REVIEW: ‘KASSO GAIDEN: Escape from the Skaterverse’ Offers Fun, Engaging Gameplay

KASSO GAIDEN Escape from the Skaterverse bottles a current trend in online engagement. All over the social media domain, there are clips of skateboarders on strange green courses who are falling off rails into pools that are going viral. These are clips from KASSO, the new skateboarding game show from the Tokyo Broadcast Service. Seeing skilled skaters drop into a pool of water is just as entertaining as seeing it in Ninja Warrior, which has led to an explosion of new fans watching the hits via clips. TBS is ready to meet these new social media fans where they’re at. 

KASSO GAIDEN Escape from the Skaterverse is a mobile game that prioritizes endless running in the vein of Temple Run and Subway Surfers, developed by Tokyo Broadcast Service. In it, players guide four anthropomorphic characters through hazard-filled street courses set to in-house created music tracks. As one might expect from a game calling back to Subway Surfers, the key objective is to duck, weave, and pick up collectibles to get a high score.

Of course, games in this genre have a reputation for being mindless. Subway Surfers itself is basically the poster child for “second screen” gameplay, always showing up in memes mocking the TikTok kids.

Put your touchscreen reflexes to the test in KASSO GAIDEN. 

However, KASSO GAIDEN doesn’t really encourage disengaged gameplay in the same way. While trying the game out at KASSO Fest, I found it difficult to split my attention between speaking and playing. Just as KASSO tests skaters, KASSO GAIDEN tests touchscreen reflexes.

The mobile game is but one part of a large global effort to expand the KASSO brand. TBS representative Azusa Kawamura tells me that the game’s world – the digital KASSO is an alternate reality connected to the real world, with the KASSO mascot bridging them. The four player characters were created by TBS for the game specifically, but “maybe in the future those characters can go to the real KASSO world.”

Music is another element that plays directly into KASSO GAIDEN. Small gems can be picked up that play notes in time with the level’s background music. That music is created completely in-house by TBS’s music section. Each track has composition layers that evolve across each level it’s used in.

KASSO GAIDEN Escape from the Skaterverse connects to the real world. 

The tracks are catchy enough to bait players into collecting them. Of course, things get just a bit more challenging as a result of this incentive. Each course also has its own specific challenges to add a little bit of replayability to the game, ones that are in line with what one would expect in a mobile game space.

The rewards for all of these goals also fall into the normal expectations for a mobile title. KASSO GAIDEN provides unlocks in the form of coins that players are able to exchange for characters and for cosmetics for their skateboards. Progression also unlocks new tricks that can be assigned to kick off when pulling off the swipe combo for tricks.

However, they all use the same method of kicking off those tricks. All of the cosmetics can be unlocked – and ads disabled – for a small payment, one which isn’t too bad of a deal when comparing it to your average Steam game!  Mobile games can often get a bad rap, especially those that are supposed to be advertisements. But KASSO GAIDEN Escape from the Skaterverse bucks expectations by having engaging gameplay, some catchy tunes, and a pretty reasonable price for additional perks. 

KASSO GAIDEN: Escape from the Skaterverse is out now on iOS and Android.