While at GDC, I talked to skating legend Tony Hawk about the upcoming re-make of the releases that made him an icon to a generation of gamers. He thinks itâs great but, of course, he would. Me? I found myself surprised at how much I missed the unique style of extreme sports offered by the Tony Hawk Pro Skater games.
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The new lighting adds a greater sense of mood to levels that you may have played before. The golden sunset of the Venice Beach makes the experience of skating there feel chilled-out and slightly zen whereas the warehouseâs environment feels more abandoned and dangerous than before.
Yet, the controls feel as sharp and smooth as ever. Itâs still satisfying to jump onto a rail, lock onto a grind, transition to a ramp and grab huge air for huge combos. Development studio Robomodo added new animations that subtly give players cues, too. When you land sloppily off of an air trick, youâll see characters wobble and try to stand up to regain balance. And during grinds, youâll see avatars wave their arms to maintain a center of gravity.
Along with the new animations come new achievements, too. Of course, youâll still need to collect the letters S-K-A-T-E but other feat youâll need to do include performing a certain number of grinds per level or collecting DVDs. (Those used to be CDs VHS tapes.) Familiar background characters like the bum on Venice Beach and Officer Dick on the grounds of the School levels. Everyone wants to know whether the iconic THPS soundtracks will be making returns and the answer is yes. Kind of. Activisionâs saying that the tunes accompanying the game will be 50% new and 50% original.
Robomodoâs not calling THPS HD a re-master, saying rather that itâs a re-make using the geometry of the original games. Right now, all the updated cloth physics, hi-def textures and dynamic lighting combine to make the reincarnation of the classic skate games live up to the memories of those played the originals. Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD will be ollie-ing onto consoles in July.
