![]() It's as if the developers started the project assuming that their customers would only be longtime fans buying it nostalgically. Yes, there's a "how to play" section in the pause menu, but there are few more frustrating experiences when first learning a game than stopping the action and flipping through six pages of manual to find out which button does what. However, this doesn't seem to have ever occurred to the developers-the game just starts with no preamble, never properly explaining what it is or how to perform even the most basic tricks. Speaking of accessibility, it's one of the game's major problem areas, which is flat-out baffling to me.Ĭonsidering that it's a remake of the earliest games in the series and that it's only available as a comparatively inexpensive download, Pro Skater HD seems like it would be a great way of attracting new players to the genre. Every level asks the player to put together an impressive high score to move forward, and while that's possible to do on the Pro Skater 1 levels, the levels drawn from the second game are far more accessible and fun. Half of the game's levels were designed before the "manual" (a way to keep a combo going when no grindable surfaces are available) was added to the franchise, and as a result, they tend to be cluttered and claustrophobic, never giving players room to work out their own "line" and develop a personalized way to approach the challenges. ![]() On one level it's entertaining for longtime fans of the series to see the levels realized with a decent-if not mindblowing-level of detail, but problems arise because the geography of the levels hasn't been upgraded along with the textures. ![]() The levels have been updated with a high degree of fidelity to the original titles, which has somewhat of a mixed effect on gameplay. The only other move the game makes towards depth is a genre-standard leveling-up system, where the player spends points gained by completing objectives to raise their stats, allowing them to jump higher and grind longer without the balance meter becoming too unwieldy. As the player arrives in a new level, they're given a list of goals to accomplish-attain high scores, find hidden objects, break things-and when a certain minimum of items are checked off, the next map is unlocked, with a list all its own. ![]() While the main way of playing is called "Career" mode, there's never any sense of competition or rising status. What it doesn't offer is any kind of a structure or framing device for any of this to take place within. Pro Skater HD offers a handful of classic Tony Hawk levels for players to dig into, all updated with modern graphics and the ability to compete against people online in a variety of modes. As for how it plays, that's another matter. In one sense, this makes Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD the ideal version of the game since it seems to be the game that the developers always intended to make, at least from a visual standpoint. While Chrono Trigger will always look like Chrono Trigger, to the eyes of someone who plays most of their games on an Xbox or PS3, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater PS1 looks like a blocky, choppy mess. Anything less than that was forced on them by the limitations of technology, and these imperfect visuals can make it difficult to go back and enjoy much of that generation nostalgically. Polygonal games, on the other hand, were all about compromise.įrom the start it was clear that developers had one endpoint in mind: photorealism. The PlayStation 1-era generation of polygon-based "3D" games was a strange animal, the particulars of which make it especially ripe for reexamination or remakes.Įarlier, sprite-based games had the virtue of being-by and large-the games that their developers set out to create, with distinctive art styles within their limitations. WTF They didn't just preserve "hobo-bothering" as an objective, they added more of it?! LOW All these years later, I still suck at the nearly-impossible Downhill Jam. HIGH Winning a four-player game of graffiti by a single "tag." Attack of the Sidewalk-Surfing Cube Gleamers!
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