Tony Hawk marries Hades in this skateboarding roguelike that has you murdering ancient Gods, coming next month
Jan. 26, 2024Helskate checks all the right boxes
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Helskate already has mountains working in its favor, between its ultra-cool name and irresistible pitch that sees Hades and Tony Hawk have a baby. Not literally. I mean that Helskate is a skateboarding roguelike about slaying monsters and the best part is that it’s coming real soon.
Developer Phantom Coast has announced that Helskate is entering the bloody gates of early access on February 15 in order to improve the game using community feedback. It’s the Hades formula! For those who are still on the fence - balancing like a wobbly rail grind - there’s a free demo available onSteamright now.
Phantom Coast is planning to keep its hellish action game in early access for “around a year” before its eventual 1.0 release. Helskate’s initial early access version features the entirety of Vertheim, the first of three eventual worlds, alongside a collection of unique weapons, items, bosses, and other such stuff. Phantom Coast says that the full release will have more of everything mentioned, plus a complete narrative to contextualize our gnarly monster-stabbing hijinx.
On the traversal side, Helskate channels the arcade skaters of yesteryear with tricks, grinds, and wall runs all contributing to a chained combo. That movement obviously makes getting across the underworld a fun trip, but bigger combos also lead to more powerful abilities, smartly connecting the game’s two very different sides.
Helskate also features your standard roguelike options, allowing you to experiment with different builds while still keeping incremental upgrades between runs in the form of tattoos. “Slash your sword with a chance to electrocute? Release a burst of fire that ignites enemies when you jump? Throw deadly shurikens with a chance to poison while you dash through enemies to plant explosive charges on them?” are some of the cool abilities teased on the game’s storefront page.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that’s vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he’ll soon forget.
After thousands of “Overwhelmingly Positive” Steam reviews, Caves of Qud dev says the roguelike RPG has done “100x better than anything we ever expected”
After 17 years of work on D&D-inspired roguelike Caves of Qud, co-creator says “I personally have lost my mind and started posting about my dark desires to drop off the grid”
I’ve waited 8 years for American Truck Simulator to recreate my hometown and I wasn’t prepared to see the 200-year-old tree my entire university mourned brought back to life
