Overview
Proving Ground is the ninth installment of the Tony Hawk franchise. It was developed by Neversoft for the PS3 and Xbox 360, by Page 44 Studios for the PS2 and Wii, and by Vicarious Visions for the Nintendo DS. It was released in October 2007. The game world spans three large areas: Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, DC while Skate classes are broken down into Career, Rigger and Hardcore.
Career skaters include skateboard greats such as Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist and Ryan Sheckler. Rigger skaters include Bam Margera and Rodney Mullen, while hardcore skaters have Andrew Reynolds and Mike Vallely in its ranks. Proving ground also expanded on the Nail-the-Trick Mode from the previous game, adding Nail-the-Grab and Nail-the-Manual to the Career style.
Character Styles
Career Skater stays the truest to the esablished formula. Players collect S-K-A-T-E, enter competitions, perform tricks for an audience and so on. As a Rigger, the player will often have to create his own path to get to a specific platform. This is done using the in game level editor and does not involve much skating. As a Hardcore skater the player partakes in "dangerous" activities and is given the aggro push ability. Similar to real life skating, the player can gain speed by pushing forward with his foot. Each of the styles comes with its own subset of episodes in which the player completes objectives for a Pro Skater.
Skaters
Secret characters include Judy Nails from the Guitar Hero franchise and MCA from the Beastie Boys.
Reception
Proving Ground was met with mixed reviews for its lack of innovation, lackluster graphics, technical issues and convoluted game objectives. Activision took a year off to "re-engineer and reconstruct the Tony Hawk series" and later went on to publish the peripheral based Tony Hawk: RIDE and Tony Hawk: SHRED games, making Proving Ground the last traditional sequel in the franchise for the 7th generation of consoles.
It would take 8 years until the release of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack contains a wide range of music. Typically the same type of music as all other Tony Hawk games.
The following tracks are available on every system but the DS.
Airbourne - "Girls in Black"
Angels & Airwaves - "Secret Crowds"
Anglo Jackson - "Motorbike"
At the Gates - "Slaughter of the Soul"
Beastie Boys - "Electric Worm"
Blackalicious - "Your Move"
Bloc Party - "Version 2.0"
Cursed - "The Hands Will Abide"
Cymande - "Fug"
Dag Nasty - "Circles"
Darkest Hour - "Sanctuary"
Deadbolt Zen - "Everything Changes"
Divine Era - "The Sound Of Words"
DJ JS-1 (featuring L.I.F.E. Long & Immortal Technique) - "Audio Technician"
El-P - "Up All Night"
Folk Implosion - "Natural One"
Foo Fighters- "The Pretender"
Fu Manchu - "We Must Obey"
Funky 4 1 - "Rappin and Rockin the House"
Future Pigeon - "Gift Tax"
Gallows - "Come Friendly Bombs"
Gorilla Biscuits - "Hold Your Ground"
Jimmy Castor Bunch - "It's Just Begun"
Jurassic 5 - "Radio"
Kittens - "Carpenter"
Lyrics Born (featuring KRS-One and Evidence) - "Pack Up (Remix)"
Maylene and the Sons of Disaster - "Memories of the Grove"
Nation of Ulysses - "You're My Miss Washington D.C."
Oh No (featuring J Dilla and Roc C) - "Move, Pt. 2"
Paint It Black - "The New Brutality"
Paris - "The Devil Made Me Do It (Poach a Pig Mix)"
Percee P - "Throwback Rap Attack (Madlib Remix)"
Pierce the Veil - "I'd Rather Die Than Be Famous"
Pig Destroyer - "Loathsome"
Reverend Horton Heat - "Baddest of the Bad"
Roots Manuva - "Chin High"
Silversun Pickups - "Well Thought Out Twinkles"
Slick Rick - "Children's Story"
Snapcase - "Energy Dome"
The Amelia Premiere - "Disintegrate"
The Bled - "Starving Artiste"
The Cramps - "Garbage Man"
The Icarus Line - "Gets Paid"
The Rolling Stones - "Sympathy for the Devil"
Twilight 22 - "Electric Kingdom"
Voltera - "It Beats for You"
The following tracks are available on the DS version.
!!! - "All My Heroes Are Weirdos"
The Sex Pistols - "Holidays in the Sun"
The Smashing Pumpkins - "Tarantula"
The Kooks - "See the World"
The Octopus Project - "Music Is Happiness"
The Clash - "Clash City Rockers"
Sayvinyl - "That's Entertainment"
Revolution Mother - "Come On"
Nirvana - "Breed"
Motorcity Daredevils - "Bear in the Air"
Los Abandoned - "Panic-Oh!"
Foo Fighters - "The Pretender"
Bad Brains - "Banned in DC"
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