New York is a mobile game that hand-defines the line between casual and deep gameplay

Skate City it was an Apple Arcade launch title back in 2019, developed by Agens and published by Snowman, a company known for its first mobile games as Alto’s Adventure, “the sequel” Alto’s Odyssey, When the cards fall and a handful of other intriguing titles. More than five years have passed Skate City arrived first, but the Snowman / Agens team came back with him Skate City: New Yorkwhich is out on Apple Arcade today.

There have been a number of content updates to the original game over the years, but this is a fully fledged new title that looks quite familiar, but also has a number of improvements and updates. I had a chance to try Skate City: New York a few days before its launch, and I also spoke with Snowman’s Ryan Cash and Andrew Schimmel about the new game, which they said has been in the works for three years now.

As with the first skate city, here you scroll from left to right in a classic side scrolling format. To make things accessible, you can do tricks by swiping in one of eight directions on the bottom half of the screen; the left side is for tricks based on ols, while the right moves you to nollies. You don’t have to do anything precise to land, just start the trick and the game will take care of hitting the ground as you roll (unless you land on stairs or an obstacle, of course). This is the main starting point, but you can also do spins, manuals, grinds and more. It’s simpler than a game like Tony Hawk’s classic Pro Skater series or the recent one OlliOlli Worldbut there’s still a lot of time and skill involved in really nailing your runs.

As you’d expect, the visuals are more dynamic and the backgrounds are much improved over the original (which was still a wonderful game). But what sets this one apart the most, according to Schimmel, is the fact that the “Pro Skate” mode, which is the most engaging part of the game, uses procedurally generated levels.

“We didn’t want to limit ourselves to the original (game) loops through the city, but instead do something that’s more adaptive and dynamic,” Schimmel said. “Procedural generation was the answer and the biggest technical challenge.” It’s not something I was able to figure out right away, having only played the game for a few hours, but Schimmel is confident that it will Skate City: New York have even more replayability than the original.

Pro Skate reminds me a lot of Snowman’s Alto’s Adventure, but translated to skating — the goal is to get as far as possible and accumulate as many points as possible while completing three objectives to level your progress. Objectives are things like “land three 180 degree spins” or “grind for 100 meters”. But with the levels being more unpredictable than in the previous game, you’ll need to be better at reacting on the fly to new obstacles, which can end your run but also give you the opportunity for a good grind or trick.

As with all Snowman games, there are no in-app purchases; instead, you’ll get points for completing challenges and leveling up in Pro Skate. You can then use them to customize your character with the much more flexible and advanced Skate Shop. You can change your character’s body, hair, facial features, clothes, skateboard and so on. I haven’t played with it much yet, but it’s immediately obvious that there’s a lot more customization here.

As in Skate CitySnowman promises that there will be a steady stream of new challenges and more parts of the city to explore over the next year and beyond. Schimmel called it a “live services” game, although there is no monetization aspect to it. I also asked how the team decided to release Skate City: New York via Apple Arcade instead be a one-time payment or even include paid in-game updates – Cash called it an “easy choice”.

“We haven’t done a paid pregame since Alto’s Odyssey in 2018,” Cash said. “Apple Arcade and Netflix Games are where we are right now. And it was an easy choice when we talk about it Skate City: New York, as the first game was a launch title and had great success there. It just made sense to bring it back to Apple Arcade.” The first Skate City it eventually made its way to consoles and PC as well, and Cash said that’s definitely being considered for the future, but the goal is to make a mobile title the best it can be.

While the game doesn’t feel much different from its predecessor, Skate City: New York still feels like a premium mobile game at a time when those can be hard to come by. Both Snowman and Agens have done a great job of balancing the pick-up-and-play aspects of a good mobile game with a deeper experience, at least from what I’ve seen so far. “We want a seven-year-old kid who’s excited about skateboarding to have fun,” Cash said, “as well as people like us who grew up loving skateboarding and really want a challenge.”

Skate City: New York out today exclusively on Apple Arcade.