Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater has been around a very long time; as a matter of fact, it is by far the longest running skateboard game ever put into production. With that said, the question of why the franchise has done so well comes up. There are many answers and each person you ask could probably give you a different one. One answer could be that everyone who plays the game becomes a skateboarder. The immersion and intuitiveness of the game give the player the “feel” of being a professional skater, regardless of actual talent or knowledge of the sport.
Things tend to get stale, though, after so many installments of the same thing. To Neversoft’s credit, they have done many things to the game over the years to keep it as fresh and new as possible. The first 4 (Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 - 4) games were all about the skateboarding and tricks; mixing that up with goals and item hunts. Tony Hawk’s Underground, 1 and 2, focused on character development and storylines; and of course, skating and tricks. Then came Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland. THAW’s biggest attribute was that it launched on the Xbox360 (and current generation consoles), bringing next generation graphics and a never seen before open ended game design (no load times between “areas”). THAW, like the Underground series, was primarily story driven, though, and wasn’t really anything new in terms of gameplay as the same basic game engine has been used on all of the titles.
Casual gamers and fans alike have been urging Neversoft and Activision to take the game back to its roots, back to when skateboarding was the focus. So what do you do if you’re Neversoft and Activision? You build a new game from the ground up. You build a game that focuses on skateboarding with as much depth and detail as possible.
Neversoft and Activision listened. Their new project is called Tony Hawk’s Project 8. Neversoft has some new gear in their locker and they are using it to provide a huge boost in the 3D rendering and game engines. Their motion capturing technology is far above anything we have seen in past titles and all your favorite professional skaters in the game will move and react exactly as they would in real life.
Also, the scanning process of their likeness has been over hauled to a remarkable level – we’re talking around 100,000 polygons in their faces alone. The attention to detail is impressive. Characters seem amazingly lifelike and each will have over 20 specific animations for their respective character.
The amazing graphics and character animations would mean nothing if the rest of the game design didn’t match. Neversoft has completely re-done all the game engines: physics, momentum, gravity, and bails (called the Havoc engine) have been refined to an exceptional level. Adding this to the amazing character likeness makes this new project one of the most lifelike sports games ever. In fact, even the AI has been redone. Spectators will now be able to get into the action. What that exactly pertains to, we do not know yet…but it should be fun.
What it boils down to is complete skating goodness. Like THAW, the level in which you skate in is open ended – and extremely detailed. The superior technology and devotion to the franchise already foretells that the game will be far ahead of its predecessors. While Project 8 goes back to the roots, you can most certainly expect the game to be like nothing you have ever played before. With the way the game is looking so far, we can hopefully expect Project 8 to revitalize the series – and then some. Keep checking VGCore.com for the latest updates and information on Tony Hawk’s Project 8.
