Review: Transworld Endless Skater
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater meets Temple Run
Transworld Endless Skater, a recently released skateboarding game for iOS, takes on a difficult task of merging the twitch-reaction lane changing gameplay of Temple Run with the combo-based extreme sports gameplay pioneered by the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series. After spending some time playing this game, I’m happy to say it executes that mash-up splendidly.
Transworld Endless Skater tasks you with transversing a series of levels which are presented in a straight path, with a variety of lanes. Your goal is to trick, jump, and grind your way across various obstacles and jumps, while at the same time changing lanes to avoid hazards and find the best trick spots. i
Controller support is mixed. Extended controllers are fully supported both in-game and in the menu, but Standard layout controllers like the PowerShell and the Junglecat don’t work properly. Changing lanes requires tapping the left and right bottom trigger buttons, which Standard layout controllers don’t have. Hopefully this will be fixed shortly, because aside from this one complication, there doesn’t seem to be any issue playing with the Standard layout controller.
Other than that, controls are mapped very similarly to the old Tony Hawk games – A to jump, B to grab, X to trick, Y to grind. It’s a welcome familiarity, considering just how much time I put into the old THPS series on the Playstation! This is one of those games that plays so, so much better with a controller than it does with a touch-screen.
Transworld Endles Skater does a great job bridging the extreme skateboarding genre with the lane-based reaction genre. Fans of either would be wise to give it a shot. It’s free to download, with a “Gamer” in-app purchase to remove ads and increase cash drops.
Update
Good news: according to the developer’s comments at the end of this review, an update has already been submitted to enable full control with Standard layout controllers!