Next-Gen's First Sk8 Game!
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Supplier: Activision
Reviewed By: Rogue5
Price: $59.99 (MSRP)
Untitled Document
Cruising down a street in suburbia, hitting insane tricks off some the most mundane and ordinary things is very empowering. In a way, being able to make something as plain as a sidewalk so fun is creative. Just riding along is cool, but knowing that with a few button presses I can perform a myriad of different grinds, aerial tricks, or seemingly impossible combos to make the most of my travels, is very liberating. Better still, when I look off into the distance there stands a community, as far as the eye can see, that is absolutely full to the brim with the same kind of opportunity… No restrictions, no fear, and absolutely no load screens.
Now if only I could listen to the Gleaming the Cube soundtrack… Oh wait, with the 360 I CAN!!!
Despite the major changes that have been implemented, Project 8 is a return to form for the Tony Hawk series. Gone are the wacky and zany antics of Bam Margera and friends. Instead a more consistent and involving story has taken root with sandbox-esque freedom of play. In Project 8, Tony is looking for a few good skaters (eight of them to be precise) to join his team. In order to be selected, you have to work your way up from the bottom (you start at position 250) and become one of the top 8 skate boarders in town. During your adventure you’ll meet such colourful personalities as Tony (obviously), Rodney Mullen, Daewon Song, Mike Vallely (who was also in Gleaming the Cube), and Jason Lee (yes, that Jason Lee – he used to be a professional skateboarder.)
As you progress through the game and lower your rank, you unlock different areas of the town. What makes this special is that you have the freedom to move between these unlocked areas and take on different challenges at your leisure. So while you might get stuck trying to finish a challenge in any one area, you can also go to another area and try another challenge. Having no load screens makes this as seamless as possible and is mighty impressive given the size and detail of the game world.
The most noticeable addition to Project 8 is the Nail-a-Trick mode. By pushing in both thumbsticks while in the air, you move into a bullet-time-like slow motion in which each foot is controlled by a separate thumbstick. It’s easily the best advancement the series has seen since the inclusion of manuals in THPS2. It not only gives you the time needed to pull off some ridiculously impossible fliptrick combinations, but also makes for visually impressive scenes showing every detail of the trick. Almost like an extension of Nail-the-Trick, there is a “Focus” mode that can be enabled (by pressing down the left thumbstick only) when your special meter is full. The main difference here is that you can use “Focus” whenever you want – not just when you’re in the air like Nail-the-Trick – but it uses up your special meter. While they may seem negligible, the overall effect of these two “bullet-time” methods is impressive, allowing you to pull of tricks that were impossible in previous versions of the game.
