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My very first experience with Tony Hawk: Ride wasn’t very good. Playing on the carpet is not recommended for those that decide to give this game a chance after reading this review. The board builds up a lot of static electricity and has a tendency to short out after a short while, or reverse your controls, or any number of other wacky things. I decided then to use the cardboard box that the game came in as a buffer between the carpet and the board which worked like a charm, and actually got me to enjoy the game.
Other reviewers have given this game a real hard time, and for good reason. To the common gamer, or the average 360 gamer, the game doesn’t quite offer what you expect. But for the audience that the peripheral would appeal to, it’s great. It’s also great for groups. If you play Rock Band with your friends on a regular basis, then this is just a natural progression that your going to have to accept.
I’ve managed to unlock a few of the different play types and snag a couple achievements along the way. There are three basic modes of play; casual, confident, and hardcore. Casual keeps you on a rail akin to an arcade game and is, of course, too easy to get any real enjoyment out of. Confident takes off the training wheels but still helps you pull off tricks. Since tricks aren’t the hardest element I faced, Confident was where I stayed. What I found maddening was the steering.
Steering is so difficult, especially turning left. Actually, getting in position to perform the easy trick is the real challenge. It helps however that the game gives you a free skate mode to help you memorize the trick sites per map. If the steering wasn’t such a hassle I could imagine just free skating around in a virtual environment all day. But alas, that just sounds frustrating. The real fun is in the speed and trick challenges.
