After an ill-advised detour into motion-controlled skateboarding nearly killed the franchise, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD brings redemption for the series and developer Robomodo. Suitably, it’s all due to their embracing the past while making (mostly) smart changes to update it for the modern day.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD includes a killer combo of the best content from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and THPS 2, with seven stages ranging from tight trick havens to insane downhill runs (now made easier, as they “loop” when a skater reaches the bottom). The 14-song soundtrack includes seven classic Tony tunes, while adding a batch of songs that may themselves become skate classics in a few years. We could pick nits with a missing song or stage, but it’s tough to point to anything here we’d want to jettison. (Okay, maybe “When Worlds Collide.”)
Riley Hawk (Tony’s progeny) makes his videogame debut here.For the most part, Robomodo has left well enough alone on the classic courses, and we have to applaud how seamlessly they’ve added new objectives, to the point where we had to look up the old lists online to find out which tasks were the originals. The three new modes are all fun, especially Big Head Survival, an ingenious and intense mode in which your skater’s head continually expands until it explodes, with successfully performed tricks slowing the inflation. Better yet, it’s equally entertaining whether you’re playing alone or with friends.
Big Head Survival is fun whether you’re trying to outlast an opponent or surpass a certain time limit.Not all of the changes are for the better, unfortunately. For one thing, the “Big Drop” feature added in THPS 2 (which causes skaters to wipe out after large leaps) makes the many downhill levels in the first THPS measurably tougher. Also, single-console multiplayer is completely absent — meaning no split-screen simultaneous skating or even asynchronous games of HORSE (that mode is nixed altogether). For a series that found massive success due in part to its extremely approachable multiplayer, the omission of split-screen is hard to swallow. Granted, an XBLA game’s user base is inherently connected (and we enjoy skating online), but newcomers should be able to experience multiplayer as it was originally presented.
Though we question these changes to the tried-and-true gameplay, the majority of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD works as well as (or better than) the originals did when they first captivated us nearly 15 years ago. This update isn’t all it could have been, but it’s the best take on those early games we’ve had yet.
The Downhill Jam course remains a favorite, marred only slightly by unfair “Big Drop” wipeouts.PUBLISHER: Activision • DEVELOPER: Robomodo • ESRB: Teen • MULTIPLAYER: 4 on Xbox Live • ACHIEVEMENTS: Tough but creative • COST: 1,200 Microsoft Points ($15) • RELEASE DATE: July 18, 2012
+ A great mix-tape of the first two Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games with welcome new goals and tunes.
+ New modes are enjoyable in single-player or Live multiplayer, particularly Big Head Survival.
– No split-screen; “Big Drop” makes downhill THPS levels tougher.
? Why change hidden tapes to DVDs in a game that’s download-only?
