Tony Hawk's Project 8

This is just a copy of my Gamespot review, as most of my first reviews will be. But I'll be working on some new ones for this site in the next few days.

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This game really did surprise me. I will admit, I was expecting crap. The nail in the coffin of a series killed by horrible games like THAW. To me, the last really great Tony Hawk game was THPS 4. I dont need a storyline in a skating game, I never have, I never understood why we needed to pretend we actually could skate when we cant. It doesnt make sense. This game is just what it should be, its skating, plain and simple.

I will start with the horrible aspects of this game. Its even shorter than its predecessors. It seems almost like they crapped this thing out in a long weekend at the office. I can tell any true hardcore THPS fan the one thing that is worst about this game though. It's made by Shaba. Oh yeah. You heard me. The ones who made THPS3 for the PS, the worst in the series. They made this game, but they did better, trust me.

The soundtrack is the worst I can ever remember in a Tony Hawk game. It has a few good songs, but other than that. There is no reason why you shouldnt turn the volume off and stick in a good CD. I think the thing that really made me mad was a simple control scheme change. Now, with a tap of the square button you go into a manual. It's kind of a lame thing to complain about, but why simplify that, I mean come on. The game also offers a really interesting new feature called nailing a trick. Where in the air time slows down and by pressing the analog sticks you can flip the board any way you please. A great way to show off some of your true skills to anyone who loves the button pushing aspects of the game. I really think that even if this game isnt amazing, it is definitely a step in the right direction. It shows where the games should be going, although it shows very little improvement in gameplay mechanics you will notice a decidedly different feel to the game.

Instead of a traditional story mode, you are thrown into the role of a hopeful young skater trying to make it on to Tony Hawk's Project 8 skate team. You rise through the ranks by completing all of your standard Tony Hawk goals. Although these goals do seem watered down in this installment and the game is definitely far too easy. The rankings board is sort of filler, you rise through the ranks of skaters with pretty random names and sponsors. Everyone else has like two sponsors, and here you are with two or three new sponsors every time you complete a few goals. Its all very unrealistic and slapped together.

There are I think 10 levels probably, and they took all other modes out of the game except Story, 2-Player, and Free Skate. Which leaves you with nothing to do except enjoy the skating aspects. Which is annoying. At least a create-a-park feature would be nice. But nothing like that is here. There are some videos to watch and a decent array of skaters to choose from, but thats about it. The next-gen versions may have more modes, but the PS2 version is sadly lacking.

I'll finish with my favorite part. While making this game they got every skater who was going to be in the game to come in, and put them in motion capture suits. Then got them to perform all their tricks. This doesn't seem like much but it really does make an impact, at least for me. So, when you make Rodney Mullen do a manual to Primo Slide, to Casper flip, to 5-0, kickflip out, you can tell, that it's Rodney Mullen doing that trick. And when Bob Burnquist pulls a disaster, you can tell that his arms are moving exactly like they should be at the top of that halfpipe. They even have a short film clip of each skaters motion capture session with them talking about the experience and the game itself. It's really a great game.