Review by Nate Hodson
The Tony Hawk franchise is nostalgic to me in that my cousin and I played it each summer whenever a new title came out. We would always compete to see who could get the most ridiculous combo or who could design the most outlandish character. Who could say no to muffing your friends trick by crashing into him at high speed, then kick flipping over his face? Ha! How’s that for a Nose Bone?! Needless to say I was excited to check it out, with high graphics to boot.
So right down to brass tacks, the first thing I noticed was that Neversoft did not publish this one, I didn’t see the classic needle *popping* into the eye to dub the publisher. Developed by Robomundo, these guys were tasked with building the game from the ground up, no small task for such a physical game. The game itself is very familiar, I instantly recognized many levels and was spelling S-K-A-T-E within my second run on the “Warehouse” level. You’ll recognize the music tracks from 1 and 2 as well. The game looks great, however it still feels the same to me. The physics in Tony Hawk were never perfect, but that was part of the fun. Really it feels and plays like THPS 1 with a graphics overhaul.
A map has been added to help with finding all the goals although this takes a bit of the challenge away. There is no move list which personally bugged the crap out of me. The game requires a lot of coordination and quick thinking to pull off combos to get great scores, so a lack of a command list is really frustrating. The PC version does not utilize the mouse at all, even at the level select screen, it’s all from the keyboard. Back when I was a strapping young boy I had some fat skills on Tony Hawk, but the controls for PC were challenging to say the least. Of course there is an Xbox controller option... If you got one. No mapping of controls and vague instructions on how to use the keyboard cut the game down in size in terms of being user friendly. Not to mention your tutorial is during the loading screen. Yikes. The PC version also singles you out, quite literally as there is no multiplayer for PC, just consoles. You get an online leader board but... meh, it’s the same principle as “Ghosts” online, it’s not really online.
Robomundo practically just ported the levels over from Neversoft because, other than the graphics, I see no significant change to the levels. My guess? They are remaking a classic, and for a price tag of $10 it makes sense that this project seems laid back.
I don’t believe in criticizing most games. It’s like comparing apples to oranges, every gamer has a different game he or she prefers to play. So what makes THPS HD worth the $10? The graphics, pure and simple. It’s in no way an innovation or step up from the other games, just a remix. If you are a TH fan then I would recommend this game, it runs the same but you’d better have a Logitech or Microsoft controller because the keyboard controls will make you wish it was you who just bashed your skull into the ground instead of Tony.
