ince its inception in 1999, I have been a hardcore Tony Hawk fanatic. There’s something about the series’ complex interface and combo system that happily puts me in front of my television searching for lines and trying to master all the games’ subtle nuances.

While the level design has always been one of its hallmarks, the series has been searching for a soul ever since it changed its overall architecture with Tony Hawk’s Underground. From wacky vehicles to on-foot missions, the series has slowly moved away from being about skating to just creating a giant world with lots of training missions and zany madcap antics.

Enter Project 8, Neversoft’s first true next-generation product. Not only has the game been reworked with a new physics model and much-improved graphics, it also goes back to what makes the Tony Hawk series so addicting: challenging the player’s skating abilities. The thing that impressed me most was the new mission structure that gives the players complete freedom to pick and choose what level challenges they wish to conquer.

The basic framework of the game is that Tony Hawk is looking for eight elite skaters, his “Project 8” out of a field of 200 skaters. You must complete challenges of various difficulties to work your way up the ranks in hopes of achieving the elusive number one spot.

Every challenge in the game is set up so that you can complete it on any of the three difficulties at any time. Start a grind challenge, and depending on how far you take the line you can be awarded the Amateur, Pro, or Sick reward. At the beginning, there is plenty of challenge in just completing the Amateur level (and this is from someone who has beaten every single Tony Hawk game on Sick). However, since you can revisit any challenge at any time, you will often find yourself going back again and again trying to master all Project 8 has to offer.

And there is a lot here. While the game can be “beaten” by completing most of the Amateur challenges and breaking into the Project 8, it takes a lot of skill and a lot of time to take the top spot. In fact, it’s extremely difficult, which – in the mind of this Tony Hawk fanatic – is the best thing to happen to this series in a long time. The game is no longer one giant training mode, it’s a real skating game with real skating challenges for all players.

That said, the game has its flaws. Like any first-generation game, there are oddities since the gameplay engine hasn’t been streamlined from iteration to iteration. The physics, while new and improved, also bring in a plethora of odd gameplay abnormalities that sometimes frustrate more than entertain. These are growing pains I’m willing to deal with, however, as the game design is simply the best Neversoft has made since Tony Hawk 3, which is still one of my favorites.

If you love Tony Hawk, there is no reason not to pick up Project 8; it’s really that good. The new Nail the Trick mode, which enables the player to control each foot’s movement with the analog sticks, adds yet another new move to Tony’s long list of techniques. I’m happy to report that it works well within the established arsenal of moves. Add it up, and you will be playing this Tony Hawk both online and off well into the new year.