Tony Hawk's Underground Hitches A Ride 8
Thanks to IGN PS2 for their hands-on preview of Tony Hawk's Underground, the latest in the multi-million selling Tony Hawk skateboarding game franchise. Evolutionary changes include "the ability to hop off your board and go around on foot", hitting inaccessible locations and new combos, and you can also now even "...hitch a ride on passing cars... [and] take control of a few automobiles" - hopping in and out GTA-style? Narcissism is also in, as you can "...pull a digital print of your own face into the game via the network adaptor and play as yourself", as the developers try to mix things up after the high-quality, but not mindblowing Tony Hawk 4.
Right on the dot (Score:2)
really, they were more graphical upgrades with different combos, etc, but it hasn't really changed enough, hopefully this would address it and make it exciting again..
Skitching was in THPS4 (Score:4, Insightful)
Larger levels and missions sounds fun, can't wait to see that. It's all about knowing where the good skate spots are in yer hood. When we can do in game tagging on the ditches and it gets saved, or the curbs start out fresh and get that truck and deck grind build up, or if your wall rides left marks that also get saved, then we have something. more persistence!
analog steering? (Score:2, Interesting)
In other news (Score:2, Funny)
Grand Theft Auto 4 will support skateboards. In combination with some better city design, the Tony Hawk series is rendered unnecessary.
Or maybe the two games could combine. What's the bonus for a 720 while carrying a rocket launcher?
THPS needs to go back to it's roots, though... (Score:4, Interesting)
THPS was by far the best skateboarding game I had played since 720 Degrees in the arcade. Then THPS2 came along and blew my socks off.
THPS3 kept a lot from THPS2, and did a lot of improving (mainly in graphics and frame rate, although THPS2 on the Dreamcast was a major improvement over THPS2 on the PSOne).
THPS4, however, just wasn't as much fun to me. Neversoft really took two steps back to take one step forward when they designed THPS4.
Some things were great, like the free roam until you wanted to do a goal thing; but then others were just 'meh' (some pro challenges insanely easy (even if looking hard) while others insanely hard; mediocre level designs in some areas) or even downright ass backwards (shared goals? Never having to use another skater except for their pro challenges? Yeah, that makes for a whole lot of replay value...).
And in three games now, we've had the same special move for three different secret characters. Spider-Man (THPS2), Darth Maul (THPS3), and Jango Fett (THPS4) all used the "Spidey Varial (Does Whatever a Spider Can)" for one of their special moves; and both the skeleton from the Xbox version of THPS3 and Eddie (Mascott for Iron Maiden) used the same move for one of their special moves. Let's get some variety with these secret characters!
I really hope THPS Underground is a good game, but I'd really like to see the series go back to its roots in some ways. The incredible level design and goals in THPS2 mixed with the enhancements from THPS3&4 (and Underground) would be an absolutely incredible game.
Thursdae
Re:THPS needs to go back to it's roots, though... (Score:1)
Re:THPS needs to go back to it's roots, though... (Score:1, Interesting)
I liked how you didn't have to beat the game with every character to earn attributes, as that became repetative.
While the shared goals were sort of... cheap... I, honestly, like that more than the THPS1/2/3 take on it. It seems like a psuedo-replay value, because t
sounds great, but... (Score:3, Funny)