Overall Feeling:
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD finally is a game that is filled with obvious passion and more importantly has the same addicting skateboarding action we all loved nearly a decade ago. A few things may be different and there’ll definitely be an adjustment period for those who played the original Tony Hawk games for fifty or more hours, but the end product is still one that’s fun and hasn’t lost its edge or appeal in any way. There may be a few lingering things here and there that will slightly annoy longtime Tony Hawk fans, but in the end Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD is a return to the glory days of the franchise.
The Pros:
+ Visuals are perfect and so is how the stages have been refined and expanded upon from an artistic perspective.
+ Controls are responsive so busting out tricks isn’t a problem.
+ There may not be a huge amount of levels in the game, but what’s provided is fun and still presents that same addicting desire to do a perfect run or achieve a 140K score.
The Cons:
- HUD feels a bit cluttered or at least too big during gameplay.
- Not having a direct tutorial mode for any newbies may present a steeper learning curve.
- Multiplayer options are a bit barebones.
The passion gamers have for certain things can be so intense that it’s almost unhealthy and a bit unfair to an extent. Liking something is fine, but obsessing about every minute detail can result in an unhealthy obsession and in turn make it hard for developers to give provide what some people deem as an “adequate” or “faithful” experience. We should definitely hold developers to a high standard but in the case of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD it seemed like some gamers were expecting the second coming of a gaming masterpiece like the industry receives once every decade.
