Games worth discovering

Tony Hawk goes to Hell?! Helskate brings together extreme sports and Hades in a crazy combo

3K View2024-02-13

If you were alive and playing video games before the year 2005, there's a strong chance you went through a Tony Hawk phase. From the moment the first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater arrived on PlayStation in 1999 (with N64 and Dreamcast versions following the next year), the gaming world was obsessed with grinding through these awesome levels and trying to pull off the sickest and longest string of combos possible.

There's just one thing that the Tony Hawk games were missing: demons. In fact, for all we know, maybe it's the lack of hellspawn that led to the series' steady drop in quality and interest from players! Thankfully, Amsterdam-based indie developer Phantom Coast is ready to fix this glaring oversight with the upcoming release of Helskate.

You should only need to check out the trailer above or take a quick look at this screenshot to see how much Helskate captures the gameplay of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. It's got players doing strings of tricks across urban environments, grinding over rails, hopping over cars—heck, you even have to collect giant floating letters scattered throughout each area!

But that's not the full story, because unlike the Tony Hawk games, Helskate is also a roguelite action game. Those urban levels will be spotted with bones and lava pits, and eventually demonic enemies will show up. In addition to performing tricks, players will be have attacks and special abilities, all of which can be upgraded by purchasing new gear or getting tattoos between runs.

And yes, there are even boss fights.

So basically, Helskate is the vibes of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater meets the structure of Hades. If that sounds as badass to you as it does to us, you can check the game out for yourself soon. Helskate launches in early access this week, on February 15, 2024. We're definitely going to grab our board and try it for ourselves, so watch out for quick first impressions from one of TapTap's editors around that date.