Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD review: Feels like a 12-year-old game
The times, they are a-changin'. In this XBLA-bound reworking of the first two Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games built on an entirely new HD engine, you don't collect secret VHS tapes anymore; you collect DVD's. And you can do it as Tony Hawk's son Riley.
Cosmetic improvements like these symbolise the game itself, a skin-deep update creaking at its core. Tony Hawk games felt old in 2007 with the last full-fat release in Proving Ground, and they feel even older in 2012. Activision presumably subscribe to the theory that time's cyclical, and enough of it's elapsed to make the two earliest THPS games fun again, at least in a retro way. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that.
Let's not forget, these games came out in an era where analogue sticks were thought superfluous. Both titles launched on consoles (Playstation, N64, Dreamcast, N-Gage) now multiple hardware generations old. This was a time when The Simpsons was good, when families flocked to the Millennium Dome bearing naïve smiles that hadn't yet known crushing disappointment. Once upon a time the Tony Hawks series was an unstoppable beast on four-wheels, but it's since been superseded, both by later, better instalments and by EA's incredible Skate series. Remaking the first two THPS games is like remaking FIFA 2000. It's been improved since - why go back?
SKATE TO THE PARTY
Everything you've come to love about Tony Hawk games has been built up through years of iteration. Here, every single one has been stripped away. This is basically a massive list of things you remember being able to do. You can no longer spine transfer (a THSP4 addition), you can't chain together combos by reverting into a manual (introduced in THPS3), you can't perform flatland tricks, you can't do grinds or lip extensions, you can't level-out in mid-air when you're about to smack pavement, and forget about wall-riding or kicking a foot off them to preserve momentum. Imagine starting a Metroid game and relinquishing your arsenal, but this time you're a 44-year old extreme sports star with bags under your eyes.
This 'things you can't do' list extends to levels and challenges. Befitting of an era which saw the release of Banjo-Tooie, each of the environments offers contrived collectibles to smash or grab - snag five manuscripts, break 10 crates, hunt those famous 'SKATE' letters - and high scores to meet, all under a time limit that THPS4 later, thankfully, banished.
This is, of course, design informed by the first two games. This is how they were, and some would argue against muddying the gene pool by combining elements of different entries. This argument, however, misses the point.
The games are old, and no amount of HD sheen can disguise it. To boot, sequels introduced elements which have come to define the series. Discussions of THPS games trigger memories of spine transfers, reverts and flatland tricks, of getting multi-million scores and combo-ing the world, not doing a kickflip then falling over. To strip all that away is to start players at the beginning, a time before varied objectives, a massive tricklist, and controls now considered commonplace.
NINETEEN NINETY NEIN
For some, though, THPSHD's biggest flaw could prove an even bigger draw. Its stubborn commitment to strictly oldest-of-the-old school skating sees classic levels return, now rendered in fetching HD. School II's the best of a seven-strong bunch which includes Marseille, Downhill Jam, Venice Beach, Mall and the Hangar. All relics of a 32-bit age, yes, but fun to rediscover as you hunt out gaps, transfers and secret tape... er, DVD's.
Meanwhile a tracklist of 14 songs (half new material, half old) pipes music you can set your youth by with the likes of 'Superman' by Goldfinger, 'Anthrax - Bring the Noise' by Public Enemy, and Bad Religion's 'You'. Playable skaters like Andrew Reynolds (now completely bald), Rodney Mullen and Eric Koston are bound to trigger flashbacks, even if upon bailing they flop around, get stuck in the floor, like boneless fleshbags. A fun distraction during online multiplayer sessions, but not so much when you're attempted to chain a big score.
Ultimately, nostalgia isn't enough. Upon falling off your board for the forty-fifth time, spending effort to regain momentum, then falling off for the forty-sixth, all the while cursing the controls (or lack of them) and wondering if THPS games were always this ball-breakingly frustrating, you'll question Activision's decision to remake them. Question them hard.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD looks new but feels old, a game good in its own time but not in ours. It was brilliant in 1999, but then so was Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. Gamers wanted - begged - for a return to the classic era of Tony Hawk and the man helpfully obliged. It's going to take them playing these games for themselves to find out they didn't really want it after all.
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