''Skate Jam'' (formerly ''Tony Hawk's Skate Jam'') is a skateboarding video game developed and published by American studio Maple Media. A

free-to-play Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...

game for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

and Android mobile phones, ''Skate Jam'' is the only game in the '' Tony Hawk's'' video game series to not be published by

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...

, as Activision's publishing license expired in 2015. The game was released for

on December 13, 2018 and for Android on February 1, 2019.

Gameplay

''Skate Jam'' is built on the gameplay engine of ''Skateboard Party'', a previous series of mobile games developed by Maple Media and inspired by the ''Tony Hawk's'' series. ''Skate Jam'' features a traditional ''

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater'', released as ''Tony Hawk's Skateboarding'' in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Europe, is a skateboarding video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It was released for the PlayStation o ...

'' style career mode with 15 levels, five of which double as competition levels. The levels that make up ''Skate Jam'' have all been adapted from previous ''Skateboard Party'' titles.

Development

The licensing deal between Hawk and former series publisher

expired in December 2015. Year and month later, Hawk stated in an interview that he was in early talks to continue the franchise without Activision. Hawk first teased the game's existence in June 2018, in an interview with ''The Nine Club'', a skateboarding podcast. The game was officially revealed on December 3 as ''Tony Hawk's Skate Jam''. Maple Media, the developers of ''Skate Jam'', have a history developing skateboarding games for mobile platforms, with a flagship series of their own, ''Skateboard Party'', of which ''Skate Jam'' is a spiritual successor to. The game's soundtrack was selected by Hawk himself.

Reception

Reception of the game has been mixed, with many users noting the difficulty and awkwardness of the controls. Mashable noted that "at first glance, ''Skate Jam'' appears to be faithful to the original mechanics of ''THPS'', while also adding in some newer elements".

References

2018 video games Android (operating system) games iOS games Single-player video games Skateboarding video games Skate Jam Video games developed in the United States {{sports-videogame-stub