Spring Break
Game Review
Tony Hawk's Proving Grounds Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, DS, Wii
Issue date: 11/15/07
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Despite the famed success of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater video game series, the latest edition, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, fails to impress. The Tony Hawk Pro Skater video game series was launched in 1999 for PlayStation. Quickly becoming the most popular game in the genre, Tony Hawk Pro Skater dominated the series and earned millions of dollars for Tony Hawk. Because of the success, Activision, the game's developer, has since released 10 follow-up games for numerous game systems, including PCs and Macs.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater's gameplay includes arcade-like challenges where the player can skate around a realistic environment collecting hidden items and earn a high score in an effort to unlock more levels and challenges. The series' latest edition, Proving Ground, doesn't fall far from the original game structure. In this newest edition, the skater can cruise the streets of Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and even Baltimore, including downtown and the Inner Harbor (sorry, no Charles Village). The levels show great resemblance to their respective cities and use the processing power of the Xbox 360 to create extremely realistic environments. The game is also available for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS.
Besides the new levels that bring the gameplay close to home, new updated features of the game are split up into three categories: Career, Rigger and Hardcore. Each of these three categories of gameplay has its own highlights. In the Career category, you can learn the "Nail It" moves that enable the player to maneuver their skater's feet in order to create their own tricks. Playing the Rigger trail allows the player to unlock the abilities to add new objects in the environment to skate on with the "Rig-A-Kit." For example, say you want to jump over a car to obtain a certain item hovering above it. You can enter the "Rig-A-Kit," place a ramp in front of the car and obtain the item with ease. The "Rig-A-Kit" also enables the player to break into locked environments. Lastly, playing the Hardcore trail allows the skater to learn new moves to make him go faster and literally "skate-check" pedestrians in order to get them out of your way. For example, once learning the "Aggro Kick," the player can push much harder and obtain fast speeds in order to clear immense gaps and objects.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater's gameplay includes arcade-like challenges where the player can skate around a realistic environment collecting hidden items and earn a high score in an effort to unlock more levels and challenges. The series' latest edition, Proving Ground, doesn't fall far from the original game structure. In this newest edition, the skater can cruise the streets of Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and even Baltimore, including downtown and the Inner Harbor (sorry, no Charles Village). The levels show great resemblance to their respective cities and use the processing power of the Xbox 360 to create extremely realistic environments. The game is also available for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS.
Besides the new levels that bring the gameplay close to home, new updated features of the game are split up into three categories: Career, Rigger and Hardcore. Each of these three categories of gameplay has its own highlights. In the Career category, you can learn the "Nail It" moves that enable the player to maneuver their skater's feet in order to create their own tricks. Playing the Rigger trail allows the player to unlock the abilities to add new objects in the environment to skate on with the "Rig-A-Kit." For example, say you want to jump over a car to obtain a certain item hovering above it. You can enter the "Rig-A-Kit," place a ramp in front of the car and obtain the item with ease. The "Rig-A-Kit" also enables the player to break into locked environments. Lastly, playing the Hardcore trail allows the skater to learn new moves to make him go faster and literally "skate-check" pedestrians in order to get them out of your way. For example, once learning the "Aggro Kick," the player can push much harder and obtain fast speeds in order to clear immense gaps and objects.
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