Session: Skate Sim: All DLC Maps, Ranked

As someone who continues skating into my twenties, I know a thing or two about kickflips, 50-50s, and the like. And by extension, I also know a thing or two about skating games.

I have a lot of time for the arcade style and over-the-top action of the THPS series, and I also love the realistic take created courtesy of EA Skate. However, if you are looking for realism, nothing compares to Session: Skate Simulator.

This phenomenal skating title feels as close to reality as possible, making even the most basic lines feel like an achievement. Which is accentuated by the wonderful real-world locations you have at your disposal to skate to your heart’s content.

That being said, the best places to skate tend to be found in this game’s DLC map content, and lucky for you, I know each of these maps inside and out.

I’m going to rank each of Session’s DLC maps, allowing you to make an informed decision on which ones are worth spending money on and which ones aren’t worth breaking into.

6

Prague

A Slavic session

Unfortunately, the most recent DLC map, Prague, which was released just a few days ago At the time of writing, it’s a bit of a bust. Prague is a very pretty map and has nice stairs, ledges and DIY add-ons.

But the problem is, when you take it apart and look at it for what it is, it’s just a park. The base game has a lot of these park areas, and almost all of them are more interesting than Prague.

Unless you really like technical ledge lines, there’s not much fun here, and there are no highlights or distinct points that make the map a location you’ll return to again and again.

It feels like one of those parks you’d end up putting together yourself in the THPS park editor. There is too much open space and not enough prominent areas to focus on for hours on end. It’s not horrible, but it’s the only park that I would say isn’t worth it.

5

Phat Nugget Shopping Center

Shopping in shopping centers is not allowed

I may get a little upset for putting the abandoned mall map so low on this list, and to a certain extent, I understand that. Aesthetically, it’s incredible and feels like a mall-level love letter to the original THPS.

However, this map is too deteriorated for its own good. Many of the slopes and drops are difficult to skate consistently, and the verticality of the map due to the different floors doesn’t really fit the game’s mechanics.

It’s also very difficult to put lines together and get into a state of flow, as you’ll have to constantly get off the board to get where you need to go.

It’s very compact, but the good thing is that it has little pockets of brilliance, like the neon corridor with curved ledges, rails, and benches. Not to mention the holes in the floor and well-placed kickers for twisty falls.

If there was a little less junk around and it was a little more spacious, it would be a brilliant map to just wander around, but despite having its moments, it’s a map that looks good but doesn’t deliver.

4

Paris

Skater and destruction

Next we have Paris, which was launched around the time of the Paris Olympics, where skateboarding enjoyed its second appearance at the former sporting event.

This map has some of the same problems as Prague, with a lot of open spaces and some jagged spots. But it more than makes up for it with plenty of eye-catching spots that are fun to skate on and a variety of different obstacles.

You have the Siene bench with nice ledges and drops, you have the incredible view of the Eiffel Tower with fantastic ledges, stairs and benches, and you even have a park area with a modern take and a bowl where it is a lot of fun to skate. albeit with some minor issues due to the game’s issues with transitioning.

All in all, it’s a phenomenal real-world place worth skating and has enough variety to justify a purchase.

3

The sewers

Skaters on the half shell

You would have thought that since the TMNT crossover is a free DLC update, the associated map would be a little less large in scale compared to the paid DLC.

But surprisingly, this map is one of the best DLC offerings and offers an impressive, fluid skate course through two huge sewer pipes of your choice, each of which leads to an underground skate park with plenty of obstacles. incredible.

It’s the combination of ways players can interact with it that makes it so great. You can bomb each pipe like in Downhill Jam and hit ledges and ramps as you go. Or you can get technical and hit the park section to put together an intricate line.

Not to mention, all the graffiti and TMNT crossover content is a welcome bonus. For the free DLC, this one will really spoil you, so pick whichever turtle you prefer and get stuck in.

2

Chris Cole Water Park

Slip and slide

Our runner-up feels like Session is doing its best EA Skate impression and trying to replicate Danny Way’s Super Ultra Mega Park. It’s not as obscenely over the top as that, but it’s definitely the closest Session we can do without throwing realism out the window.

This water park is a huge map with many nooks and crannies with amazing obstacles to skate on. Naturally, you’ll want to get to the slides first, because you’re human, but there’s a lot more to this map than a couple of colorful slides.

There are a ton of awesome DIY elements in the park, there are some cool benches and stairs, there’s a lot of verticality in the best possible way, allowing you to overcome obstacles at high speed, and the place looks amazing too.

The only thing keeping this place from taking the top spot is that many of the things that seem like the most fun to skate at this park are the least satisfying since the ride is not transition oriented, leading to some parts of the park that I feel very uncomfortable skating. But the fact that you can act like the legend Chris Cole makes up for it to some extent.

1

Yard

As someone who played a lot of Skater XL before moving on to Session, I still miss hanging around Easy Day High School. It was an awesome map, but I’d say Session’s Schoolyard DLC could be a little better.

Here you have everything you could want: bleachers for long routines, twisting stairs, ledges on raised benches and many technological places for flowing lines.

However, the real star attraction here is the legendary staircase, El Toro. Any skater who knows what he’s doing knows how intimidating El Toro is, and being able to take it in and take over the place is a wonderful thing.

It’s a map that allows you to channel your inner Daewon Song and rule the school, and for me, it’s the best map I’ve ever seen. Session: Skate Simulator has to offer at a certain distance.