If you're pining for the Skate or Tony Hawk series, Session might not be exactly what you're looking for. "Forget about hand holding magnet features or turbo timers here," say its developers. "It's you and the streets."
Session first appeared as Project:Session on the now-defunct Steam Greenlight in 2015. In 2017, the skateboarding sim was funded on Kickstarter, where Montreal-based Creā-ture Studios pitched it as a no-nonsense ode to '90s and 2000s skateboarding life. There's no scoring: your tricks are good if they look good, and the devs promised an "extended video editor" for creating montages.
The control scheme is the most interesting hook. The analog sticks represent the weight and movement of each foot. "Just think about how you would move your feet or transfer your weight while on a skateboard and apply that to the sticks," reads the Kickstarter campaign.
It's definitely the sim-iest skateboarding game I've come across, which might be great, but in practice may mean that I faceplant 10 times in a row and give up. Time will tell.
Session is releasing on Steam Early Access on September 17.
