Driftwood is about longboarding downhill at high speed – as a sloth

Skateboarding games are great, but their insistence that I flip a kick, pop an ollie or grind my trucks inevitably tires me out. Driftwood looks more my pace. You play a sloth with a longboard and must drift, at high speeds, down beautiful hills. It’s out in early access now.

Isn’t this gorgeous?

Driftwood seems like a fairly simple proposition. You travel down hills at high speed, drifting in between traffic and through small gaps, and aim to keep the run going. You can skate alone to beat your own times or reach new milestones or compare your runs to others via online leaderboards.

It’s currently available from Steam in Early Access for £8/$9.59/€9.59. It’ll remain in early access for “at least half a year,” according to the developers, as they plan to add more levels, gear and cosmetics.

One of my favourite board-that-slides games was SSX3, in which each track could ultimately be strung together, allowing you to snowboard seamlessly from the top of a mountain to the very bottom over around 25 minutes. I haven’t played Driftwood yet but I’m hoping it lets me enter a flow state for that kind of time.

It’s only regrettable that I initially dismissed the game because the name made me think of this.