By Daniel Rutledge
Hardcore fans of the old school Tony Hawk videogames will be thrilled with the release of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD.
The downloadable title is a high-definition re-release of classic levels from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (1999) and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (2000).
I caught up with Tony Hawk at the Best of Xbox Showcase party at E3 this year and asked him why fans should be excited about the new game.
“If you’re a fan of our original series, you’re going to love it,” says Hawk.
“You’re going to feel right at home with the control scheme, but the visuals are that much better. If you’ve never played it, it’s very intuitive and you’re going to love that you can make these skaters do things you only wish you could do.”
Following the release of his Tony Hawk: Ride and Tony Hawk: Shred which both featured a physical board controller, I asked Hawk why that was dropped in favour of a move back to a fully hand-controlled game.
“I feel like the time had come,” he replied. “The first two games [in the franchise] were done for early, early systems and the fanbase is still there – the fans still love the [old] control scheme.
“But we have a whole new generation of skate fans that might enjoy it too. So we updated it for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. We’re just excited to bring that whole experience to the new consoles because if you compare what we did in the very first game to what we’re doing now, it looks light-years ahead.”
Released over a decade ago, the first two Tony Hawk's Pro Skater titles do indeed look dated and the HD graphics of the new game will be loved by many fans.
But Hawk says the new feature that personally excites him most is the fact that the new game doesn’t come on a physical disc.
“The internet has finally come of age,” says Hawk.
“People always talk about getting movies, games and whatever online. But it really wasn’t that available to most people until now. So that’s what we’re doing with this game, it’s only available online and we can add stuff to it, bit by bit.
“This is the foundation for a whole new series.”
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD is being released in New Zealand on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network July 18.
3 News
source: newshub archive
