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TONY HAWK'S PRO SKATER HD (X360)
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Publisher: Activision.
Developer: Robomodo. Released: June 2012. Genre: Sport/Skateboarding. Other versions: PS3. Posted 27th July 2012. By Shane Battams © 2012 |
It’s no secret that the Tony Hawk franchise has been on a spiral of decline. From its heyday in the 90s with the Pro Skater series, the franchise has slowly drifted away from what made those games some of the best sports games in the business, even going as far as to create a silly skateboard peripheral for the dismal last two instalments. Clearly Activision have finally got the message, that most fans crave something similar to the early games, and have opted to duplicate the first game in HD form via a downloadable game. While this means you get solid and straightforward skating with a touch of nostalgia, the package also feels light off the ground.
So as it says on the tin (or the proverbial menu in this case), this is a high-definition version of Pro Skater. It mixes levels from the first two instalments of the series, and is basically a hybrid of those two games and nothing else. This means tricks added to the 3rd and 4th editions of the series are absent sadly, meaning you can’t revert to chain air tricks in this one. Developer Robomodo, however, have announced a DLC pack including levels and moves from THPS3, so that should satisfy those who crave moves from that game. The game also borrows levels including School II, Mall, Venice and Downhill Jam, albeit with a much prettier coat of paint.
In terms of gameplay, it remains the same as it did back in 1999. There is a heavy emphasis on performing high combos for tons of points. You can perform grabs and flips in the air respectively, and turning your skater also garners you more points while performing these tricks. You can also grind rails and perform manuals, both of which are governed by a balance meter. The longer you maintain these moves, the more points you gain, but the harder it is to keep balance as the meter begins to move faster. Though limited because of the lack of revert, if you can chain moves together using manuals and grinds a combo begins to appear along with a score. More moves means a bigger combo and more points. But if you bail, all the points disappear. You can also perform purchasable Special Moves requiring multi-direction presses which add significant points to the combo. It feels very old school, and definitely will give some players nostalgia.
The main objectives of THPSHD revolve around score,
collecting and other random tasks. The game begins with the Career style goals,
including racking up high scores, collecting S-K-A-T-E letters and specific
tricks over certain gaps. As you complete goals you earn money, which can be
spent on skate-decks, tricks and stat points to improve your skater’s
performance. You can also gain money hidden around each level, and finding that
money is required to complete the 100% goal. Each level contains about a dozen
or so goals, and you have 2 minutes to complete as many of them as you can
before having to restart.
While these objectives are the main crux of the game, once you have completed every goal you unlock the Projectives mode. This is basically somewhat of a repeat of the normal Career, but with harder goals and half the time limit. You now have to score double more than before, earn a high combo, collect the letters C-O-M-B-O in one combo and perform the Boneless jump over the Magic Bum. That last goal makes about as much sense as it sounds. These goals are significantly harder, especially towards the last two levels with insane high-score requirements and distant placement of collectables. It can definitely become frustrating later on in the Projectives mode.
While these objectives are the main crux of the game, once you have completed every goal you unlock the Projectives mode. This is basically somewhat of a repeat of the normal Career, but with harder goals and half the time limit. You now have to score double more than before, earn a high combo, collect the letters C-O-M-B-O in one combo and perform the Boneless jump over the Magic Bum. That last goal makes about as much sense as it sounds. These goals are significantly harder, especially towards the last two levels with insane high-score requirements and distant placement of collectables. It can definitely become frustrating later on in the Projectives mode.
There are a few other modes of play too. You can enter a
single session, where the time limit remains but the objectives all disappear.
There’s also Free Skate which is basically a do-what-you-want mode with no
pressures of time limits or objectives. There’s also Big Head Survival and
Hawkman mode. Big Head Survival
challenges you to perform tricks and earn score, all the while your head is
swelling and once it reaches 100% it pops like a Piñata. The longer you
survive, the bigger the cash prize becomes. It’s quite an addicting,
challenging and fun mode. Hawkman puts an emphasis on collecting Pellets, and
different colours means different requirements to pick them up. Green is for
manual, yellow is for grind, red is for air tricks and blue is for wall-runs.
The challenge comes from not only a time limit, but also the temptation to try
and collect them all in a single combo, which can be incredibly difficult.
These modes can be played online, and it’s definitely a blast challenging
others despite the lack of split-screen multiplayer.
While these modes are amusing for a brief time, and the two careers will take you roughly 10 hours altogether, THPSHD feels thin. A lot has been cut, whether it’s the create-a-skater feature, create-a-park feature or split-screen multiplayer, and the fans of the original will notice the glaring omissions, while newcomers will find the package to be sparse. It would not be so bad if the game was 800 Microsoft points, but as part of the Summer of Arcade, the game costs a whopping 1200 points (around £15). Frankly, you could pick up copies of all four of the Pro Skater games for less than that and get a lot more value for money.
While these modes are amusing for a brief time, and the two careers will take you roughly 10 hours altogether, THPSHD feels thin. A lot has been cut, whether it’s the create-a-skater feature, create-a-park feature or split-screen multiplayer, and the fans of the original will notice the glaring omissions, while newcomers will find the package to be sparse. It would not be so bad if the game was 800 Microsoft points, but as part of the Summer of Arcade, the game costs a whopping 1200 points (around £15). Frankly, you could pick up copies of all four of the Pro Skater games for less than that and get a lot more value for money.
THPSHD, at least, sweetens the deal somewhat with upgraded
graphics. And naturally, it looks close to the other Tony Hawk games on the
Xbox. It’s definitely an attractive package, with detailed character models and
levels courtesy of the Unreal Engine 3. It is not perfect, however, as some
nasty bugs crop up, mainly in regards to bails. The blood effect from bails is
good, but sometimes your skater will either clip through the entire level or
spaz out on the floor in an ugly fashion. The sound is also rather lame,
specifically the soundtrack. The grunts and groans your skater makes won’t
bother you too much, but the small selection of music in the game most
certainly will. Containing a measly 14 songs, while the list is good, you can
only listen to Powerman 5000’s "When Worlds Collide" a certain amount of times
before you start to become irritated.
So while the golden feeling of nostalgia will please fans of the series for the first hour or two, once that wears off what you are left with is an overpriced version of a landmark game with improved visuals but downgraded everything else. It’s definitely nice to get that old-school Tony Hawk gameplay again, but when there is so little content to sustain gameplay, it feels somewhat wasted. Maybe future DLC will add worthwhile and expansive content to the mix, but for now Pro Skater HD is simply too expensive and too thin on content to recommend as a purchase right now. You’re probably better off finding copies of the original four Pro Skater games – they’re uglier, but you’ll certainly get more bang for your buck.
So while the golden feeling of nostalgia will please fans of the series for the first hour or two, once that wears off what you are left with is an overpriced version of a landmark game with improved visuals but downgraded everything else. It’s definitely nice to get that old-school Tony Hawk gameplay again, but when there is so little content to sustain gameplay, it feels somewhat wasted. Maybe future DLC will add worthwhile and expansive content to the mix, but for now Pro Skater HD is simply too expensive and too thin on content to recommend as a purchase right now. You’re probably better off finding copies of the original four Pro Skater games – they’re uglier, but you’ll certainly get more bang for your buck.
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"while the golden feeling of nostalgia will please fans of
the series... once that wears off what you are left
with is an overpriced version of a landmark game with improved visuals but
downgraded everything else"
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Visual: 7/10
Audio: 5/10 Gameplay: 7/10 Longevity: 4/10 OVERALL: 5/10 Vid by IGNentertainment |
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