Tony Hawk's Project 8 Review - Xbox 360

8

Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 8
Audio: 10
Multiplayer: 9
Innovation: 7

Introduction

Tony Hawk's Project 8 marks a new turn in the franchise that has been going ever since the Playstation 1 era. Recently the series has received criticism from some, with a rehashing of pretty much the same formula over the last 3 games. With this in mind, Neversoft makes a more whole-hearted approach to the next generation, with Project 8 being done from pretty much the ground up to suit the new generation consoles. Neversoft has also left behind the previous generation behind, and focused exclusively on this version for Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 – leaving porting of a cut-down version for the original PS2, Xbox and other platforms to different developers. So will you be stoked with Project 8 ? Or did the franchise bail a long time ago?

Gameplay

The key question from fans and recent detractors will be whether Tony Hawk Project 8 takes the series in any new radical directions, so we'll clear that up quickly. Quite simply, the answer is no. Project 8 is yet another continuation of the older games, with just enough enhancements to keep it still fairly fresh. These improvements are mainly – better HD graphics, better multiplayer through Live, full motion capture, and the new "Nail The Trick" mode. That cleared up, we grind up the details.

Tony Hawk's Project 8 follows a similar path to American Wasteland, and the Underground games where there is a unified level structure, basic storyline, and distinct goals given by characters placed throughout the skate world. In Project 8, Tony Hawk is assembling a core team of the 8 of the world's best pro skaters, and you need to become one of them. This involves you travelling up the rankings in a quest to be the world's best. Starting off at position 200, the game follows a semi-guided storyline in which you aim to join Tony's elite squad of eight.

You start in a fairly restricted subset of the level, and later on you can open up further areas, meet pro skaters, and become a world pro. By pressing X near flashing players or objects, you can activate a goal for a certain area of the level. This can be as varied as simply following another skater and performing moves on command, performing trick moves for a photographer, knocking over objects, to catching golf balls in the air, and other funny goals which has been a hallmark of the THPS series. Most of these goals also have an Amateur, Pro, and Sick rating, which allows you to come back later on and unlock further extras at the higher levels if you want. Again there are plenty of funny skating moves, mini-movies, out-takes, and behind-the-scenes videos which can be accessed as you unlock them. Some are a bit pointless, but for the most part are entertaining.

"Stokens" are pretty much the currency of the game, and can be obtained by impressing (continued next page)