The Ramp

Genre: Sports (Skateboarding)

Players: 1

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Review:

The Ramp, released on PC in 2021 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2022, is a Skateboarding game that seems to evoke the Game Boy Advance entries in the Tony Hawk franchise with its isometric viewpoint and simple 3D characters. At the time, that style was one made out of necessity due to the limited power of the Game Boy Advance, so clearly doing so on the much more powerful Nintendo Switch is more of a stylistic choice.

As far as style goes, it largely works. The Ramp is visually-striking with its extremely simple 3D visuals, static viewpoint, and vibrant colors. The simple visuals aren’t at all impressive, but that’s clearly not what this game is aiming for. These visuals are backed by a chill synthesized soundtrack that works well for the laid-back vibe this game evokes.

When it comes to the gameplay, there’s a lot in common here with the Tony Hawk games, as you might expect. Players are taught in the tutorial how to brace using the A button to build up speed and gain air on half-pipes, how to use the analog sticks to spin and do different tricks in mid-air, and how to use the R button to grind the lip of the half-pipe.

However, there are a lot of little nuances of Tony Hawk’s gameplay that are missing here. There’s no way to change your angle in mid-air if you go off the side of a half-pipe, nor any way to jump over a half-pipe to land on the other side. You can’t do any tricks on flat land like manuals or even a simple kickflip. Your repertoire of skills here is extremely limited.

The levels themselves are limited too – you only have four levels in the game, and all of them are pathetically small. A single half-pipe, a swimming pool, a skate park pool (I forget what they’re called), and a downward slope with a ramp and a landing area with its own quarter-pipe. If you combined all of these areas together they would make for a pathetically-small level in a Tony Hawk game, but separately they feel like bite-size bits of gameplay rather than a full experience.

The limited level size really hurts the gameplay too – if you land outside of the bounds of the tiny level, you’ll automatically bail and have your position reset, interrupting the gameplay. This will be virtually unavoidable on two of the four stages that have you riding ramps and pipes instead of pools that have you follow their curves in mid-air. Prepare for a lot of frustration… and this on top of the game’s somewhat awkward ollie and trick system that really requires you to get your timing down in a way Tony Hawk never did.

And to top it all off, this is a game with no goals, no points, no combos, no way to record your best tricks, nothing. The lack of structure here might have been understandable if this game felt more like a playground to unleash tricks within, but the somewhat awkward gameplay and the teenie-tiny levels are far too restrictive to give that sort of feeling.

I like the idea of The Ramp. A Skateboarding game that imitates the classic handheld Tony Hawk games could provide something fun and unique, even on a Nintendo Switch that now has an actual Tony Hawk game. Unfortunately, the gameplay is a tad too limited and demanding for such a light experience, and the absurdly restrictive environments and lack of content here is counter-productive to a game that wants to focus on the pure gameplay instead of racking up massive points, because there’s not really any room to feel like you’re free to break loose. As a proof of concept, this title has a ton of potential. But as a full game, The Ramp is sorely lacking.

tl;dr – The Ramp is a Skateboarding game that makes use of simple 3D visuals with an isometric viewpoint that brings to mind the Game Boy Advance Tony Hawk games. Unfortunately, this game’s controls are too limited and demanding, the levels are claustrophobically small, and the game is horribly lacking in content. There was a lot of potential in the idea this game had on offer, but there’s far too little here that actually builds on that idea. Just stick with Tony Hawk instead.

Grade: C-

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