With the recent announcement of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 that'll be coming out later this year, it sent me on a bit of a nostalgia trip because I was a big fan of the Tony Hawk games when I was growing up. I played almost all of the original Pro Skater games, THUG 1 and 2, as well as Wasteland and Project 8. It's safe to say that I've played most of the main entries in this franchise.
When I was looking up the upcoming remaster/remake of the first two Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games, I stumbled across a Tony Hawk game that I'd somehow never heard of which was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD. This game is considered a HD upgrade of Pro Skater 1 and 2 and apparently even 3 via download. It came out all the way back in 2012 and I was curious as to why they're re-remaking the first couple games if it had already been done back in 2012. After only around maybe an hour of playing, I found out why.
Let's go over what I liked and didn't like in my short time with this game.
The Good
The best thing about this game by far is the graphics. They look much better than the original games by a mile. It's nice to see some iconic levels like the Warehouse here get remade with graphics that still look pretty impressive even eight years after this game came out.
I also liked the fact that they kept in a lot of the music from the original games. The original games had a great soundtrack with them and even if it's not the exact same songs from the original games, it's nice that they kept the feel of the music the same.
This game seemed promising, but soon enough the cracks started to show.
The Bad
I'm not even going to sugarcoat it, this game has way too many bugs in it for it to really be a great experience. It's not unplayable, but it's often frustrating. The game feels like it was rushed. From constantly clipping through rails that you're grinding on to being shot all the way across (and sometimes even outside of) the map over something as simple as a bail is just crazy. It's funny the first few times you see it and then you realize that it's just not that fun after awhile.
Speaking of, this game only has eight levels. That's disappointing to say the least considering how many great levels were in the first few games. The iconic levels like School and Warehouse are certainly here, but then you get levels like the Mall which I personally didn't like. I didn't play it enough to actually get to play that level, but it's a linear level with not much in the way of exploring. It's not a terrible level, but I always preferred levels that let you really explore and find cool things.
I'm sure I'm forgetting several things for "The Bad" category here, but the last one that I'll mention is the physics. They're wonky to say the least. Again, it wasn't unplayable but you can tell that all of their budget went towards graphics and not the gameplay. You can do tons of iconic tricks but it just never feels "right". The gameplay almost feels sluggish and I know for a fact that my computer's specs is way overkill for an eight year old game like this. I just don't understand it.
Conclusion
For every one good thing about Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD, there's seemingly two or three bad things. I've certainly played worse games, but this is the worst Tony Hawk game that I've ever played personally. As I've said before, it's not an unplayable experience but it's not a fun one either. Sure it has it's good points, but overall the game feels like it was released without being properly tested. If this game was given just several months of polish, I feel like it could have been much better than it turned out.
After playing this game for maybe an hour, I'd googled the problems that I was running into with the game and it seemed like many others who played it shared similar issues with it like I did. It seems like many people agreed that it just felt like a rushed game with too much money going towards the graphics and not nearly enough towards the gameplay in regards to testing and polish.
Final Score: 4/10
"If you're a die hard fan of the Tony Hawk skateboarding games and you need to play this one just to say that you've played it and mark it off your list then go for it. It's playable, but it really falls short of what's to be expected of a Tony Hawk game. Your best bet will probably be to wait for (hopefully) the proper remaster that'll be coming out in September."
