So Ive had some points just sitting on my live account, nothing has really caught my interest lately, then I saw Tony Hawk HD and I started flashing back to the old school Tony Hawk days on PS1 and Dreamcast. Saw the price at1200 points and I had my reservations on dropping $15 on a remake of a game I bought multiple times (all the tony hawks on PS1, DC, PS2, and even THPS2 remix on XBOX aaaaand underground 2 on PSP)
So I plopped down the points and downloaded the game. Figured since this is old school mine as well remake my old skater with the red hair, brown cargo pants, and green t-shirt with no logo but.... there's no create a skater, if you pick "you", you get your xbox360 avatard. While the idea is neat, your character looks really odd in the enviroment.
It ends up kinda looking like a nintendo Wii-tard skating around an xbox game. I can live without a character editor, but it just doesnt feel right in this day and age. Lets get on with the other problems with this title.
The major, major, MAJOR "UGH WTF" factor is the physics in this game. It just plays horribly. Collision detection is pretty bad, to the point where you'll bail on the half pipe and the game will stand you up in the ramp and you instantly fall again. I thought maybe I was looking at the past through rose colored glasses so I fired up the old Dreamcast and kicked some ass, then fired up the PSP with a PS1 emulator and kicked even more ass.
The Level selection is also suspect. Only 7 levels from the first 2 games, and while they Got some right, like the School II and the Hanger, they also included the Warehouse which is just just a little too similar to the Hanger to justify having both. I wouldn't mind it if they had more levels but why not include better levels like New York or redoing one of the "lost levels" like the construction zone?
Over all the levels arent too bad, the mall is still relatively fun despite the aforementioned shotty physics.
I'll take a break from the bad and mention the good, the sound track. Its a really good mix of the old tracks and the new tracks really fit in, only minor gripe is no "Del the Funky Homosapien" track but I'd be lying if I said I didnt really dig the music. The other good thing about the music is, when you restart a run or just do another run, it doesnt just end the track and go to the next it keeps playing, so its not so annoying. What is annoying however is every time you restart or just start a run at the school II it rings the bells, so by the time you finish all the goals and cash, you''ve heard that fucking thing ring like 500 times.
Last thing to really gripe about is the levels themselves. The just look a little weird with textures they have and the developers tried a little too hard with some things, for example pigeons and pigeon poop, flying newspapers, things of that nature. They should have focused more on how the game played then trying to slather icing on what is otherwise just a mediocre cake.
To summarize, if you loved the old tony hawk games, dont waste your money on this one. It doesnt let you relive the games like they used to be its more like some kids tried to remake the game and didnt quite get it right. If youre new to the tony hawk world and thought about buying this to get your feet wet, you'd be better off taking your $15 to a garage sale and picking up a PS1 and both tony hawk games. I'd give it a 4/10 just because I'm still feeling nostalgic about THPS
~Malenko
