Introduction

First off, I would just like to point out that this is a second opinion article, and is in now way meant to offend Osei’s review of the same game. I just felt differently and would like to share.

So, Tony returns in a new...you know, do I even have to write an intro? It’s Tony Hawk, you know the drill. Even casual skateboarding fans and sometimes non-skateboarding fans play these games. I’ll get to the big difference between these and the others later on.

Presentation

Well, this is where the game really shines. The first thing you notice is that there’s not much title screens to go through to jump straight into the action. Once you get in the first stage, you’ll notice something different. The stages are HUGE. They’re almost like two regular Tony Hawk levels combined into one huge area. You will also notice right away that you do not start out with any goals at all in the Career mode, just a big free skate session, but soon you’ll realize that there are skaters, civilians, and well-known (at least in the skating world) photographers littered around the stage that you can...talk to. Talking in Tony Hawk? We’ll get to that in a second.

Graphics

It’s not that the graphics are bad or anything. They’re actually pretty well done. The only thing is, they don’t look much different from the previous installment. Sure, there’s some new bail animations and sound effects, but nothing more.

Sound

Ah, another part of the game I liked. The soundtrack is arguably the best yet. It has everything from old school hip-hop such as Run DMC, NWA, and De La Soul, to the punk songs of The Distillers, The Offspring, Less Than Jake, Goldfinger (you’ll remember them from the first Tony Hawk, with their song, "Superman", which has been played out so much around here I can’t stand the sound of it anymore), and even the Sex Pistols. Overall, a very well put together soundtrack. The characters voices range from good to horrible. Bam Margera does his usual barrage of goofy voices, while some skaters like Chad Muska sound like Eddie Murphy doing his best white man impression.

Gameplay

Alright, here’s the deal: you get goals and objectives by talking to said civilians, skaters, and the like, by talking to them whenever you want. While this open-ended style of playing sounds good on paper, giving the player more freedom, the reason I liked the old Tony games so much was because they reminded me of old-school style games, where you had a time limit to get the best scores and extras in one level. It made for frantic, fast paced fun. I mean, they already have a free skate and single session mode for skating, so what’s the difference of fusing the free skate and career modes together? Plus, most of the objectives you get are just flat out stupid. They focus less on skating, or collecting the skate letters, and more on doing things like grinding around a giant sphere-like statue so it rams into a shark to save Painter Bob’s life (no, I am not making this up). I did enjoy the new C-O-M-B-O letters, which you have to collect all in one, you guessed it, combo. These are challenging and rewarding. Also, the competitions are fun, but the rest of the goals just seem like fluff that the developers put in to give you more to do. While I do enjoy more in a video game, I prefer quality over quantity, and I’d much rather set up a complicated combo and rack up points than skitch on an elephant’s tail for fifty seconds.

The create-a-skater mode is still lackluster, and while you can buy new clothes with some of the cash you earn, they’re really only there so you can make a clown or officer dick. However, one of the secrets I really did enjoy, was one of the hidden skaters. If you have this game, collect some cash buy doing goals or whatever needed, and buy the "World’s Toughest Pro Skater" if your familiar with the skating scene, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see this guy in here.

Well then, why, with all these gripes, am I still giving in almost an 8.0 score? Well, simply because it’s Tony Hawk. The controls are superb as always (even on the Gamecube controller), and grinding around new huge levels never gets old. I just wish they didn’t go and change the career mode on me like that.

Conclusion

Of course, none of this review will matter to the hardcore Tony Hawk fans out there, who probably already have this game. If you are a bit skeptical about it, however, like I was, please give it a rental first. You might not get what you’re expecting.