Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD Review

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD
Developed By: Robomodo
Published By: Activision
Date of Release: July 18, 2012
Price: 1200 MSP

Since the dawn of time man has always felt the need to set forth and prove himself by doing increasingly stupid things. Surfing. Wakeboarding. Parasailing. Snowboarding. Hotdog Eating Contests. All of these increasingly dangerous stunts lead up to one thing: Professional Skateboarding. Thanks to this amazing sport anyone out there can hop on a board and make an arse of themselves, sometimes even earning a Darwin Award in the process. However thanks to Tony Hawk and his video game series Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, those of us with a strong aversion to getting maimed or dying can enjoy the thrills and spills of skateboarding from the comfort of our own couch.




Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD is the latest in a long line of fine skateboarding experiences in the series, however it may seem familiar to veteran fans. Perhaps even doubly so. That is because it is a mixture of the best bits and pieces from the first two titles in the series, remade for modern audiences on the Unreal 3 engine. The gameplay mechanics have been tweaked to perfection with the controls being spot on compared to previous enrtries, and the addition of an intense new multiplayer survival mode (where you have to continuously perform tricks, lest your head explode) evens out the experience. The only thing sadly missing is the ability to customize the ingame soundtrack, sadly the option to even change the current track is missing. However you DO have the option to play your own music through the Xbox 360 dash, so all is not lost.




If you've never played a Tony Hawk game before, here's how it works. You have two minutes to meet as many goals as you can, whether it is collecting all the cash in a level, beating the high score, collecting the letters of the word SKATE, and so on. Each level also has it's own unique fetch quest, and a series of specifically themed goals. Once you complete the required amount of objectives, the next level is unlocked for play, and the process begins anew. The cash you receive for completing the objectives can be spent on new boards in the skate shop, or to buy stat points for your skater. Speaking of skaters, the ability to create a custom skater has been replaced in this version with the ability to play as your Avatar, which IMO is pretty freaking cool. Feel free to go wild with your attire, as it all is perfectly rendered ingame.




All in all, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD is a worthy addition to the series, and if you've never played a Tony Hawk game before there's never been a better place to start. The only real negatives I could find were that the framerate sometimes dips during particularly intense moments (though not as horribly as in the demo, it was a real lagfest!), and the lack of musical customization. The newer additions to the soundtrack are also not quite up to par with the rest of the classic tracks. However the good outweighs the bad, and I feel more than comfortable recommending the game at it's current price. The decent multiplayer and ability to play as your outlandishly outfitted Avatar definitely adds to the fun!