Transworld Endless Skater Review

As the name suggests, Transworld Endless Skater is an Endless Skater game. It works fairly well at capturing the variety of different tricks and grinds that can be performed while skateboarding, but it's also a cautionary tale when it comes to controls that sound great on paper but aren't so great in action.

Initially players have one location to master, which is actually plenty when figuring out the basics. A tutorial guides you through what to expect, with each corner of the screen relating to a different kind of move. One side might help you ollie for instance, while another dictates grinding or other tricks. Experimentation is the key here - and plenty of practice. Moving around the screen is a matter of dragging a finger around, but it's also easy to get caught up in the moment and inadvertently try to perform a trick that had no chance of succeeding.

In theory, it's a great control scheme as it adds a certain sense of flow to how you perform such moves, but it's tough and not for the fainthearted. It never feels quite as intuitive as it should. Transworld Endless Skater offers up a series of missions to complete, such as going from a grind to a grab move, or grinding for a particular length of time. Given it's easy to forget what corner does what move in the early stages, it's likely you're going to stumble through these steps. A form of labeling might have gone some way to counteracting such issues.

Transworld Endless Skater is also rather stingy when it comes to unlocking the extra stage, as well as new characters with everything costing a fairly hefty amount of in-game coins. Of course there are in-app purchases available to help speed things along, but those wanting to keep things free are going to feel limited here.

Still, given the difficulty level of Transworld Endless Skater, that one stage is going to last a fair while. It frustrates a little too often when, for what feels like the hundredth time, you mess up because you've lost track of what corner does which move, but every once in a while it'll excite and feel quite glorious just for a moment. Then you'll face plant the pavement all over again. Just like real skateboarding, then.