The Ramp

When Activision first revealed their version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater on the Game Boy Advance, many fans scoffed at the idea of pulling off those sick combos from an isometric overhead perspective. But instead of being the downgrade that many feared, developer Vicarious Visions not only proved the skeptics wrong, but also showed the world a fun new way to shake up the skateboarding formula. This seems to be the inspiration for the new game The Ramp, the debut release from German developer Hyperparadise. It's a scaled-back skateboarding simulator that isn't interested in creating big open levels, making you find VHS tapes, counting up big combos or even keeping score at all. It just wants you to pull off tricks and have a good time. Does that sound like fun? Well, it is. For a while.

The first thing you need to know about The Ramp is that it's not like other skateboarding games. You still grind and pull off tricks, but everything is stripped down to its bare essentials. That means that there's no score keeping, no challenges to complete and nothing for you to unlock. The developer even goes as far as to call it more of a toy than a game, suggesting that it was designed to offer 10 or 15 minutes of flow that will help turn a boring day into something great.

The reason The Ramp can get away with this is because the gameplay is so much fun. This is one of those games where it's easy to learn, but hard to master. Once you figure out how to move around and gain speed, it all becomes about performing tricks with the right analog stick and holding down the shoulder button to grind along the side. As you get more comfortable with the controls, you'll want to take more risks by incorporating 360 and even 540 spins, all while juggling different tricks to really show off.

A lot of the fun comes from keeping the flow going without crashing or falling off your board. I found myself drifting into a rhythm where I kept wanting to push my virtual skater further and further, something that almost always led to a very painful looking spill on the concrete. Thankfully, all it takes is a push of a button to reset the character and get the flow going again, so you're never out of the action for too long.

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Beyond having a pick-up-and-skate attitude, a lot of the fun comes from mastering the unique challenges that come from the four skate locations. We'll sharpen our teeth on a fairly traditional halfpipe, grind on some poor sucker's empty swimming pool and then move onto the local skate park, where we can transition from the small to big bowls for a little extra variety. The final stage is more of a challenge, as it sends our skateboarders down an incredibly steep hill in order to make a massive jump off the ramp. This is a cool twist on the levels, but it's nowhere near as much fun to play as the other three locations. Especially without a way to keep track of high scores.

And that's something I kept coming back to time and time again. On one hand, I really appreciate the developer choosing to keep The Ramp stripped-down and as barebones as possible. In a world where everybody expects more content and modes, it's refreshing to see somebody thumbing their nose at convention. However, this design decision does come with its fair share of downsides, especially when it comes to the game's lasting appeal. As the developer pointed out, this is for people who are interested in mindlessly skating around for 10 or 15 minutes. Anything more than that will begin to feel repetitive and reveal that The Ramp is not as deep as one would hope.

Even knowing that this was going to be more of a toy than a game, I still couldn't shake the feeling that The Ramp was little more than a tech demo. If this were a proof of concept, then I would be overjoyed by what Hyperparadise achieved and excited to see where they take the project next. But there is no next, this is the game. And while I certainly had fun pulling off tricks and learning the ins and outs of the four levels, I can't help but be a little disappointed that there isn't more to it.

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For as much fun as finding that flow can be, I kept wanting to compare my scores and see real signs of progress. That may just be the part of my brain desperately wanting everything to be gamified, but I found that the lack of scoring system and objectives worked against the intended goal. Instead of inspiring me to push myself further, the stripped-down approach made a lot of the game feel a little pointless.

That's a shame, because I absolutely love the look and style of The Ramp. And it's not just the simple graphics, but also the incredibly smooth soundtrack. The music is one of my favorite parts of the game. Couple that with fun gameplay and a bunch of cool levels and you should have a must-own skateboarding game. Unfortunately, by stripping the genre down to its bare essentials, the developer has created a great-playing game that doesn't live up to its potential. The Ramp is certainly fun in small doses, but it gets old quickly.