Those are the tags affixed to the Steam page for Stuntboost, a game that I've had trouble summing up with a clean label when asked about it. Stuntboost is a skateboarding game that sometimes features a car, a platformer with a speedometer, an ode to those shrunken bedroom maps popularized by early FPS modders.

Yet, Stuntboost could've easily slipped under my radar. It's been out for a month and hasn't made a big splash on Steam—it's rated "Very Positive" with 253 reviews. I only found it through a friend's recommendation, and even then, the art style didn't immediately suggest it was my thing.

Stunboost's toy fingerboards and cardboard circuits give the impression of a chill, Hot Wheels-adjacent racer your child could enjoy, but unless that child is accomplished with a mouse and keyboard, that ain't happening. This is the only skateboarding game with a warning that suggests you play with a mouse, and it's immediately obvious why.

Despite its choice of vehicles, this thing's for FPS movement sickos—an exercise in precision camera control and first-person platforming. It's essentially a three button game (jump, crouch, grind) about gaining and maintaining speed. Many of its tracks are non-linear obstacle courses that ask you to find your own way across, and the devs actively encourage looking for shortcuts.

I've been obsessed (a word I'm not using lightly) with Stuntboost's 40+ levels for weeks now, replaying tracks and cutting seconds off my times to score the top medals. And once I have those medals, I get to work shaving hundredths of seconds to take the number one spot on my friend leaderboard.

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