Skate House does manage to get a lot of things right. For example, it taps into the skateboarding scene incredibly well, with its deck customization aspects and interior design elements providing a lot of bang for your buck. Does it get everything right? No — but it does leave enough room for itself to grow in the future. And that counts for a lot, truly.

A Vertical Slice of Skateboarding

Skate House pays tribute to the usual umbrella of shopkeeping simulation games à la Supermarket Simulator by adding its own DNA to the database. Like its predecessors, it chooses to maintain the same basic genetic code—a husk of a storefront, a menu of items to sell, and an option to formulate custom decks and profitable synergies, amongst a few other things, like mundane shelf-stacking tasks, cleanup work, and managerial-maintenance jobs. It has all of that here, with the only thing that’s missing from the melting pot being a continuous stream of customers to serve. Cut those loyal patrons from the equation, though, and what you see is what you get: a somewhat generic shopkeeping game that favors skateboards over groceries and nicknacks.

If you’ve seen one of these games in the past, then you ought to know exactly what you’re getting into here. If not, then here’s the lowdown: you, the new key holder of a store, have the opportunity to build a skate shop from the wheel bearings up—an objective that involves treading several steps and veering through various hoops in order to attain a sustainable financial model and a prosperous business.

It starts out small, with a rather depressing shell of a store, and limited access to a set amount of skate accessories and decks. As time progresses, you have access to better add-ons; the more you acquire, the more you earn, thus increasing your passive income and allowing you the flexibility to explore alternate avenues of success. Not a lot to talk about here — unless, of course, you’re new to the genre, in which case you have a few learning curves to tackle. That said, as there are no customers for you to serve, it isn’t quite as taxing as your typical business sim.

Finding Your Bearings

For a game that centers its world around skate culture and all of the trappings that come with it, Skate House actually does a spectacular job of encapsulating a well-rounded and, more importantly, authentic gameplay experience. Aside from it housing a wide range of decks, wheels, trucks, and graphics, it also provides you with the opportunity to onboard local skaters and foster meaningful sports protégés, similar to how a real-world skate hub would work. Granted, it isn’t as complex as your standard management sim, though it does cough up a good amount of opportunities to expand the store and recruit more clients and staff. It’s just a shame that you don’t actually see them.

Skate House states in the description that it has just under five hours’ worth of content to work with, and honestly, I’m inclined to agree. Unfortunately, once you’ve successfully built your store and designed a treasure trove of boards, you are somewhat restricted to what you can accomplish. There are upgrades to unlock, true, but not as many as you would come to expect of a full-fledged business simulation game.

On the bright side, Skate House does cleanse the palate with some clean visuals and neat transitions. Does it perform as smoothly as it should? It bounces back and forth, I’ll admit. For the most part, though, Skate House does flow well enough for you to be able to fully immerse yourself in the process and complete the necessary steps without having to fret about any unwanted technical difficulties. It’s just a shame that said process isn’t in receipt of anything particularly meaty, much less original. Can’t win ‘em all though, I suppose.

Verdict

If you’re seriously into shopkeeping simulation games that blend mundane chore core elements with pulpy gameplay mechanics, then you’ll probably love donning the decks in Skate House. The only caveat to this is that, despite it boasting a surprisingly sizable and authentic deck-crafting suite, there just isn’t a lot for you to do outside of the usual routine checklist tasks—placing boxes in a store, applying decorations to the shop floor, and making small but important upgrades to the business model, for example.

Of course, if you’re a skateboarding enthusiast who simply enjoys the little things, like fine tuning a board or swapping out certain parts in order to create a perfect vessel for the extreme riders, then there’s a good chance that you’ll get a good kick out of toying with the workbench and dabbing your hand at the customizable interface in this pocket-sized build-and-ride gig. If, however, you’re looking for something that adds more depth to the traditional simulation game, then I hate to say it, but you probably won’t get your fill here.