Professional skater Tony Hawk has teamed up with Activision for many years to deliver some of the greatest skateboarding games ever made, along with some incredibly average annualized installments.
How can Activision revive the Tony Hawk franchise? Add a one-time use code for a rare Wow mount to every new copy, and call it Tony Hawk's Pro Skater whatever. Hype it up as a "revival of the classic Tony Hawk gameplay" at E3 or something, and no matter how bad it is, people will still buy it. The latter has worked for every Sonic reboot ever made, and the former is just good business.
I loved the tony hawk games until I reached the 8 spot in project 8 and the game told me to go back and replay challenges instead of having new ones if I wanted to finish the single player that just felt like lazy game design and made me lose my interest in the game.
@JJWeatherman said:
Multiplayer. Whether or not it's required is the question. Skate seem to have done a fair job in this department with Skate 3. Even so though, it wasn't a selling point for me, and I never bought Skate 3. Jeff said it himself that if you weren't into the multiplayer, than Skate 2 is "kind of a better game". I took that advice and passed on Skate 3. So as you've probably guessed, I think multiplayer should not be included in a THPS reboot. Keep it simple. If there isn't a solid foundation to build on, then multiplayer is just another layer of non-polished, non-fun game that get's thrown into the mix. Skate was able to concentrate on multiplayer because their base was rock solid coming out of Skate 2. The next Tony Hawk needs to prioritize and focus on what really matters: the skating. Don't even throw in local co-op modes if that would help the core game's quality. They have to rebuild this house one brick at a time.
If they reboot they need to get the multiplayer right especially split screen because some of my best memories are going over to a friends house and spending the whole afternoon playing thps 2 or 3.
" I don't see why it's so hard to imagine a Tony Hawk game kicking ass again. For a while there (THPS3, 4) they were the best game out there. "
That's because at that time, there was almost no competition. I had the "Xtreme racing" game, or whatever it was called. It was terrible. I don't even know of another skating game from that time period. "
Grind Session and Thrasher Skate and Destroy were around on the PS1 and were absolutely fantastic skating games in their own right. I'm not sure how they did sales-wise however. From memory Thrasher was done by Rockstar? :S or maybe I'm getting mixed up. It was good fun though. "
I can't believe I never played either of those. According to the Wiki, you're right, Rockstar did Thrasher. That's pretty neat. Which series was your favorite back in the day? "
Well Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was my first skating game and my brother basically got me into the whole skating scene around that time, so I'd probably have to go with Tony Hawk. However, Thrasher Skate and Destroy had a really awesome and unique style to it that is hard to describe. The skating was more realistic about what tricks could actually be pulled off rather than the crazy specials in Tony Hawk. I'm surprised they never made a follow-up actually, it was really good. Grind Session from memory played a lot like THPS, but basically featured skaters that weren't in Tony Hawk (I think so at least, I can remember scenes from the game in my head but details are fuzzy). Both of them had a really good soundtrack, just like Tony Hawk back in those early installments. I have fond memories of 'Rapper's Delight' by The Sugar Hill Gang playing in Thrasher. I actually still have a Thrasher beanie I got with the game :)
To actually reply, I think the Tony Hawk games have run their course. That style of game was a ton of fun back when they were fresh, but as the series dragged on it seemed like the developers went with the 'everything but the kitchen sink' mentality and it got out of hand. They were a lot of fun, but I think the best thing to come out of the Tony Hawk games is Skate.
But really, they should just strip it down, emphasise the arcade nature of classics like Pro Skater 2 and 3, and just ramp it up a few notches. It's gotta be fast, furious and simple. DO NOT LET THE PLAYER LEAVE THE BOARD AT ANY TIME.
That's where it all went wrong.
Also, what is Neversoft up to these days? Crap all is my guess, get 'em to it!
I think we've reached the point in the development of games where we can actually retire a series. It's not like you can just keep making sequels perpetually, the well will run dry. Might as well stop now, and create a new skating series. I just don't see any reason to make more right now.
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