This review is being written right after the conclusion of the Tokyo Summer Olympics. In my opinion, the coolest sport to watch during the event was skateboarding, without a doubt. Every time I’d watch a street or park competition, I would suddenly feel the urge to play a skateboarding game, be it Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater or playing an older Skate game on my Xbox. The Ramp, a one-man project recently released on Steam, comes right at the best moment, but with a catch.

The Ramp might actually be the first time ever in which a developer publicly mentioned that… there isn’t a lot of content in his own game. There are four different types of ramps to perform tricks on: a traditional half-pipe, a long ramp, an empty pool, and a more professional, X-Games styled park circuit. You can perform lots of different tricks on each ramp, without time constraints, objectives, or even a scoring system. You’re skating for the sake of it, all while looking at an admittedly charming low-poly art style and a good, but very repetitive instrumental hip hop beat.

The developer himself describes The Ramp as “less of a game, but rather a digital toy”. He follows up by stating that its main goal is to offer “fifteen minutes of flow that make a boring day great”, for dirt cheap. When I first read that statement, my initial reaction was uttering “yeah, right”. I played the game for about ten or so minutes, saw everything I had to see in it, and was ready to argue otherwise. The next day, however, I felt like playing it again. So there I was, spending another ten minutes having fun with The Ramp before feeling satiated with it, not bored. The process continued the following day.

In no moment I was super impressed by what I was seeing in The Ramp, but the super simple control scheme, really good physics (with the exception of how unnecessarily annoying it is to land a proper trick in the big ramp) and overall laid-back atmosphere were making me have fun with it. Pure, relaxing fun. Every now and then, I would even go as far as saying that the game feels rewarding, especially if you manage to gain enough momentum to jump really high and perform a 900 without falling down on the floor like a ragdoll. The only thing I really didn’t like about the gameplay (and consequently, the presentation) was the confusing isometric perspective, which did mess up with my depth perception at times.

It’s hard to be disappointed at a game that actually knows it’s not chock-full of content, yet manages to convince you to replay it every single day… for like ten minutes at a time. The Ramp is pretty bare bones, but it does feature a very solid gameplay loop and laid-back nature. To be honest, its biggest problem isn’t even its lack of content, but the fact it’s only available on a PC, and not the Switch. Maybe when the Steam Deck is finally out, we’ll be able to enjoy these bite-sized indies via a brand new perspective, as The Ramp is actually worth your time, if you can put up with playing it on a computer for the time being.

 

Graphics: 7.0 The Ramp goes for a minimalist, low-poly art style. It runs well and it has its own charm, but the level design and field of view are hampered by the game’s isometric perspective.	Gameplay: 8.5 I love the simplicity of The Ramp‘s controls, but its isometric perspective messes up with your perception of depth and distance.
Sound: 6.0 I do appreciate the instrumental hip hop style featured in the soundtrack, but there just isn’t a lot of substance in here to become actually memorable.	Fun Factor: 7.0 The Ramp is a lot of fun… for fifteen minutes at a time. Weirdly enough, it is somewhat replayable, in small, daily doses.
Final Verdict: 7.5

The Ramp is available now on PC.

Reviewed on PC.

A copy of The Ramp was provided by the publisher.