Instead, Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD made me wonder why I ever liked this series. An HD upgrade should make a game look and feel as good as you remember it. I love these games, which makes it so sad to see Activision and Robomodo tarnish Neversoft’s legacy. Sorry, I’ll zip it and tuck my enthusiasm back in but I can’t help it. Hell no, it isn’t crap! It’s amazing! I can easily wall grind, at last! I can spin like crazy with ANY character! I can bail and not grit my teeth at the animation! I am … in … heaven!!!!!! Throughout my rather miserable time with THPS HD, I had a horrifying thought: “Is one of my favorite games crap and I never knew it?” So, I popped in THPS 2X. I can see myself playing Survival a lot … if it were in the original games. Each mode is a fun addition but they aren’t going to start you on a new addiction. ![]() The only way to make it shrink is to pull off tricks, but it will eventually burst into confetti. Survival has your head expand until it explodes. In Hawkman, you collect coins in the level by doing special tricks near each one. If you’d rather go solo, you can play HD’s new modes: Hawkman and Big Head Survival. Once you’ve collected S-K-A-T-E and ollied over magical bums enough times in career mode, you can play the territory based Graffiti or classic Trick Attack against other players online. It just kind of ends without even telling you. There is no fanfare at the end of career mode. Other than Achievement grinding and unlocking new characters/modes, there isn’t much incentive to even complete the game. Why did they select these two? I know the answer to the first (It’s Tony Hawk’s favorite), but I’m not sure about Venice. The above became especially frustrating when I got stuck on Downhill Jam and Venice Beach, easily the worst maps from the first two Tony Hawk games. The gravity feels odd, the game is slow, it takes way too long to recover, you’ll frequently glitch out into space after bailing, and encounter lots of frustrating moments due to changes the game made over the originals. All of these variables add up to the sublime flow of classic Tony Hawk. Having been built from the ground up, Robomodo was tasked with recreating the perfection that Neversoft achieved in their systems: the right speed, the right gravity, the right spin, the right everything. THPS HD didn’t make it easy for me, though. It’s been some time since I played a Tony Hawk game, but it didn’t take me long to start performing specials, jump from rail-to-rail, and maintain a combo for 20+ secs. Playing the game only makes me come closer to this conclusion. Given the fact that most of the game’s seven maps focus on the smallest, simplest levels of the series, I suspect that maybe the developer was just negligent. The geometry and layout of School II, Hanger, and other classics remains exactly as you remembered it, for better or worse. Whether out of fear or respect, Robomodo has left these stages mostly untouched. With only seven maps, I expected at least some major overhauls in their design, both visually and structurally. Rather than repackaging these two classics, developer Robomodo has attempted to replace them by making a new game from the ground up, combining the best maps, songs, and features of both titles. ![]() It’s no surprise then that Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD focuses exclusively on these first two Hawks - though THPS 3’s revert and levels will arrive as DLC. Though later series entries have their fans - I have a soft spot for Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 - the first two games established the franchise’s formula, offered some of its most memorable levels, and left the biggest impact on the game industry. No other series made players feel like skateboarding supermen quite like Tony Hawk. ![]() One sequel later and perfection was achieved. It was recognized because developer Neversoft’s execution was near flawless. The idea of a points-based arcade skateboard game wasn’t exactly radical in 1999, with games like 720° and Skate or Die! predating Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater by a over a decade. Some classic games aren’t made around a great idea, but rather, great execution.
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