Tony Hawk’s skateboarding games have been around for a long, long time – first starting out on the old PlayStation, and then quite possibly the best release in the series, TH Pro Skater 3 emerged on the PlayStation 2. Since then, we have had the onslaught of what is surely yearly released games bearing the Tony Hawk name, worst of all has to be the last-gen port of American Wasteland to this generation, with the Xbox 360 version. American Wasteland just did not take advantage of the Xbox 360 hardware in any significant way; it just looked and played identically to its older Xbox brother. Last year's release of Project 8 was more of a welcoming delight for skating fans, as it was obviously designed for the current generation of consoles. However, here we are yet again, just about a year or so later, with another skateboarding game, Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground.
Ironically, I find the name of the latest game to be somewhat fitting as Activision’s latest skateboarder has some competition with the already released Skate, from Electronic Arts. No doubt most gamers know that EA’s rocking music fest that is Rock Band, is set to take on Activision’s other hugely known game franchise, with the release of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Speaking of the competition, we have to jump back to the inevitable question of which is better, Proving Ground or Skate.? The Tony Hawk’s series has obviously earned its stripes over the years, however for the Tony Hawk gaming veterans that have followed the series from its inception, then Proving Ground offers little new to get excited about.

Gameplay:

When starting the Story mode you are given the option to edit your up and coming skater from several limited choices, new clothing and other items can be unlocked by playing the game's story, you can even edit your face at any time during the story too, not that there’s a great deal of options to tinker with though.
The basic game mechanics and even the visuals for that matter are mostly identical to last year’s Project 8 game. There are some differences though, and they’re mostly for the better. I immediately jumped into options as I just had to switch the camera angle to the classic, pulled back one of old. The default (Dynamic) camera is literally taken up by your skater’s body, which makes it a bit difficult to see where you’re going at times.
When in the game's Story mode, a simple click of the right stick will bring up three choices – these are Career, Hardcore and Riggers. This essentially lets you choose how you want to progress through the story, you can jump between either at your leisure and an arrow will guide you to the next objective under one of those particular paths. Career is simply about making the money, which requires competing in tournaments and other events, as well as doing some challenges under the wings of some of skating’s finest professionals. Hardcore is simply all about skating, just for the hell of it, there are of course challenges and things that go along with it, and generally I personally found this mode more to my liking, even if I do sometimes only just barely manage to progress further. AM, Pro and Sick – If you’re like me then you’ll be receiving AM for the most part, although I have on occasion had my fair share of receiving Pro and maybe just once of Sick thus far. These are basically three tiered goals for every challenge in the game, each is more difficult than the last, you may have to perform more moves than the other modes or earn a much higher score. Riggers is an interesting one too, you basically travel around altering the enviroment into your own personal skating place, which is cool as normally you would expect that sort of thing to be cordoned off for editing a multiplayer map or something similar. It’s just nice to be able to edit and place new objects anywhere you so choose in the story.

The game's compass is also switched off by default too, it’s a useful thing to have on though, as literally everything is marked on there. I suspect most Tony Hawk players will be familiar with it and will prefer it switched on; it’s not needed though as technically, mission wise, a click of the right analogue stick does just fine. You can now get around much quicker with the use of the Aggro Kick, a press of the right bumper means you kick one of your feet hard on the floor, you can time this right for maximum speed by making sure your foot is as far forward before hitting the right bumper to kick; this is especially useful for those wider gaps which you must get across.
As you complete challenges in the story, you are awarded with new gear, skills and skill points for your skater. No longer can you assign the points yourself; instead these are assigned based on how you skate. Progressing through the story also opens up and expands the skating world. As with the other Tony Hawk games, real-life footage of the professional skater’s you meet and talk to in the game is unlocked for your viewing pleasure. These videos can even be viewed on your in-game TV in your own customised skating area too. Also more noticeable in Proving Ground, is that there certainly appears to be more pedestrians and vehicles roaming the streets, and if you get too close, well the NPC’s aren’t afraid to give a punk skater a piece of their mind either.

Returning are all the usual split-screen and Xbox Live multiplayer modes, where you can play with up to eight skater’s in a variety of gaming modes, including – trick attack, graffiti, combo mambo, walls, skate the line, net nail the trick, score challenge and lastly, combo challenge. As host of the game you can simply skate around your own customised skate lounge as people join and then can hit start and edit game options to begin the game.

No Tony Hawks game would be right without the classic, the good old stuff, which is indeed in Proving Ground in the form of Tony Hawk’s 2000 arcade machines, which are scattered around the skating world. Activating one of these machines puts you into what is essentially the classic mode, where you must do multiple tasks within a certain time frame, such as collect the letters S-K-A-T-E, hit ridiculously high scores and so on.

One of the more surprising features of Proving Ground is the ability to save films of your tricks which you complete in challenges. The best thing about this is that you can edit all the saved clips, mix them together, add a music track from the game's soundtrack, and add (and purchase) special effects which can be overlapped onto your video. Once you’re happy with the film, you can then upload it to the Xbox Live Leaderboards, so everyone can check it out. I love games which offer up features such as this, and this is quite possibly the best game to have a saved films feature, you literally have all the tools you need to create your own personalized skating video montage.

Graphics:

The graphics are visually identical to Project 8, which isn’t a bad thing by any means, I would have expected some of the character models for the pro skaters to have been a bit, well, better though. The game features the likenesses of multiple skating icons, and of course, the man of the box, Tony Hawk is heavily featured, as he often leaves you voice messages on your mobile updating you on progress among other things, as do some of the other skating professionals. Proving Ground generally looks and feels much smoother to play; the animations for most of the movements seem very much improved as they appear to move more fluidly between moves too.

Sound:

The voices of some of these skating pro’s is just not convincing at all, and borders on pushing it to lame. The story tries to take a more serious career intended approach, the humor is sorely lacking though. The absence of pro skateboarder Bam Margera and the rest of the Jackass crew is perhaps the most disappointing thing about Proving Ground, some of the missions, and of course, voices all went well into making some of the more entertaining objectives in previous Tony Hawk games. Some of the missions are enjoyable to play, but with the lack of decent and convincing, humorous voice talent, this Tony Hawk’s game has certainly lost its charm.

Longevity:

Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground is not too lengthy, but it presents a good challenge if you want to go for the Pro and Sick scores and challenges. Being able to choose which path you want to take first, and being able to jump back and forth between any of those three story elements is a welcome addition; even the way the menu works to select your mission path is more thought out than having the always permanent, show-all compass on your screen.

Overall:

Proving Ground proves that the Tony Hawk’s series needs something new. Sure, some of the new features are nice; the editing films feature is the best thing about this game. If you’ve only just recently gotten into skating games, then Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground is worth checking out. However, for Tony Hawk’s veterans, it may be time to start looking elsewhere, and the only other option available is EA’s less arcadey, and more simulation based, Skate game.