In the past few years, I’ve been feeling that itch to learn how to skateboard. Maybe it’s the encroaching end of my 20s and the rapid approach of my 30s, that bittersweet last time you can be bad at a physical hobby and accrue the scrapes, bruises, and broken bones that entails while still having the advantage of youth to heal your body in a reasonable amount of time. Whatever the reason, I’ve been falling in love with the video games that show off skate culture, even in a somewhat glamorized state: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, SKATE 3, and a few others have caught my attention if only for the immaculate vibes they bring.

Skate Story gets it. It gets the whole vibe of skating down.

Now, to be clear, Skate Story is more than just the vibe of skating. It has its own insane, incredible story, told with so much style and finesse. It has its own, distinct, slightly concerning visual style that fits the themes. The music is overlayed on top of the other audio. But all of these things blend with each other and add to each other, rather than subtract. The music creates the mood without overpowering it, giving the soundscape of scraping boards and screeching wheels space to breathe in all but the most tense scenes. The storytelling is entirely done through text and brief cutscenes, all skippable in their own right, so as to not impede on the gameplay. The gameplay, in turn, doesn’t get so complicated that you can’t comprehend the story.

Plus, you can change your deck to have a fish on the bottom of it. You can put stickers on it. That’s rad as hell.

You’re a demon, made of glass and pain, who signed a contract with the Devil in order to get a skateboard, and to eat the moons of the Underworld. What an insane premise. What an insane promise to make in your game. But Skate Story pulls through.

I’ve never seen a game so masterfully create its own vision, an underworld that, while bleak, is still filled with color. The music that plays in the more relaxed scenes fits a window between the somber, pensive nature of being trapped in eternal torment and finding that little bit of joy in motion, in being able to grind and flip and slide your way around something that resembles an urban landscape. Horrifying, disorienting images of giant centipedes, guardians that want to kill you, the very moon floating in the sky descending to challenge you, contrasted with the quiet patter of rain falling, demons going about their day and contemplating their eternal prison, feeling almost like a normal city for a while.

But above all, it gets that feeling I want out of a skateboarding game right. That feeling of motion, of fluidity, of feeling like you’re on your own, giving the most beautiful performance in the world to exactly nobody in particular, no matter what they think about how you’re scraping up their railings. The open spaces feel like proper urban skate spots, the kind people have been getting chased out of for years; the linear chase scenes feel incredible, that sense of constant forward momentum propelling you through increasingly insane, abstract hallways and over platforms.

Not to mention, the story itself, while a bit confusing at first, is beautiful. The plot and the twist hit me in the gut, making me feel like the glass skater, fighting against a cruel fate in the only way he knows how; rebellion through motion.

If you haven’t played this one yet, and you’re at all interested in skating games or just cool art games and music, please check this one out. It’s worth it, I promise.

• Dralnah