Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD - Xbox 360

Tony Creates A New Kind Of Stalefish

2012-07-18T16:01:00Z

I vividly remember how the demo for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater on PlayStation sucked me in. With the passing of time and the fall of the franchise, that nostalgic moment has passed and is not fully recaptured in this downloadable title encompassing parts of the first two Tony Hawk games. I wouldn’t want it to be exactly the same, but Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD adds some of its own problems and preserves a few from the original games.

Pulling off insane trick combos and traversing the expansive and varied environments is still surprisingly easy. It may feel like your hands are manipulating the controller like you’re doing a Rubik’s Cube speed run, but the gameplay is solid enough that your hands can keep up with your mind. Tricks can also be executed with the 360’s left analog stick, which I liked – except for tricks where you must tap twice in the same direction. The d-pad, meanwhile, is up to the task, albeit a little stiff.

Robomodo has culled a good selection of levels from the first two games. I particularly like the mall, warehouse, Venice Beach, and the downhill jam from the first game. The level design goes hand-in-hand with the trick system, allowing you to put together all unique runs no matter how many times you play the levels. The injection of manuals and switch stance also creates possibilities.

As strong as the gameplay is, a few hitches take it down a peg. Half-pipes runs are hampered by the fact that your skater tends to drift away from the lip of the pipe while in mid-air. This means that you sometimes land in the middle of the transition and fail landings you would have made in the original games. Moreover, the lack of transition animations robs the skating of fluidity and sometimes makes skaters jarringly jump to new railings. The physics and collision systems also sometimes propel you spectacularly into the air.

Adding to these technical problems, one aspect of the original titles that hasn’t aged well is the objectives. Kudos to developer Robomodo for adding new objectives to the levels in the spirit of the original games, but most of these are fetch quests. While I don’t love the crazy objectives in the later Tony Hawk games, having to collect X amount of objects in a level wears thin. Moreover, the menu has a map of all the collectibles in the level – including the secret tape and hidden areas. This undercuts the fun of exploring the levels.

A handful of multiplayer games – Trick Attack, Graffiti, and my favorite, Big Head Elimination mode – are slightly more successful. In Big Head mode you must constantly pull off tricks so your head doesn’t swell up and explode before your opponent’s.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD recreates the gameplay that made the franchise famous, but to mixed results. It lands the trick, but doesn’t do it cleanly.

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The XBLA Summer of Arcade Exception

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD is one of Xbox 360’s Summer of Arcade titles, but it will also come out on PSN later in the summer. We’ll evaluate that version at a later date and publish a separate review if it warrants one. If not, consider this the definitive review.

Tony Hawk And Crew Show Off HD Remake In New Screens

2012-06-06T17:06:27Z

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD is on the horizon, and Activision has released a new batch of screens from the upgraded game. They show off visually enhanced versions of the school, mall, warehouse, and downhill levels.

If you played the heck out of the older games, this one should help you forget about the later entries. Otherwise, this downloadable title looks like a fantastic introduction to Pro Skater.

On a completely unrelated note, why do I want pizza all of a sudden?

Tony Hawk Shows Off Pro Skater HD Gameplay

2012-03-08T15:04:19Z

We've seen screenshots and saw a short trailer during the 2011 VGAs, but this is the first time we've seen some proper gameplay of the upcoming Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD.

It's all off screen footage of the game, but you still get a good enough look to get nostalgic. Along with some gameplay of the school level and the warehouse level, Tony Hawk also confirms that Chris Cole, Nyjah Huston, and Eric Koston will be playable in the game.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD is coming to the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade sometime this year.

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Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD Preview: Kickflipping It Old School

2012-01-27T18:57:19Z

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was a revelation back in the PlayStation era, wrangling in both skateboarding fans and gamers who couldn’t maintain their balance on a board in real life. The excellent gameplay steadily improved over the first few iterations, which added combo-extending manuals and reverts. Unfortunately, in later years the series veered wildly off track, thanks to embarrassing Jackass-style antics and the notorious Tony Hawk Ride peripheral.

After letting the franchise cool its wheels for nearly two years, Activision is jumping back in the half-pipe. This time around, instead of trying to come up with yet another silly gimmick for Pro Skater, Activision is going back to what made the original series great. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD is taking the best levels and characters from the first few games, adding online multiplayer, and wrapping it all up with a nice HD visual update. In short, this is the Tony Hawk game fans have wanted for a long time.

Fan favorite levels such as Phoenix’s Downhill Jam, the School from Pro Skater 2, and the Warehouse are in the game. The team at Robomodo isn’t merely eyeballing those classic levels, either. Neversoft provided the studio with the original game files, which means that every ramp, rail, and funbox is in its proper place. Since this is a remix, players can keep their combos rolling by using manuals and other tricks in levels that didn’t originally support those moves. Other little tweaks include replacing the collectable tape icons with more contemporary DVDs. The game looks gorgeous, especially after seeing an Activision rep play the Warehouse level on the original PS1 before then switching to the updated HD version (spoiler: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater doesn’t look quite as nice as you may remember).

The roster is a mix of both familiar faces and modern skaters. Veterans include favorites Rodney Mullen, Andrew Reynolds, and, of course, the birdman himself. Pros like Nyjah Huston and Chris Cole join the roster as well. Fans can expect to see some of the more bizarre characters from the series, too, such as Ollie the Magic Bum and a pixelated Tony Hawk that’s sure to make old fogies feel right at home.

The first Tony Hawk’s Pro Skaters delivered memorable music, with ska, rap, punk, and hardcore jams accompanying the skating. Activision says the game won’t feature the original soundtrack at this point, but if it’s being overseen with the same level of care as the rest of the early version we saw in action, we’re prepared to turn our stereos up.

Activision plans on releasing this downloadable mash note sometime this summer. Now that fans have had time for their scabs to heal, it’s looking like a great time to get back on board with the game that started it all.

Tony Hawk HD Shows Off New Screens, Confirms Seven Levels

2012-01-20T02:58:03Z

Activision's Tony Hawk HD is slated to bring back the hardcore skating action of the first few games in the venerable series to XBLA and PSN this summer. Today, the company released some new screens and announced seven classic levels that will be making an appearance in the game.

The screens feature Tony Hawk and confirmed skaters Rodney Mullen, Eric Koston, and Nyjah Huston. Most of them are in the iconic Warehouse level that was shown in the game's debut trailer that was shown on the Spike VGAs, but one shows School 2, which is among the seven confirmed levels.

Here are the levels confirmed for the game so far:

Warehouse
School 2
Mall
Phoenix
Hangar
Marseilles
Venice

The levels were selected based on the opinions of Tony Hawk and fan feedback from Twitter.

Activision Grinds Out A Tony Hawk HD Trailer

2011-12-12T22:06:00Z

Tony Hawk's newest foray into gaming was announced over the weekend, and no dumb skateboard peripherals are involved this time. Instead, Activision is giving players some classic Tony Hawk action, and you can see the trailer right here.

The video below shows the skateboarding legend in the old Warehouse level, but the game isn't a remake of the original. Instead, a press release claims that it takes the "best elements of the classic THPS games and gives them a fresh update." It has new skaters and other unspecified changes, but whatever they are, they've got to be an improvement over where the franchise has been heading over the last few years.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD is a downloadable title slated to come out this summer, costing about $15 on XBLA and PSN.

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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD - Xbox 360

Tony ﻿Creates A New Kind Of Stalefish

Tony Hawk And Crew Show Off HD Remake In New Screens

Tony Hawk Shows Off Pro Skater HD Gameplay

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD Preview: Kickflipping It Old School

Tony Hawk HD Shows Off New Screens, Confirms Seven Levels

Activision Grinds Out A Tony Hawk HD Trailer

Tony Creates A New Kind Of Stalefish