Sorry for the lateness of the review this week, with school beginning things have gotten kind of hectic and I’m just catching up.

Tony Hawk hasn’t had a decent game in a very long time. The game series took such a nosedive that they stopped making the game entirely, leaving room for other skateboarding games to take it’s place. But the Tony Hawk team has gone back to the drawing board (or at least the archive vaults) and looked at what people used to like about their games. Well it turns out that the downturn came after Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 so they went back to 1 and 2 and HD-ified the two games and smooshed them together. So does this game score big or fall flat on its face? Read on to find out…

Now because the game doesn’t really have a story and by that I mean not at all this won’t be your typical review. First off, I’d like to mention that the work done on the game’s graphics is phenomenal. This game was first released on the Playstation and N64 so think back to those graphics and then feast your eyes on the picture below…

That’s right folks, this isn’t the Tony Hawk you remember. And yet it is. For those that have played the first two Tony Hawk games you’ll remember that the physics were more or less realistic, meaning you didn’t catch air that was unreasonable, and big falls could cause damage or a fall. It was later in the series that this game tried to become SSX and go for insane jumps and lack of gravity. This game holds true to the former, with some sweet tricks but nothing that will make you think that you’re on a space station with freaky gravity.

The levels are also beautifully rendered and to add to them Activision has included a kick butt soundtrack that really adds to the enjoyment and feel of the levels. The only downside to the music is that there isn’t anything from the old games on here, it’s all newer stuff and I feel like that was a missed opportunity. Not like something like that would take away from the game, but it would have been nice to see… or hear.

The gameplay is simple and complex all at the same time, you do tricks with the buttons and rotate with the left stick. By combining these together you preform combos that can equal tons of points. You get 2 minutes to complete a bunch of objectives in a given level, from collecting the letters to SKATE or random items that are associated with the given stage. By completing objectives you gain money which can be used to buy new tricks. There are also some other modes, some new and some old, but I don’t want to spoil anything, you’ll just have to trust me, they are fun to play.

Multiplayer is a bit of a letdown though. No split screen! I do not know why in this day and age we have games being released without split screen gameplay. The old one had it, why doesn’t this one? Well this one can be played online in graffiti mode so if you and a friend both own this game you can have some good old fashioned fun… over the internet.

One more thing before I wrap this up; the character selection is pretty standard expect for one character in particular on the Xbox 360, your avatar! Whatever your avatar is wearing is translated into the game and you can then use him or her to play in all the levels. It’s pretty awesome and allows you to really customize your character.

This game was great back in 2000 and the update is even better than the original. I highly recommend getting this game on your PS3 and Xbox 360. If you’re a fan of the old games this game is for you, if you’re a skateboarding fan who has never played the Tony Hawk games before this game is for you, and if you’re just looking for a fun game to play… this game is for you.