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This hawk needs newer, more simple tricks.
December 28, 2006 | 1:31 PM PSTby: Nick Michetti
This being my first experience with a Tony Hawk game ever, I had alot of uncertainty heading into this review. What could I expect? This is a franchise known for its ups and downs. Would THP8 impress or would it leave me feeling like I just ate some asphalt? The answer is a mixed bag for THP8. On one hand, it does so much well. On the other hand, I couldn't help feeling like there was so much it didn't do well enough.
You Are Project 8
THP8's career mode begins with Tony on the search for new, undiscovered talent for his latest venture, Project 8. You create someone of skate punk culture and hope that you can be the one to incur great skateboard fame and head out against several rivals for the right to enlist in the extreme sports tournament created by TH himself. You would think that Tony has set up all kinds of goals for you to succeed at in order to determine the real winner. The real answer is far more disappointing--you're in an upper middle class neighborhood skating with your rivals and taking goals from random strangers to succeed. Of course, this is the idea behind skate-punk culture, rivaling authority in the name of great tricks. I get that, but I don't see why taking missions from strangers apparently is such a template for this series. In Bully, it made sense to take a mission from a stranger--but those strangers were optional and offering cash for success. In Tony Hawk, it's all just sort of nonsensical. Why do you need to take missions from strangers to impress Tony Hawk? Maybe I'm just missing something...
Anyhow, getting to P8 requires you clear goal after goal in order to meet TH himself and become a renowned skateboarder. Of course, with a game like THP8, this is where the gameplay is measured most--you're basically utilizing the same form of gameplay for the entire game. How does THP8's gameplay measure up? Well, I'm sure that most Tony Hawk fans are very used to--and enjoy--the complex control setup for THP8, just as yours truly enjoys the complexity of WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2007. However, these two series both share a similar, major problem: in order to stay faithful to their source material, they have grown more complex instead of opting to stay simple. With this being my first time playing a Tony Hawk game, I imagined how most new players must feel jumping into SDVR '07 for the first time. Tony Hawk's combos are very complex. So complex, in fact, that two or three part combos rival button string presses and accuracy required by major fighting game combos. When you consider that Tony Hawk has much younger fans who may not be able to handle this level of complexity, THP8 fails to meet accessibility for its younger gamers.
540 Airwalk To 180 Kickflip To, Wait, What Was That Button?
Not only does THP8 fail in accessibility, it fails in originality as well. Before playing THP8, the only game of this type I had ever played before was Aggressive Inline for PS2. I see many similar trick executions and meter setups between these games, but I'll err on the side of caution and say that this must be some sort of standard setup for games in the genre. However, when I play a game that was released this year and remember many similarities in a game I haven't played in at least two years vividly, it's a sign that THP8's formula is stale and needs updating. While playing THP8, I heard loud and clear the echoes of what many industry leaders are saying--if video games fail to become accessible to everyone, if they keep heading towards complexity instead of simplicity and accessibility, the market will crash. This franchise needs two years off, some new ideas, and some simplicity before another game is released.
Graphically, Tony Hawk succeeds on most fronts. Aside from some not-too-attractive skin rendering in some areas, everything in Tony Hawk's environments have good detail and bright colors. The last time I saw clothing with this much detail was in Def Jam: F4NY's Create-A-Fighter mode. Of noteworthy compliment are pants textures, especially jeans and cargo pants, which have never looked more crisp. Tony Hawk's skater creation tool could've used more variety and options--namely, more layer options and micromanagement--but the clothing that is there is so well-detailed that there's no need for nitpicking.
Visually, however, this is another Activision game for PS3 with insufficient SDTV support. Text is very thin on smaller SDTVs and some button icons are near-unreadable. In-game combo text is readable, but hard to see against light-colored environments. Tutorial text is large and helpful--but unfortunately, this seems to be the only definitely readable area of THP8 text.
Radical Tunes
The audio in Tony Hawk is great. Realistic sound effects are aplenty and most sound effects match the intensity of each landing--or if you're more unfortunate--sick crashing. Tony Hawk's music is appropriate, a good blend of everything from the punk genre, and has many tracks so the music won't get repetitive. Environmental background noises help add to the ambience, too.
Tony Hawk's Project 8 is definitely a mixed bag. On one hand, it definitely appeals to all fans of TH games and they will not be disappointed. On the other hand, I'd have difficulty recommending this to newer, younger fans of Tony Hawk. The gameplay
formula is just way too complex and is way too reminiscent of earlier, more accessible games in the genre. If you have an earlier game in the Tony Hawk franchise, I have feeling you'll see that this is probably just a new coat of paint on a very old engine.
Second Opinion
--Ryan Olsen
Tony Hawk, the beloved “sk8ing” franchise of the video game kingdom, is back again. I wish I could say better than ever but that would not be true. Sure, the new Nail the Trick mode is interesting but it fails to reinvent the series like previous additions have. Still, this isn’t as bad as the past few games of the Tony Hawk series where they ventured into broken and uninspired gameplay. For Project 8, some of that was alleviated but the back drop of the suburban neighborhood was boring. I miss the days of Tony Hawk 3 where that sleepy ‘hood was just the beginning and you could venture onto a cruise ship, airport, or discover a haunted house. It may take some time, but slowly and surely, Tony Hawk is heading back its roots. In the mean time, we have to wait for the Birdman to migrate back home with the nice addition of Project 8. I echo much of the same complaints as Nick does, the gameplay is gathering dust but is not all that bad, the graphics are a mixed bag with some horrendous framerate drops, and the create-a-skater is limited compared to past Tony Hawk games. Will all those problems, you still won’t find a better skating game on the PS3, yet.
You Are Project 8
THP8's career mode begins with Tony on the search for new, undiscovered talent for his latest venture, Project 8. You create someone of skate punk culture and hope that you can be the one to incur great skateboard fame and head out against several rivals for the right to enlist in the extreme sports tournament created by TH himself. You would think that Tony has set up all kinds of goals for you to succeed at in order to determine the real winner. The real answer is far more disappointing--you're in an upper middle class neighborhood skating with your rivals and taking goals from random strangers to succeed. Of course, this is the idea behind skate-punk culture, rivaling authority in the name of great tricks. I get that, but I don't see why taking missions from strangers apparently is such a template for this series. In Bully, it made sense to take a mission from a stranger--but those strangers were optional and offering cash for success. In Tony Hawk, it's all just sort of nonsensical. Why do you need to take missions from strangers to impress Tony Hawk? Maybe I'm just missing something...
Anyhow, getting to P8 requires you clear goal after goal in order to meet TH himself and become a renowned skateboarder. Of course, with a game like THP8, this is where the gameplay is measured most--you're basically utilizing the same form of gameplay for the entire game. How does THP8's gameplay measure up? Well, I'm sure that most Tony Hawk fans are very used to--and enjoy--the complex control setup for THP8, just as yours truly enjoys the complexity of WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2007. However, these two series both share a similar, major problem: in order to stay faithful to their source material, they have grown more complex instead of opting to stay simple. With this being my first time playing a Tony Hawk game, I imagined how most new players must feel jumping into SDVR '07 for the first time. Tony Hawk's combos are very complex. So complex, in fact, that two or three part combos rival button string presses and accuracy required by major fighting game combos. When you consider that Tony Hawk has much younger fans who may not be able to handle this level of complexity, THP8 fails to meet accessibility for its younger gamers.
540 Airwalk To 180 Kickflip To, Wait, What Was That Button?
Not only does THP8 fail in accessibility, it fails in originality as well. Before playing THP8, the only game of this type I had ever played before was Aggressive Inline for PS2. I see many similar trick executions and meter setups between these games, but I'll err on the side of caution and say that this must be some sort of standard setup for games in the genre. However, when I play a game that was released this year and remember many similarities in a game I haven't played in at least two years vividly, it's a sign that THP8's formula is stale and needs updating. While playing THP8, I heard loud and clear the echoes of what many industry leaders are saying--if video games fail to become accessible to everyone, if they keep heading towards complexity instead of simplicity and accessibility, the market will crash. This franchise needs two years off, some new ideas, and some simplicity before another game is released.
Graphically, Tony Hawk succeeds on most fronts. Aside from some not-too-attractive skin rendering in some areas, everything in Tony Hawk's environments have good detail and bright colors. The last time I saw clothing with this much detail was in Def Jam: F4NY's Create-A-Fighter mode. Of noteworthy compliment are pants textures, especially jeans and cargo pants, which have never looked more crisp. Tony Hawk's skater creation tool could've used more variety and options--namely, more layer options and micromanagement--but the clothing that is there is so well-detailed that there's no need for nitpicking.
Visually, however, this is another Activision game for PS3 with insufficient SDTV support. Text is very thin on smaller SDTVs and some button icons are near-unreadable. In-game combo text is readable, but hard to see against light-colored environments. Tutorial text is large and helpful--but unfortunately, this seems to be the only definitely readable area of THP8 text.
Radical Tunes
The audio in Tony Hawk is great. Realistic sound effects are aplenty and most sound effects match the intensity of each landing--or if you're more unfortunate--sick crashing. Tony Hawk's music is appropriate, a good blend of everything from the punk genre, and has many tracks so the music won't get repetitive. Environmental background noises help add to the ambience, too.
Tony Hawk's Project 8 is definitely a mixed bag. On one hand, it definitely appeals to all fans of TH games and they will not be disappointed. On the other hand, I'd have difficulty recommending this to newer, younger fans of Tony Hawk. The gameplay
formula is just way too complex and is way too reminiscent of earlier, more accessible games in the genre. If you have an earlier game in the Tony Hawk franchise, I have feeling you'll see that this is probably just a new coat of paint on a very old engine.
Second Opinion
--Ryan Olsen
Tony Hawk, the beloved “sk8ing” franchise of the video game kingdom, is back again. I wish I could say better than ever but that would not be true. Sure, the new Nail the Trick mode is interesting but it fails to reinvent the series like previous additions have. Still, this isn’t as bad as the past few games of the Tony Hawk series where they ventured into broken and uninspired gameplay. For Project 8, some of that was alleviated but the back drop of the suburban neighborhood was boring. I miss the days of Tony Hawk 3 where that sleepy ‘hood was just the beginning and you could venture onto a cruise ship, airport, or discover a haunted house. It may take some time, but slowly and surely, Tony Hawk is heading back its roots. In the mean time, we have to wait for the Birdman to migrate back home with the nice addition of Project 8. I echo much of the same complaints as Nick does, the gameplay is gathering dust but is not all that bad, the graphics are a mixed bag with some horrendous framerate drops, and the create-a-skater is limited compared to past Tony Hawk games. Will all those problems, you still won’t find a better skating game on the PS3, yet.
November 20, 2009
