Tony Hawk's Proving Ground

Publisher: Activision
Developer: Neversoft Entertainment
Genre: Extreme Sports
Release: October 15, 2007
Platforms: Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Wii

Reviewer: Eric

Who has the better skate boarding game? This is the question most fans of skating boarding games have waiting to find out since the release of Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground a few weeks ago. After finally being able to give this one a shot on the Playstation 3 I can say it is a tough one at first.

This years Tony Hawk game is sticking with the serious story once again. You start out by creating a skater that wants to be the best. Does this sound familiar? Neversoft also added in the ability to get sponsors, which isn’t new to the series either. Pretty much Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground has the same story as all the other ones, except the ones that revolved around Bam and his Jackass buddies.

Single mode is the same, game play and what you can wear with your creative character. The new aspect that has been added to the story mode is what career path you’ll pick. There are three to pick paths to choose from, hardcore, career and the rigger. Having the ability to pick your path is a nice little feature but all it does is hide the fact that the game really hasn’t changed too much.

These three different paths are unique and add a little something new to the stale franchise. The hardcore skater is somebody that loves skating day and night. If you just want t skate around and not worrying about anything else then this is the way to go. The career skater is that person who goes from competition to competition, wanting to be the next Tony Hawk. I’m sure all skaters want to be the next big thing, but to me there are more things that just entering any little competition. Finally there is the rigger; this is the skater that will trick off of anything man made or home made. Out of the three classes this is by far the best, you can edit areas to trick off of. This is pretty much story mode added with the build your own skate park feature but it feels a whole lot better when you can put the ramp where ever you want instead of trying to jump five thousand feet to start your combo.

Adding the three different paths was a great idea, but Neversoft had to go mess things up. You can change your path at anytime; if you want to build an average skater then you will be changing back and fourth a lot. It would have been much better if you had to stick with that one path, maybe if you beat the game then you could add that character to another one. This would give more replay value to the story mode since every class pretty much does the same thing, score so many points, grind forever or any of the other missions that have been in every Tony Hawk game for the last eight years.

Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground should only be played by anyone whose played at least two of the games in the series. With the addition of two more tricks it is getting to the point where most people are going to start playing the other guys game, Skate. Nail a grab and nail a manual are the new moves and they play just like last years nail a trick. This is too much now, trying to combine all these new tricks is nearly impossible. Like I said before anyone new to the series will find this game extremely hard, I’ve been playing the series since day one and I am having a hard time with all this. The whole slow motion thing with nail a trick/manual/grab is pointless; trying to build up enough speed to do any of this is painful. Remember my Lair review? Proving Ground will get your hands and fingers a work out, but it isn’t as bad.

To make matters worse you need to learn how to do these new tricks. Last years Tony Hawk game was beatable without really touching the nail a trick feature. Now you have to be able to do all these pointless nail a trick/manual/grab if you want to see the ending. Remember when you could combine enough tracks to get over a million points? It won’t happen as fast this time around, you really need to learn this game all over again but in a bad way.

I don’t remember having to push a button to speed up in the demo for this game but now you do. Neversoft might have taken this idea from Skate to give a more realistic feel to the series, who knows. Pressing a button to go faster is hard in the game, especially for the Playstation 3. With the lack of a rumble feature you have to pretty much memorize how long it takes in-between kicks, if you mess up you’ll loose all your speed. Other versions of this game have the rumble feature and it makes things a lot easier, though fans of the series are still complaining about it. Proving Ground has gotten out of control, either stick with the arcade style or a real life skate game Neversoft, don’t try to do both.

You will be able to edit videos in this game and it is by far a hundred times better than Skate’s. You get to pick a variety of different camera shots and angles, I had a much better time editing videos in Proving Ground. If you get into this enough you can even add music that goes nicely with your tricks. Oh yeah you will also be able to upload these to the Internet.

Both the voice acting and graphics are not up to par with next generation video games. The animations are lacking a lot whenever you get cut scenes and the voices are almost as bad as somebody scratching on a black board. You can tell most of the people in this game just wanted to get paid and Neversoft didn’t mind that. With both these things lacking the in game music still ranks supreme. From hip hop to death metal there is something in this game that should make people happy. The soundtrack might not be as good as past games in the series, but it is a lot better than EA’s Skate.

Online play has all the games we have seen before. Thankfully nothing was taken out, I still love playing H.O.R.S.E. against people. Proving Ground does however add in two little features for online gamers. You can make a skating lounge where your friends can come in and do whatever you want. Then there is the ability to wager fake money whenever you play against your opponents. It might not be the greatest thing, but you have to realize that Neversoft has pretty much maxed out their online capabilities, adding in any more games will just end up being a copy of two other games.

Final Verdict
Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground feels like a new game in the series with its new additions. Proving Ground has enough in here to give this game a try, however if you are thinking about playing the Tony Hawk series for the first time you will find yourself getting extremely confused and angry. There are too many tricks in this game, it is way too hard to remember all the different things you can do in this game and it’s finally gotten to the point where the game starts lacking. If you have to buy one skate boarding game this year you might be best to rent both Proving Ground and Skate first. I’m going to go with Skate though; EA brings a fresh new take on the skate boarding games that have been ruined by the Tony Hawk series. Hopefully Neversoft takes some notes from Skate for next year's Tony Hawk game.

Rating
7.50 out of 10

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground Trailer