Too many Tony Hawks

[brainerdrainer]

I've been a fan of the THPS series since 99. The other day I got a bulk of games/consoles for trading an art piece and in this lot I found Tony Hawk's Pro Skater American Waste Land. It's great and all but some of the stuff in the game is getting ridiculous. Now you get to tag/spray paint walls in the game?? And also all of the haircut shops and clothing stores, it's too much for me. It's fine that they made some changes but man, the shit's getting out of hand. I don't even want to try the tony hawk ride thing. I'll stick to the good ol THPS2 and 3. And the first one of course.

[TheRev]

Craptivision stopped making Tony Hawk games just after Air Ride Bombed and bombed hard

[Luke]

THPS3 is where it got too ridiculous for me. Not that THPS had some silly stuff in it, but when skaters started doing a "coffin grind" on suspended electrical wires.

Now!

There are two schools of thought, both based on opinion. You have the skater "simulators" like THPS and THPS2, and then you have the group of "fantasy" skaters where you can manual on dinosaurs.

I like my skating games as semi-realistic as possible (even is his mid-40's Scientologist Jason Lee is a better skater than I am) but I understand why others would like to skate in the most craziest ways possible. After all, it's a video game.

But in my case, I'll take the vert in Skate or Die over most THPS games.

[jay_red]

Underground was the high point for me, I remember getting that game new and playing the crap out of it! I even used to play it online via Dialup with my ps2. After that, it was all down hill. Underground 2 was terrible, Wasteland kept the trend going... I think it was project 8 after that? By that point I wasnt about to give another THPS game a chance. Not soon after, Tony Hawk wasnt the only skating game in town when Skate came out, I got that at launch and loved it, and the games to follow, even if they didnt really change too much from the first.

[sevin0seven]

...I'll stick to the good ol THPS2 and 3. And the first one of course.

good choice. that's all you need.

[shwisha]

Underground was the high point for me, I remember getting that game new and playing the crap out of it! I even used to play it online via Dialup with my ps2. After that, it was all down hill. Underground 2 was terrible, Wasteland kept the trend going... I think it was project 8 after that? By that point I wasnt about to give another THPS game a chance. Not soon after, Tony Hawk wasnt the only skating game in town when Skate came out, I got that at launch and loved it, and the games to follow, even if they didnt really change too much from the first.

I agree that THUG was the peak. I had it for the gamecube and that's when I realized the gamecube controller was the ultimate Tony Hawk controller.

The combo system in THUG was so fun.

[BurningDoom]

Underground was the high point for me, I remember getting that game new and playing the crap out of it! I even used to play it online via Dialup with my ps2. After that, it was all down hill. Underground 2 was terrible, Wasteland kept the trend going... I think it was project 8 after that? By that point I wasnt about to give another THPS game a chance. Not soon after, Tony Hawk wasnt the only skating game in town when Skate came out, I got that at launch and loved it, and the games to follow, even if they didnt really change too much from the first.

I agree that THUG was the peak. I had it for the gamecube and that's when I realized the gamecube controller was the ultimate Tony Hawk controller.

The combo system in THUG was so fun.

I was gonna say the same. The first THUG was where all the magic ended. Great game, and all the rest after it failed to live up to the games before it.

[Menegrothx]

THPS 1-3=Classic 2 minute time limit
THPS 4= You can roam the levels freely and do more small scale individual missions
Tony Hawk's Underground=You roam the levels freely and do missions like in THPS 4, but this time you can also walk, climb buildings, ride cars and there's a storyline.
Tony Hawk's Underground 2=Same as THUG 1 except the storyline is closely tied to Bam Margera/Jackass and it's even more ridicolous and over the top (you get to play a Steve O who rides a mechanical bull and do 1440 degree triple back flips with it....). This time around there's a classic mode that lets you revisit the levels and play the game in classic style (10 challenges, 2 minute time limit). Oh and you get to spray paint walls and slap stickers into them because that's edgy.

American Wasteland and beyond it's the same but there's even a bigger emphasis on "sand box" playstyle and the games are just bad. THUG 1 is nice but THUG 2 is too much for most people I reckon.

Errant signal made an intresting retrospective video on the game series, it's worth checking out

THPS3 is where it got too ridiculous for me. Not that THPS had some silly stuff in it, but when skaters started doing a "coffin grind" on suspended electrical wires.

Now!

There are two schools of thought, both based on opinion. You have the skater "simulators" like THPS and THPS2, and then you have the group of "fantasy" skaters where you can manual on dinosaurs.

THPS 2


The gap in realism is more stark between THPS and THPS 2 than it is between THPS 2 and THPS 3. The SKATE games offer a lot more realistic gameplay experience, but even they are far from being realistic once you learn to play the game properly and find yourself a big ramp.

[shwisha]

THPS 1-3=Classic 2 minute time limit
The gap in realism is more stark between THPS and THPS 2 than it is between THPS 2 and THPS 3. The SKATE games offer a lot more realistic gameplay experience, but even they are far from being realistic once you learn to play the game properly and find yourself a big ramp.

Yeah the SKATE series was the death of Tony Hawk. Once I played SKATE I couldn't imagine going back to Tony Hawk.

[winds]

I've been a fan of the THPS series since 99. The other day I got a bulk of games/consoles for trading an art piece and in this lot I found Tony Hawk's Pro Skater American Waste Land. It's great and all but some of the stuff in the game is getting ridiculous. Now you get to tag/spray paint walls in the game?? And also all of the haircut shops and clothing stores, it's too much for me. It's fine that they made some changes but man, the shit's getting out of hand. I don't even want to try the tony hawk ride thing. I'll stick to the good ol THPS2 and 3. And the first one of course.

I had pretty much the same experience. I used to play the first 2 Tony Hawks games for ps1 religiously. Along with Golden Eye and the Mario Karts, that game was our "party mode" game to play with a slew of friends. I mastered those games back in the day.

When PS2 came out I mostly played RPG's and for whatever reason ignored the Tony Hawk franchise, until the day I received Tony Hawks American Wasteland in a trade. I was pretty stoked to play it and relive that awesome experience of the previous games. However, when I saw myself buying clothing and changing my hairstyles, along with the not-so-fun gameplay, I turned the game off and haven't gone back to the series since. I haven't tried THPS 3 or 4 yet though, I still do want to give them a shot one day.