Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 1 was clunky and ill-designed. BMX XXX was clunky, ill-designed and thought with it's dick a little too much. But for one game, one brief moment in 2001, Z-Axis channeled what they had inside that made Thrasher's Skate and Destroy so great, and for one fleeting moment, managed to put out not just a hidden gem in the flood of extreme sports titles on the market in the early 2000s, but one of the best of those titles, perhaps THE best one to not bear the Tony Hawk or SSX names.

A skating game for skaters. The fine control in this is unparalleled in the genre. I won't say you CAN'T enjoy this as a non-skater, I'm sure you can have some fun with it, but be aware that if you're coming into this looking for Skate 3.5, turn and walk away - I really don't mean this in a mean and exclusive way, but you are not the target audience. The people complaining that this "isn't worth the money" are not the target audience either and shouldn't act like they are. If you want a game where you can get eased into the controls, with a story to accomodate you, you should just replay the Skate games and wait for 4 (tbh, just do that either way since those are still great games). But if you want a game that replicates the genuine, real experience of skating, the long grind (no pun intended) of building up your skills, the feeling of plotting out a line in your head, taking 50 tries to land it and then another 25 to get it to look JUST RIGHT (and these are lowball numbers), and the pure joy when you finally get that perfect clip, then Skater XL is going to become an addiction for you very quickly. For skaters, this game is not only worth the pricetag, but for me at least, I would still have been happy to pay double. And with the game still being under active post-launch support from the devs, you know that it's only going to get better and better.

I'll still admit console players drew the short straw somewhat, mods on PC are a whole other level, but that's the risk you take when you play on consoles. I'm sure most people who're seeing this will have enough faculties to realise this, but for those who don't, use your fucking brain before you start crying at the developers, yeah? They're a small indie studio in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. They're working on it to the best of their abilities; don't throw a hissy fit because you see PC players doing PC things.