My GOTY is $7 and has 253 Steam opinions

Quick-paced. 3D Platformer. Parkour. First-Particular person. Racing.

These are the tags affixed to the Steam web page for Stuntboost, a sport that I’ve had bother summing up with a clear label when requested about it. Stuntboost is a skateboarding sport that generally encompasses a automobile, a platformer with a speedometer, an ode to these shrunken bed room maps popularized by early FPS modders.

It is also, fairly simply, my favourite sport of 2026 thus far.

But, Stuntboost might’ve simply slipped underneath my radar. It has been out for a month and hasn’t made a giant splash on Steam—it is rated “Very Optimistic” with 253 opinions. I solely discovered it by way of a pal’s advice, and even then, the artwork type did not instantly counsel it was my factor.

Stunboost’s toy fingerboards and cardboard circuits give the impression of a chill, Scorching Wheels-adjacent racer your youngster might take pleasure in, however until that youngster is achieved with a mouse and keyboard, that ain’t taking place. That is the one skateboarding sport with a warning that means you play with a mouse, and it is instantly apparent why.

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When you study a couple of strategies, Stuntboost appears to be like like this:

And this.

And this.

Regardless of its alternative of autos, this factor’s for FPS motion sickos—an train in precision digital camera management and first-person platforming. It is primarily a 3 button sport (bounce, crouch, grind) about gaining and sustaining velocity. A lot of its tracks are non-linear impediment programs that ask you to seek out your personal manner throughout, and the devs actively encourage in search of shortcuts.

I have been obsessed (a phrase I am not utilizing flippantly) with Stuntboost’s 40+ ranges for weeks now, replaying tracks and chopping seconds off my occasions to attain the highest medals. And as soon as I’ve these medals, I get to work shaving hundredths of seconds to take the primary spot on my pal leaderboard. Oh man, it is a harmful sport for a pleasant rivalry. I now reside in worry of a Discord DM informing me that the PB I spent hours honing has been shattered.

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However I actually welcome the excuse to replay tracks, as a result of Stuntboost’s motion is essentially thrilling, and its maps are masterfully crafted with normal and absurd routing in thoughts. Its huge ramps, huge jumps, and daring speeds remind me lots of Trackmania—my favourite racing sequence—however extra particularly, a subset of “full velocity” neighborhood tracks that by no means ask you to brake.

Stuntboost additionally nails lots of little quality-of-life options that you just not often see in video games with manner bigger budgets. Details about a monitor is revealed in levels: I am unable to see buddies’ occasions till I’ve crushed the monitor as soon as, and world leaderboards are locked till I get the diamond medal. The ghost of my finest time seems robotically, however I also can activate the ghosts of my buddies or anybody else on the leaderboard. I may even watch anybody’s replay in full so long as I’ve found the identical shortcuts they used—a sensible contact (probably impressed by Neon White) that forestalls spoilers and entices me to seek for what I’ve missed.

Watching replays is a giant deal, too, as a result of it is primarily how I picked up on neighborhood strategies that opened my third eye: varial kickflips, grind hopping, velocity storage. Each sloped floor is a chance for only a bit extra velocity and each ramp-shaped object—be it a plate, enjoying card, or three-ring binder—is a springboard that might ship me throughout the map. The variability of a single monitor may be staggering.

Later worlds (which go to different rooms of the identical home) develop past the skateboard with automobile ranges that revolve round drifting, free roam scooter ranges with S-Okay-A-T-E collectibles, and a longboard that may’t bounce. A few of these are only a neat palate cleanser, however the automobile ranges are significantly spectacular for the way they drive me to relearn how I flip and, finally, hit sick drifts that’re not possible on the skateboard.

Each degree has a hidden tape that unlocks a free cam (wonderful for scouting) and contributes to unlocking a set of bonus ranges. I have not performed all of those but, however I am instructed there’s an enormous tower gauntlet with a fierce leaderboard race. There’s additionally a speedrun mode that occasions a run of the entire sport, board skins, and a each day problem.

I’m in awe of how distinctive and enjoyable and fully-featured this factor is, and for $7. Frankly, it is an injustice that Stuntboost is not one of many 12 months’s large indie success tales, however that is nothing new. The indie video games that click on for me all the time gravitate towards attention-grabbing motion mechanics or use of physics, and that not often intersects with what PC avid gamers are presently going wild about (deckbuilders, autoshooters, and metropolis builders principally).

I’ve performed plenty of these—what I need are extra video games that make me really feel alive and harmful. Stuntboost has me vibrating in place, leaning into high-speed turns, and cursing a god I do not consider in. It is an intoxicating rush on a degree I’ve not skilled earlier than, and you need to completely play it.