Developed By: Robomodo
Published By: Activision
Date of Release: September 18, 2012
Price: $9.99
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. Now I'll be brutally honest, as it was released the PC version was a buggy piece of crap, but with the recent patch everything has been smoothed over nicely. The graphics absolutely pop with massive amounts of detail never before seen in the genre, and a silky smooth framerate to back it up. On the gameplay front, the mechanics have been tweaked to perfection with the controls being spot on when compared to previous entries. Though the game is perfectly serviceable with a keyboard, for the proper experience you're gonna need a gamepad.
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.
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 negative I could find was the lack of musical customization, as the custom soundtrack options of the past are long since gone. 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, especially considering how smooth it runs on the pc. So break out your kneepads and get on over to Steam and check it out now!
