Tony Hawk's Project 8

Even if you aren’t into skateboarding, one name that’s become a force to recon with today is Tony Hawk AKA Anthony Frank Hawk. The Birdman as he’s so fondly called has grown from a small town skater to a modern day icon of sorts who’s involved in tons of profitable activities like television, clothing and our personal favorite, video games. Now the reason I bored you with this small history lesson is because I’ve never played a Tony Hawk game in the past so I couldn’t really think of a suitable introduction to Tony Hawk’s latest next gen outing titled Project 8 (honesty is still the best policy right?)

Like any other sports game, Project 8 can appear a bit daunting initially, but soon you’ll realize that the game is pretty forgiving to newcomers and a little patience can go a long way. Stick with the tutorial for a while and you’ll be pulling off killer tricks and combos in no time… or at least you’ll know how to do so. Once you’ve completed the tutorial (you don’t have to complete it to progress but I wouldn’t recommend doing that) your customized character is unleashed upon the world to impress Tony Hawk. Why you ask? It’s pretty simple you see… the Birdman himself has retired and is in your hometown looking for 8 of the sickest skaters (and by sick I mean awesome, not skaters suffering from some sort of illness) out there and only by competing against nearly 200 other skaters can you be part of his latest project… Project 8 (just so you know this is developer Neversoft’s 8th Tony Hawk game). As far as a plot goes that’s all you’ll get but then again you aren’t playing a Tony Hawk game for an intricate storyline, right?

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Like any free roaming game, the only way you can progress in Project 8 is by undertaking (and fulfilling) missions from random people that’ll unlock newer venues and level up your skill as well. Remember when I said the game was easy on newcomers? Yeah well, you’re lucky it’s so since pulling off an amateur rating in any of your missions isn’t all that hard; don’t worry though, you even have your pro and sick ratings to go after in case you’re a veteran of the series (I made my peace with amateur ratings). Some of these quests can be pretty simple while some can get on your nerves since most of them are time based but luckily you don’t have to complete all of them to progress to the next level. Impressing pedestrians and fulfilling these missions will earn you Stokens that are basically the currency of the game and they can be used to purchase new threads, signature moves, skateboards and lots more.

New to this series is the inclusion of the Nail a Trick mode that allows you to create your very own unique tricks on the fly. You can enter this mode by either pressing down on both the analogue sticks as soon as you Ollie of a surface or you can even access this mode by approaching a nail icon floating in the middle of the road. As soon as you begin nailing the trick (sounds pretty obscene huh?) the game slows down drastically and the camera shifts down to your feet. The right analogue stick controls the movement of your right leg while the left analogue stick controls your left leg and during the time that you’re in slow motion you’re supposed to come up with as many combos as possible (that’s the whole inventing trick part by the way)… all while making sure you land back on the board or you’ll end up racking up an impressive hospital bill.

There’s no doubt about the fact that Project 8 is a good looking game; it sports the shine and polish of a next gen game and the entire game is one cohesive (no load times baby) playground but certain erratic frame rate issues keep popping up from time to time. Your skater displays some amusing rag doll physics (courtesy of the Havok engine off course) and every tumble can be enhanced by pressing the ‘Y’ button.

All in all, Project 8 is a fun game no doubt, and it’s got tons of stuff to keep you entertained for hours (including a multiplayer mode which we never tried out); even if you’re a newcomer to the series, hang in there for a while and you may just end up enjoying yourself.