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Tony Hawk has seen better days

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 16 / 18
Date: October 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Up until Tony Hawk Underground (THUG) the series enjoyed a steady upward evolution. Although THUG saw some improvements, the graphics and skate venues suddenly went from clean and sharp in Tony Hawk 4 to dingy and forgettable. The goal may have been to create a gritty world but for me it just looked dirty and rushed. Perhaps it's the stress of trying to put out a new game every year but after Tony Hawk 4 the series seemed much less polished. The addition of non-skateboard modes of travel seemed shallow and tacked on and wouldn't have been so bad if they weren't required to complete the game. The driving portions seemed like they were created in about 10 minutes. THUG 2 introduced a new aspect to the series, a disturbing mean spiritedness. The nastiness continues in THAW and even increases giving players the ability to actually smack their skateboard upside a persons head.

Tony Hawk American Wasteland is an improvement on the two THUG games but still leaves a bit to be desired. The game still seems rushed with bugs and occasional stutters in the frame rate. Some of the tricks have gotten so esoteric to have reached the level of bizarre. The biggest problem is that some of the tricks are absolutely essential in completing the game and some are REALLY hard and this is from a person who has completed 6 versions of Tony Hawk. I am currently COMPLETELY stuck trying to do a manual for what looks like about a half a mile of curvy path.

On the upside THAW has six great levels of Classic Tony Hawk that make me long for the old days. There is a significant amount of BMX biking which although inferior to skateboarding is better than the dismal attempts in THUG to incorporate alternate vehicles. The storyline is improved over the previous two games although still focused on destroying property and injuring people.

I think that Activision needs to stop trying to crank out a Tony Hawk game every year because the series is looking extremely strained. I thought the wonderful Aggressive Inline, which came out a few years back, might light a fire under Neversoft to create a tighter game experience but instead Inline faded into obscurity while Tony Hawk has continued its relentless year by year release.

THAW and stuff

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: November 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is the best sports game anyone could buy regardless of what your favorite sport is. And the new BMX mode gives the game more of a..how do u say..edge. BUT there are a few problems. In comparison to the other Tony Hawk titles, this one I have to say a major dissapointment. When Tony Hawks introduced story mode, this gave more creativeness to the game making it more fun. The story mode in THUG1 was really cool but in THUG2 it was a little out of hand with its World Destruction Tour. Now in THAW 1 was expecting it to bounce back from THUG2 but instead it just repeted the same storyline from THUG1. Don't get me wrong this is still a great time, it's just the dudes who made this game could have spent more time on it. For those of you who have never played a Tony Hawks game (which is probably not very many), and are thinking about a good game for an X-Mas present for yourself or someone close , then this is the game to get. But of course you must take notice of what its rated (parents). I will conclude with this- argueably the best sports game in the recent years, this game is a must get, that is if you dont mind scratchy graphics (compared to previous titles), and repetetive modes. Loyal Hawk fans will get this game for sure. Personally I have enjoyed it. But you might want to read the other reviews before taking my word on THAW and stuff.

recycled and gimmicky

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: November 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Activision has been spitting out Tony Hawk games every year now for about 7 or 8 years. If my tally is correct there are 5 pro skater games, 2 thug titles, and now American Wasteland. These titles span all the major systems. And you don't need be a rocket scientist to figure out why; the Pro Skater series has made tons and tons of money. Only problem is, they have essentially released the same game time and again, coming up with different titles in recent years to help keep the whole thing fresh.

American Wasteland is simply Tony Hawk's Pro Skater with a bike thrown in for a gimmicky distraction. The same cheesy storyline is presented once again; unrealistic characters with insulting wardrobes parade through the game.

On the good side, the skating is top notch and very fluid. Lots of fun stuff to skate however some of these levels have appeared in at least 2 other Hawk titles. Talk about recycling.
There are a few different pros this time around, at least I think so. I stopped paying a lot of attention the last couple games.

All in all this series is reaching a point of stagnation. Kinda like a singer with one hot single but nothing else of interest; he soon finds himself in the bargain bin once the single falls off the charts.

Disappointing but Fun

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 was probably the best game in the series. Since THPS4, we have enjoyed a steady decline in difficulty and overall quality. This new game is so easy, in one sitting you can beat the game and retrieve all the pieces for your homemade skatepark, the "Skate Ranch." I have been a fanatic about these games since the beginning, and since we left the "pro skater" title, the games have become cheesy. The storyline is unbelievable (this game is starting to improve there, however), the character models are weird (all the pedestrians are about 3 feet taller than your character), and now, the game features one level only in story mode! I did enjoy playing through the game, though. Classic mode was fun, with harder goals than the story mode by far, and unlike story mode, you can completely customize your character. Personally, I think the previews made the game look much much cooler than it is. Another game like this and I'm finished with this series.

It's Awful!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have played the tony hawk underground games and they're great, but if you like those then you'll agree with me when I say this thing is a piece of garbage. The graphics suck, that no loading thing is not true, instead of a loading screen your character just sits there not being able to do anything at all! This is a new low for tony hawk games.

Could have been so much better...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: August 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've played many of the games in the Tony Hawk series, including the ones on N64, and I've enjoyed them a lot. Many of my friends are really into this game (Not supprising, since we're all under 16), so I decided to rent this game. While their claim of having no load times proves to be true, the game could use a LOT of work.

GRAPHICS: During story mode, the graphics are very choppy and pretty diappointing. Their mouths never move in sync with the dialogue, and it often looks like their bodies are moving through the walls of buildings. During Classic Mode however, the graphics are AMAZING. So clean, and so slick. I was pretty much blown away.

SOUND: The skating sound effects are very VERY good, and have always been a small reason why I enjoy the Tony Hawk series so much. The dialogue sounds are not as good. If you pay close attention, you'll notice that the sounds during gameplay are MUCH louder than the sounds during the cut-scenes. It becomes annoyng after a while, having to turn the volume on my tv up and down throughout the game. Also, the soundtrack was not very appealing to me. While the Tony Hawk series has introduced me to many talented artists over the years (i.e. Goldfinger, Jurassic 5, Alkaline Trio, e.c.t.)the soundtrack to this game wasn't that good. Don't get me wrong, The Doors and Dead Kennedys are awesome, but I honestly don't think bands like Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance should be covering classic punk songs when they're not even punk to begin with...And the only rap song I liked was "What's Up Fatlip" (I'm a huge fan of The Pharcyde, so maybe that explains it...). A lot of the songs were pure screaming, which I really REALLY hate. I guess it all depends on your taste in music. All you emo/punk/skater fans out there should be pleased.

STORY PLOT: Not the most creative out there. You're this skater punk who's moving to L.A. to get away from your parents, your school, your cheating girlfriend, the po-po, blah blah blah. You meet Mindy who shows you how to fit in, and she introduces you to Iggy who's the skater legend guy who's hiding from the police and teaches you stuff and you win this AM contest and yadda yadda yadda. I think you get the point. Not very interesting, and definitly has no replay value unless you wanna unlock the "bonus" features.

CLASSIC MODE: Absolutly great! Graphics are top-notch, fun to play again and again, and there's 2-player! How's that you say? When playing 2-player classic mode, you combine the efforts of the two players. Meaning, if you need to get a 30,000 point high score, each player can get 15,000 instead of just one person hammering on their controls. Meaning one player can start a combo, and the other can finish it. Meaning one player can collect S-K-A while the other gets T-E. You get what I'm saying. GREAT idea, and it works perfectly. However, there is one tiny little setback. There are only 6 levels. That's right. SIX FREAKIN LEVELS!!! It's an ABOMINATION I tell ya!! =(

DIFFICULTY: Classic mode was pretty challenging for me, but I did beat it eventually on normal difficulty. Story Mode on normal difficulty is NOT hard AT ALL. I beat in the day after I started playing. I didn't try it on 'hard' or 'sick' difficulty, but I really didn't want to play the story mode anymore.

Overall this game is pretty mediocre. I would recomend renting it, and seeing how it fits you. You like it? Great. Go ahead and buy it. But honestly, if you're a true honest-to-god die-hard Tony Hawk fan, I think you'll be dissapointed.

Awesome! But They Lie

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: February 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game. But there are lots of lies in this game like no loading it loads more than any tony hawk game. But when you ride the bike it does lots of Stupid manuals.

I Liked It!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: February 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

most of these people are crazy. sure, this isn't the best tony hawk game, but it is really fun and there are some cool new stuff in it.

THIS GAME STINKS

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 6
Date: January 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Five reasons why it stinks
1. The BMX does manuals when you do not whant it to
2. It is freaking imposible to do a wallflip
3. The missions are pointless
4. The graphics aren't as good as they say
5. Yes. There is loading

yes I do have this game.

Inpresive Inpresive Indeed

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: September 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This Game Is Really Cool!! It has a great story line, exelent graphics, lots of characters to choose from (also hidden characters that you can unlock). Over all this game is GREAT!!!!!!

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