So when did Tony Hawk games stop being good?

[WaReloaded]

In all honesty, I purchased and enjoyed all of the home-console Tony Hawk games, the last one I bought was Proving Ground and it was the only one I never ended up completing. My personal favourite goes against the general consensus but I found Project 8 to be the most enjoyable (and addictive) entry in the series , having said that, Tony Hawk's Underground 2 would be a close second.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Only ever played 2 and 3, of which 2 was the best. Massive levels, tons of secrets and just all round fun to play. I can't tell you how long I spent trying to finish the gap list, but I never managed it.

3 Was good, but not as good, and it didn't have a gap list to keep me going afterwards.

 

[Kilroy17]

Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 was the best one by far for me and when it moved on to 4, American Wasteland and so on I felt the series lost it's spark.

 

[elcamino41383]

Tony Hawk 3 is when it started getting stale for me, but 4 was when it went "bad." I honestly didn't play any after that. They are bringing out 1 and 2 in a special HD collection on PSN and XBox Live. Last I checked no confirmed date, but they are changing the roster to reflect more current skaters. I sure hope they keep some old ones though. I liked Bucky Lasek. And they better have Spider Man in it still!

 

[Brighton_Game_Trader]

Tony Hawks 1 and 2 were absolutely awesome - some of my favourite games ever.

3 and 4 were not too bad, but kept adding in cr*ppy new features that only served to dilute the skateboarding joy.

American Wasteland(s), Underground(s), Proving Ground etc. etc. all continued the trend of trying to impress with new shiny rubbish - and let the actual skateboarding fun die.

The only titles that I have played that have come close to the experience of TH1 and TH2, are the SKATE games. Skate 1 and Skate 2 were brilliant, fun and focused on the skateboarding - exactly what I wanted.

Sadly, it seems that this series is also going the way of the Hawk, as Skate 3 is rubbish in comparison and adds nothing to the series.

 

[Baradiel]

I put probably hundreds of hours into Pro Skater 3, and Underground 2 was the last one I played. UG2 was still very good, but after that they seem to have gotten worse.

 

[Brighton_Game_Trader]

Tony Hawk 3 is when it started getting stale for me, but 4 was when it went "bad." I honestly didn't play any after that. They are bringing out 1 and 2 in a special HD collection on PSN and XBox Live. Last I checked no confirmed date, but they are changing the roster to reflect more current skaters. I sure hope they keep some old ones though. I liked Bucky Lasek. And they better have Spider Man in it still!

Sorry about the second post but just to say that when I heard about this I jumped for joy (a little bit).

Fresh, HD graphics but the same gameplay and levels? Yes please!

It may not be quite as good if they get rid of all the old classic skaters (Bucky in particular) and all the old soundtrack - which they have said will not be totally intact.

All I need is Goldfinger's "Superman", The Ernies' "Here and Now" and The Dead Kennedy's "Police Truck" and I'll be right back to the glory days of 1999!

 

[The Last Nomad]

American Wasteland was the last good one. And thats pushing the word 'good' pretty far. Tony Hawks Underground 2 was probably the peak. Although I haven't really played any of the newer ones. I remember playing either Project 8 or proving ground and not liking it...

 

[SlaveNumber23]

In my opinion the pinnacle of the Tony Hawk games was Underground 2, after that it all went downhill (though I didn't play much American Wasteland, it could be great too but I don't know).

 

[DanielBrown]

I only played the PS2 games, so I wouldn't know anything about the older ones, but I thought it got bad after Tony Hawk Underground. The second and American Wasteland were short and awful.

 

[Jesus Phish]

The last one I played was American Wasteland, but I didn't enjoy it all that much. I enjoyed Underground a lot more and it and THPS2 are probably my favorite of the series. So for me up until THUG they were all good, great soundtracks and good fun to play, hours spent just skating around amassing points and trying to get better and better combos.

I think the problem was with THUG and after it they brought in the stories. While the one in THUG wasn't too bad, the ones after got sillier and sillier and by then it was just getting tiresome and all I wanted to do was skate around setting combos and goals for myself.

I really liked the format of "here's your two minutes to achieve goals" and here's your freeskate. Go for it

*EDIT* I just remembered why I really really didn't like anything after THUG (and I never played THUG2 so that could also be a good game). In American Wasteland the game held your hand so much through the game that you didn't actually have to think. It showed you everything you needed to do all the time and removed all sense of challenge from it.

 

[LightningBanks]

You are missing the point completely. Tony Hawk has never ever been a "realistic depiction of skateing" its the Saints Row of skateboarding games. Thats what made it fun. No one wants to just "chill and skate as if it were real" the people who would do that would simply go out and skateboard. EA's Skate is a boring mindnumbing mess of a game.

Nah man, it is because that was the only skating game. I didn't know of a different skate boarding game that was even slightly realistic, so Tony Hawk it was. Now there is Skate, and it is the superior. Soooo yeah.

So what your trying to say was tony hawks was trying to be realistic? I agree with Nin, your missing the point completely. Tony Hawks came out around a time where realism was really possible, I mean, look at the fifas of that era as a perfect example. Everyone who played tony hawks knew it was over the top crazy fun, I mean, cmon, like you said in your first post, you do insanely stupid stuff, no one could actually think it was realistic.

Yes skate is a more realistic game, but sometimes realistic isnt always great. I mean, I know when I play a game I want to do over the top stuff, If I wanted realism, I'd go outside... on a skateboard... and learn to skate

 

[Soxafloppin]

I played the Underground Trilogy and loved them! I was a kid though so it could be that combined with Nostalgia, I did pour lots of hours into them however, especially 2.

 

[Scrustle]

I was never really that in to the Tony Hawk games. The only one I had was Project 8, which I did enjoy. But I could tell it lacked a lot in comparison to earlier games in the series, like a park creator and generally larger worlds. Online play was a lot of fun though.

But like others say, the skateboarding genre isn't dead... or maybe it is. The Skate games were brilliant. I had the first two. I have to say I enjoyed the first way more than the second, although it was still a great game. I plan on getting the third at some point. But after that the series seemed to completely die. There's been nothing more of it since and the studio who worked on it (Black Box) seemed to completely disappear, only to come back recently to pick up the Need For Speed mantle that it also abandoned a while ago. Although I don't think they did that out of choice, EA were simply working them too hard for them to make decent games. So they gave up or were forced to stop by EA. I would be really happy if they made a new Skate game instead of another NFS, which they clearly can't do any more.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

To me, Tony Hawk reached its peak with Tony Hawk's Underground and started it's decline with Tony Hawk's Underground 2.

Why?

- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1, 2 and 3 has a distinct "original trilogy" feel to it, as they keep polishing the original concept. The first pitched the concept, the second brought in the big changes that couldn't be done in the first (and therefore, like in many trilogies, most people view it as "the best one") and the third put on the final touches with a bit of polish.

- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 didn't change too much when it came to gameplay (the same goes for later titles) but decided to finally drop the timer in the levels, allowing you to do the missions whenever you wanted.

- Tony Hawk's Underground severely improved the solo campaign. There was an actual story, the missions were bigger, there were actual cut-scenes and the levels were huge. Also, the create-a-modes got a huge update. The create-a-skater was much more in depth and the create-a-park got tons of new items, while also adding the option of creating your own goals. Furthermore, it introduced one of the best tools ever: the rail tool. It was also the first Tony Hawk game where you could get off your board. Can you believe that? It took five games to finally get off your skateboard.

--- The graph changes, from rising to falling ---

- Tony Hawk's Underground 2 was the first game in the series that really gave me that "more of the same" feeling, in a bad way. It didn't add much on any aspect of the franchise and the whole "Bam Margera - Jackass" shtick was just stupid. Also, where the levels used to get bigger and better with each installment, this is the point when everything started to stagnate. This is also something that can be felt in all games that will follow in this list.

- Tony Hawk's American Wasteland promised something we had all been dreaming of ever since GTA III came out: an open world to skate in. Sadly, it was as much an open world as it was a bunch of levels linked together with thin hallways that serve as real time loading bays. I think most people where kind of expecting a GTA-esque city to roam around in. Furthermore, it didn't add much on any level of gameplay. And the thinks they did add, felt kind of forced (the BMX, the slow motion). You just knew they were running out of ideas. Then again, it was already the seventh game in the series. In the end, how much can you innovate about an extreme sports game?

- Tony Hawk's Project 8, same old, same old, except they took out create-a-modes. I'm sorry, but in my book, that's pretty much a synonym for "unforgivable". Also, "easy manual", fuck that.

- Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, define "stale". Some changes, most of them forced and adding very little. The Rigger goals couldn't convince me and it seemed to have more technical issues than normal.

- Tony Hawk Ride, introduced the skateboard peripheral, do I need to say more?

- Tony Hawk Shred, if at first you don't succeed, fail again.

 

[surg3n]

I'd say things went downhill after 3. If I consider how much I played the first 3, 4 was a pretty disappointing game. Personally my favorite was 2.

 

[CountryMike]

The first was good. Played it with friends. Then I got the second one myself. Played it alot. When I got the third I got the feeling "Yeah, it's good, but I've played this before" and got bored with it pretty quickly. Never picked up one after that. Played some sequels after that with friends, but never felt to need to get in on it myself again.

Kind of the same story with Fifa Soccer. I played FIFA '98 all of the time. Got every edition after that until 2003. I hardly played that one and quit. Tried picking it up again with Fifa '08 but it was so different by then I was awful at it and I couln't be bothered to go through the learning curve again. Because I used to be FC Barcelona of FIFA Soccer. Not to brag or sound arrogant or anything. I was 14 at the time and after school and homework I'd play FIFA Soccer for hours and hours.
Or I'd go over to a friends house and play... FIFA

Ah, such fun times before the internet got big. Get a bunch of friends over and play some Playstation or Sega. Get some beers and snacks and play Fifa, Tony Hawk, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, ...

I never was any good at Tony Hawk though

 

[GeoFlux]

Once Skate came along

 

[Von Dean]

THPS 3 was,for me,the last good Tony Hawks game