Game Stooge

PREVIEW: Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground

• Scribbled on September 12th, 2007 by Mitch Dyer
• Filed in First Take, Game Demos, Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, Sports

I’m not going to waste any time beating around the bush before I get to the punchline. If you want to buy one, and only one skateboarding game this year, it’s not Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground. Deciding between THPG and skate is like contemplating if you’re going to buy Dynasty Warriors 76 or Devil May Cry, or God of War, skate being the latter batch. What THPG does right is what the franchise has always done right. It’s fast paced, crazy skating with insane combos and cool features.

Upgrading your character (which is pretty deep) is accomplished by completing a series of goals, each in their own category that allows you to decide what kind of skater you’re going to be. Career? Hardcore? It’s up to you. However, the only thing different is the goals. Hardcore goals had me nailing impossible tricks, while the Career lifestyle had me learning the basics of THPG and progressing yet another super-lame story.

Once again, you’re an up-and-coming-skater-star, and Eric, the nefarious and always annoying villain of the franchise thinks he’s better than you. Lucky for you you’ve got Mikey V, Bob Burnquist and other skateboarding celebs backing you. It’s getting really old just demolishing the competition in these games like I did the whole time. Asking for a 20,000 point combo is like asking me to zip up my pants when I’m done taking a leak… I do it without thinking. I’m not bragging by any means, the game is just too easy.

What this edition of the franchise does to spice things up is add on to the entertaining “Nail The Trick” that made Project 8 cool. However, in the last game, that happened to get old fast. It slowed down the action and limited your points. What Activision is doing to remedy that is expand upon NTT and is adding more: “Nail The Grab” and “Nail The Manual”. Great. Now the entire game is in slow motion.

Clicking in your thumbsticks once again allows you to use the analog sticks to do tricks (much like skate is doing), mostly kick-tricks, but holding the left trigger allows you to grab your board, and eventually stomp the trick into a slow motion manual, so as you can enjoy your “new” Tony Hawk game almost entirely in Bullet-Time. Yawn. If you want to speed things up you can try at the horrible rhythm mini-game that they’ve added here. Tap RB in time with your leg pumps to speed up your skater’s pushes. It’s not worth it though, since if you miss it one time, you’re totally out of rhythm and slow down almost entirely to a stop.

For fans of the franchise, this is a decent game, but the formula is getting incredibly stale. Maybe it’s just that EA’s skate was so fresh, and used the controls in such a more unique manner, but something out there just soiled the game for me. It’s pretty, and everything looks better, the lighting especially. It no longer blinds you to look up at the sky! It’s cool that all these skating celebs are back to do voice overs and advance yet another weak story about rivalries and yadda-yadda-yadda, be honest… You don’t care.

You’ve played this game before, when it was called THUG, and even then the only thing that added was a narrative. This game really doesn’t do a lot for me, granted it’s still a very solid game and remains faithful to the franchise, it’s just a matter of how faithful you are to said franchise. Honestly, if you’re going to skate, then skate.