Skaters don’t come much more famous than Tony Hawks, so it’s no surprise that the game with the same name has been just as successful over the years, but now that the Tony Hawks series has a rival in the shape of Skate from EA, can the latest edition keep the success going? Read on.
One of the best things about Tony Hawks games is t controls and this years version is no different in that the controls remain very responsive and allow you to pull off all different sorts of moves and combos in an instant, one of the most impressive things is the way in which the game teaches you how to use the controls for different moves throughout your characters career.
Before you do anything in the game you must create your character, there is a very good choice of faces, hair, eyes etc for you to create someone unique and these are complimented by the various clothing, board designs and accessories that you can add, you can also purchase new items later in the game as you make money.
Proving Ground starts off by giving you story goals and as you complete these you will then gain access to the games new features. There are quite a few different stories to get through which are accessed by meeting and chatting to key figures in the game such as Bob Bumquist and Tony Hawks himself, when you speak to these people they will then give you challenges which involve some of the games new moves, during the challenges you will learn these new moves and will then be able to use them in other parts of the game.
The game takes place in three cities, these are connected by a tunnel and a bridge, there are certain routes which will take you to each city and it can get quite confusing trying to find your way around at first, however you will soon learn the way should you play enough.
One of the interesting things about the story mode is that you choose your own path, this means that you can complete the different stories and challenges available in any order you wish, therefore some new moves will be learnt before others depending on the path you take.
The new tricks and features in Proving Ground are quite interesting, for instance by pushing select you can place objects anywhere you want, this is quite useful if you want to create new jumps for showing off your newly acquired tricks. Other new moves include the ability to check people or push yourself with the help of a wall while performing a manual as well as the aptly named nail a grab, although there are many more moves for you to sink your teeth into, all of which vary in difficulty.
As well as learning new tricks from various people spread throughout the city you also will also come across various challenges on your travels, these can range from photo and video shoot opportunities to skill challenges, each skill challenge has three different difficulties, these are Am (Amateur), Pro and Sick but as you can progress by completing the challenges at AM level there isn’t really any benefit to completing the higher skill levels except perhaps more money.
Two new features which stand out in Proving Ground are the Skate Lounge and the Video Editor. The Skate Lounge allows you to use the parts which you will unlock during the game to basically create a skate park that caters to your style while the video editor allows you to create a montage of all the clips you have saved throughout the game, if you wish you can also add different effects.
Graphically the game looks as good as ever thanks to the well drawn environments and the excellent detail in the characters, the videos which introduce the professional skaters are also well implemented.
Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground is a good game, there is no doubt about this, it offers a great choice of moves and combos for you to learn and it adds enough new features to keep all the fans of the series happy, perhaps the only problem is that maybe it hasn’t changed enough, however why fix what isn’t broken.
