Game Boy :: Genesis :: NES :: Sega CD :: SNES :: TurboGrafx-16 :: Complete System Listings

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground (PlayStation 3)

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground review

Game: Tony Hawk's Proving Ground
Platform: PlayStation 3
Genre: Extreme Sports
Developer: Neversoft Entertainment

Reader review by RecentElectronics

February 22, 2009

I finally got myself a PS3 about a week back and boy what sound investment that was. For a mere 350 Duckets I got a PS3, a controller, a copy of Warhawk, a Bluetooth headset, and a copy of Proving Ground.

Now I will already tell you that the Blu-Rayness of the PS3 was a big seller for me, but I figured this is too good an opportunity to pass up, what with Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII looming in the horizon.

Tony Hawk's Pro Gro is based around the three "lifestyles" of skating: Hardcore, Pro, and Rigger (as opposed to having the four actual styles: poser, poser, poser, and Tony Hawk makes videogames about being a poser). These styles will "take you to new heights in the Tony Hawk Franchise" according to the back of the box, but really it is all stuff we have seen before and better. For the Pro lifestyle it was done better in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (The name even had "Pro" in it!!), for the Rigger lifestyle you had the Park editor in Tony Hawk's Underground, and for the Hardcore lifestyle you have heroine and beating you head against a wall while listening to "Party Hard" by Andrew W. K.

I will get the good stuff out of the way first.

Ok with that done let us talk about how bad this game is.

Things got off to wonderful start when I created my character. I found that I had the choice 12 different faces (more like feces amirite?). It was really only 4 faces though because there were 3 skin color variants of each face. All of them looked incredible stupid and with no bone editing features that have been in the Tony Hawk's of the past, my character that I ended up with looked like a grizzled Vietnam Veteran. After I finished forging my monstrosity, I was dropped into the middle of Downtown Philadelphia to thrash my way to the top of the poser ladder.

Why Philly? Apparently it's the Mecca for skateboarding.

Who cares? Certainly not I.

After a long intro spoken by Not Tony Hawk, Actual Tony Hawk comes on the speakers and explains that there are many way out there to make your legend a reality, and it will be up to you to catch em' all (please don't sue me Nintendo)

Devon has brought it to my attention that a number of recent games think it is ok to literally bombard you with as much light bloom as a game can muster. I want to say that I think Pro Gro is the supreme offender in that, even in the clearly overcast skies (pun) of Philly, character models looks like they were dipped in a vat baby oil.

Look at this bullshit!!

Also look at that for no reason bendy brick wall.

That picture leads me into my next complaint. Why the fuck is the skater so fucking huge???

Seriously, when trying to play the game the skater is in dead center of my TV (a forty inch Bravia) and stretches from top to bottom. YOU CAN'T SEE AROUND HIM. There were moments when I was playing this game that I caught myself trying to lean over and see around my character. You can't use the camera to your advantage either, because the slightest flick of the right analog stick will send your camera around your skater four times.

The controls are what they have always been in Pro Gro. The only thing is they feel a bit more sluggish with the bad-camera-in- the-ass-style play. Seeing as I can't really fault the controls for that, I won't go on any further on this subject.

Overall Pro Gro is a rehash of every other Tony Hawk game out there. If you find yourself needing a skateboarding game, I would suggest getting several bottles of your favorite alcoholic beverages, going to your local skate park and whenever anyone falls down, take a shot.

The multiplayer mode might be better but I have no interest in ever playing this game again.

EVER!!

Rating: 4/10

More Reviews by RecentElectronics
	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360) I don't claim to be a wizard with all types of armaments known to man. I don’t claim to have a vast knowledge of how combat tactics work either. That being said...
	DJ Hero (Xbox 360) Activision hasn't had the best of track record (double entendre) when it comes to music games. They bought the rights to Guitar Hero when Harmonix left the fran...
	MagnaCarta 2 (Xbox 360) Disclaimer: For the purpose of this review, I will refer to Magna Carta 2 as a JRPG. I am aware that it is Korean, but if the shoe fits, this game fucking wears...

Feedback

If you enjoyed this Tony Hawk's Proving Ground review, you're encouraged to leave feedback and talk about it with members of the site's community. You don't even need an HonestGamers account to get involved in the discussion. Please remember to keep your comments respectful and on-topic or they may be deleted by a moderator. Thank you for your understanding!

comments powered by Disqus

© 1998-2013 HonestGamers
None of the material contained within this site may be reproduced in any conceivable fashion without permission from the author(s) of said material. This site is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, or any other such party. Tony Hawk's Proving Ground is a registered trademark of its copyright holder. This site makes no claim to Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, its characters, screenshots, artwork, music, or any intellectual property contained within. Opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily represent the opinion of site staff or sponsors.