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.

Of course, none of R&A is performed on boards either, so it also gave me Mirror’s Edge vibes (albeit, in third-person, not first-person), and Losch name-dropped Jet Set Radio Future as another inspiration. Like DICE’s classic dystopian freerunning game, high-level play in R&A looks so effortlessly cool, and even a beginner like me can appear skilled and stylish–provided they don’t skip the tutorial. And much like Jet Set Radio Future, that sense of style in R&A’s gameplay extends beyond movement to influence the audiovisual experience–playable characters offer lots of colorful customization, and there’s an eclectic soundtrack that Losch and his fiancée produced together.

I was both impressed and, at times, intimidated by the game’s mechanics. Any one move itself was easy to perform, but the real magic of parkour is chaining together a long sequence of maneuvers, which wasn’t as easy to pull off. Not that I’m complaining–the upward skill slope was an enjoyable climb, culminating in an incredible sense of flow when it all briefly came together (I tended to see my character come crashing down eventually).

For the true test, though, I handed the controller off to my 12-year-old son, who would probably prefer I describe him as a (virtual) parkour expert. He loved what he played and felt like, while it was more challenging than something like Parkour Reborn on Roblox–which is more like a Spider-Man sim anyway, if you ask me–he appreciated the intricacies of the controls, and how the things you could do in the game very much resemble the reality of parkour. Rooftops & Alleys doesn’t seem like it will stray too far from that reality, for now anyway, and instead equips players with the tools to perform feats that parkour athletes can accomplish in the real world. Maybe some future update will send players to the moon, but, for now, it’s all intentionally grounded.

Since debuting in Steam Early Access, the game has received 30 updates, Losch told me, including two additional maps, lots of challenges, several multiplayer modes (such as Tag and Capture The Flag), and numerous enhancements to the game’s foundational movement mechanics. But the game’s next milestone is maybe its most important.

“1.0 will be the biggest update yet,” Losch said. “The game will get its sixth map, a brand-new online multiplayer game mode (Tricks Battle), a lot of new time trials and trick rush challenges, new music, over 100 different customization options, a full progression system with unlockables, fun achievements, improved gameplay mechanics–such as the brand new physical sliding mechanic, which is purely momentum-based–and an amazing photo mode which I honestly could not be more proud of!”

To date, R&A has sold more than 150,000 copies, which isn’t half bad when you consider Losch set out to pursue game dev as a passion project on the side of his 15-year career as a music producer and DJ. “[2023] marked the beginning of my solo game dev journey, so I had to learn Unreal Engine from scratch and overcome many hurdles that previously kept me from going for it and making my dream parkour game,” he told me.

“Fair to say, now I am happy to have done it, and love seeing people like it as much as I do.” He continued, “I have been craving a good parkour game my entire life […] I think I honestly got lucky in the sense that my personal taste and itch for a certain pParkour game seemed to have been aligned overall with the [genre’s] community and players.”

Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game gets its Steam 1.0 update and debuts on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on June 17.