If you don’t play games on PC (or even if you do), you might not know that there’s been a run on parkour games for a while now. All of these also compete with games like Roblox and Fortnite, where parkour sims carve out a major aspect of the user-generated worlds on display. But one of these parkour games stands out above the rest: Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game.
It’s both the highest-rated parkour game on Steam (among those with more than just a handful of reviews) and has the most Steam reviews by far, with 96% of its nearly 5,000 user reviews giving the game the illustrious “Overwhelmingly Positive” distinction on the digital storefront. Soon, it’ll be leaving early access and coming to consoles as well, with a 1.0 launch on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S scheduled for June 17.
During my hands-on time with the game, it was quickly apparent how much solo developer Michel Losch drew inspiration from the past. The arena-like maps and the ability to freely go wherever and chain together stylish moves felt like something right out of a classic Tony Hawk game. One of its maps, The Shed, seems to intentionally invoke imagery of Tony Hawk’s beloved warehouse level. Still, I agreed with Losch’s assessment that the physics and required stick skills of his game end up landing Rooftops & Alleys (R&A) somewhere in the middle of Tony Hawk and the more sim-like Skate series from EA.
