Tony Hawk's Proving Ground (Nintendo DS)

...skaters I ended up renting Tony Hawks Proving Ground on the DS and found a really good game in the process.

****Story line****

In the story mode you skate around looking for pro skateboarders and then complete the tasks they set you. These tasks vary in difficulty and the reward for completing them is cash, the level of which depends on how difficult the task was and how well you actually completed it.

...
...new skate park and pro skater is unlocked. The ‘new’ skater will appear in all the parks unlocked and give you more challenges to complete.

A nice feature of the story mode is that you get to furnish a park with ramps, rails and other structures of your choice.

A further feature is that you can learn your character to be a hardcore skater or a career skater. If you want to go down the hardcore skater route then this ... more

I have never understood the whole skating thing. The attitude, the music, the persona individuals portray or the skateboard. The whole concept has always been alien to me.

To be brutally honest I find skaters around my local city to be rude and obnoxious and people that are just a pain. 99.8% of these ‘thorns in societies side’ cannot skate at all and their feeble attempts (when they can be bothered) to perform the simplest of tricks is laughable at best. However, there are some people out there that do make skateboarding look cool and can actually pull off some really neat stuff.

Despite having no interest in skateboarding and my general dislike for skaters I ended up renting Tony Hawks Proving Ground on the DS and found a really good game in the process.

****Story line****

In the story mode you skate around looking for pro skateboarders and then complete the tasks they set you. These tasks vary in difficulty and the reward for completing them is cash, the level of which depends on how difficult the task was and how well you actually completed it.

Every time a certain number of tasks is completed a new skate park and pro skater is unlocked. The ‘new’ skater will appear in all the parks unlocked and give you more challenges to complete.

A nice feature of the story mode is that you get to furnish a park with ramps, rails and other structures of your choice.

A further feature is that you can learn your character to be a hardcore skater or a career skater. If you want to go down the hardcore skater route then this can be achieved by completing more tasks from hardcore skaters.

****Graphics****

The polygon rendered characters look really good and are realistic. Their movements on the board look fluid and quite natural.

The 3 dimensional environment is sharp and crisp, and whilst the colours are not bright and vivid they are more than acceptable for games of this genre. Besides, who needs bright colours in a game like this?

In addition to the above I think that both skate fans and non skate fans will appreciate the brief video clips showing the game's pro skaters in action.

****Audio****

The sound is very good and includes some great and realistic sound effects as well as background music tracks from the indie/punk/grunge genre that suits the skate scene perfectly.

The groans and board effects sound great and there are 13 different tracks from bands like Foo Fighters, Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins amongst others.

****Controls and game play****

Your character is directed around the skate park using the directional pad, and all manoeuvres and tricks are executed using a combination of the directional pad and the A, B, X and Y buttons.

This is a realistic game and all the moves are actually achievable in real life. There are no ridiculous moves such as jumping 3 metres in the air then performing 3 somersaults with a twist and then landing on the ground and continuing to skate in this game. The basic tricks are relatively easy to learn and include the ollie, grind, hand plant and foot plant amongst many others.

The skill in this game comes from linking all the tricks together in to “killer” combinations that can be not only executed but also landed. To progress through the game it is fundamental to learn what can and can’t be linked, how to link those moves that can be linked and when to pull out of them to ensure a safe landing. It is this that takes time and perseverance.

All skate parks contain the necessary props for you to carry out your tricks and ensure that you can keep the combinations going. Such props include edges, rails, quarter pipes and ramps amongst many other interesting surfaces.

The touch screen and stylus is used but only when your style meter is full to execute the special tricks, activate a slow motion effect or have a temper tantrum.

The special tricks are high-risk and high-reward and can be performed whilst in mid air or during a manual.

The slow motion, as its name suggests, slows everything down and gives you more air time to enable you to extend those mid air combinations to score even more points.

The tantrum feature is used to distract the judges if you are pulling off a move that is too adventurous and you are not going to land it. Failure to land a trick gets no points so if you distract the judges they will not notice this and you will hang on to the points that would have been lost. It is a weird concept and one that seems to add nothing to the game.

This game allows you to leave the story mode and have a ‘free’ mode. When playing this type of game you pick a pro skater and are given a list of tricks to complete and two minutes to do them in. This is done for each skate park.

I have never managed to perform all the tricks within the two minute time period, therefore there has always been scope and an incentive to re-do the challenges set at each skate park. Personally, I don’t think it is possible to complete all of the tasks without enacting some kind of cheat, although I may be wrong.

This game includes the option of saving a run from each skate park that can be played back at a later date. This gives you the opportunity to show to your mates that you can pull off all the combinations you claim you can and have video evidence to back this up.

****Difficulty****

The basic tricks are easy to learn, whereas linking the tricks take a lot more practice. This means that gamers of all ages and abilities are likely to enjoy this game.

Young and/or casual gamers will find the simple tricks easy and will enjoy pulling them off and more experienced gamers will relish the challenge of linking together the really difficult combinations.

****Longetivity****

This game has the potential to provide many days, if not weeks of game play.

Linking the tricks together is going to take some time, practice and perseverance. Once this skill has been mastered then the world is your oyster, so to speak.

There is the opportunity to replay levels and skate parks and try to better previous scores by completing more and more daring combinations of tricks.

In addition you can link up with mates and challenge them to different competitions, and if your mates are still no match for you then you can go online and find other opponents.

****Multi player****

This game gives the option of linking up with your friends locally or you can go online and find some opponents and then compete in any of 10 different competitions from score challenges, endurance challenges, eliminations, horse and red light/green light. T

I have read and heard of issues when playing online that matches are sometimes a bit ‘jittery’. I have never experienced problems with this in the past. When playing some games online, such as Mortal Kombat, I have found that it can take ages to find an opponent online due to the fact that the game is not that popular. I have never had this problem looking for opponents whilst playing this game. It appears to be a very popular game with many online players.

A good online feature is that you can integrate with the game’s official website whereby you can look at statistics, join a clan and take part in various tournaments.

****Price and availability****

The price differential for this game is massive. A quick look on Amazon has highlighted that it can be bought new for as little as £12.92 (P&P is an additional £1.94) from the Games Cabin, or as much as £23.95 (P&P is an additional £1.94) from Signal Boy Blue.

As with all purchases I would recommend shopping around for the best deal if you are going to buy this game.

****Conclusion****

This is a great game, even for non-skateboarding fans like me.

The polygon rendered characters are fantastic, the 3 dimensional environment is great, the sound effects are realistic and the well known sound tracks by popular and well established bands all add to the overall gaming experience.

Learning the basics is easy but linking them in to the ‘killer’ moves is very difficult and it takes a lot of time to learn, however it is well worth it and it is very satisfying when you finally do pull them off.

This game is great value for money and there is the potential for it to last for many, many days. There is always scope to increase on your highest scores and complete more tricks in the two minutes in all skate parks, and if you get bored of this then challenge your friends or jump online and get beaten by a ten year old somewhere in America.

(Originally posted on Dooyoo under the name of Yackers1) 

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