The most purist and minimalist Skateboarding experience in videogames: The Ramp
For some time now I have been obsessed with the simple experiences that can provide those video games that are not seen very often in the analysis of the larger media, the indies are an almost inexhaustible source of new ideas and experiences that can enter the video game, some are more elaborate than others but what they bring is freshness at a much lower price than the big productions, perhaps this is why I think the indies are the future of this industry, independent creators are only a few years away from dominating the market (if they don't already dominate it today, based on the quality of games vs AAA games) and it is because of titles like The Ramp that I think they are an endless ocean of good ideas and concepts that can be applied to an interactive experience, a very well executed minimalist Skate game that puts the gameplay basics above all else and leaves it up to the player to see where it takes these mechanics.
Tha Ramp is a skateboarding title in the purest style of those Gameboy games where we were Tony Hawk and the only thing that mattered was our time on the ramp and the tricks we did, it was such a simple mechanic back then that The Ramp created solo by Paul Schenf has decided to recreate it and take it a step forward to focus everything on gameplay and music, your ramps, your tricks, your space, it's all an environment as soothing as challenging where the player sets the goal and how to get there, making from the start an addictive and very simple title, as soon as we start we are only allowed to select a character (or customize one for us) and go out with our board to practice some stunts with a unicolor background and a relaxing soundtrack, ideal to enjoy all the smoothness and dynamism of skateboarding.
Do not get me wrong, it is a title that presents a certain challenge in terms of learning to do the tricks and stunts, at first it will cost us even the most subtle movement but the game progresses well explaining the possibilities we have ahead until we can hold firmly to the board, we will have all kinds of traditional tricks like Holly or boardslides that we must raise always taking care of the execution as this game has a fairly realistic perception with the physics of the board so the weight and speed at every moment will influence the tricks that we can carry out. However learning to play it after understanding the mechanics is quite simple, just press a button to use the legs either to grab momentum or to release it at the edge of the ramps, this will be our initial mechanics to find the momentum to do the stunts either on the rails or on the ramps.
In general, The Ramp is a fairly simple title to play, with only those two buttons (take impulse and release it) we can carry out most of the techniques with the stick that we can use both to define the direction and to move in the air, each scenario is arranged in a way so that we can try certain sets of stunts but most focus on both the ramps and rails, similarly there is a wide variety of techniques that we can use on the ground leaving endless possibilities available to users.
The title has a fairly minimalist aesthetic, the scenarios are proof of this as they are only a few small environments on a unicolor background where there is only what is necessary for us to perform the techniques and skate, something that is relaxing and very colorful at the same time, putting the game in these locations plus the integration of a fairly relaxing soundtrack (although most of the time I play with music itself) result in a game different from the rest, for example titles like Skate or Tony Hawk itself focused on taking skateboarding to the streets in the most realistic way possible but The Ramp is a little more surreal and understands skateboarding in a different way than these other titles, for this reason I found it great and I recommend it completely although I would have liked a little more variety in the scenarios and in general something more complete because the game feels limited once you play it for several hours in a row.
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