Tony Hawk: Ride skateboard peripheral – genius or desperation?
The Tony Hawk series of video games began with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater in 1999 and has most recently produced Tony Hawk’s Proving Grounds. Some of the games were good, some were bad, but with nine iterations released so far, all just slightly different from the previous game, it’s time for something new. Enter Tony Hawk: Ride, complete with its skateboard controller. I kid you not.
Tony Hawk and Activision’s solution to the overarching problem of the game series getting tired is to keep the gameplay and graphics pretty much in keeping with the rest of the games released this-gen but to add in a new element entirely. Forget controlling Mr. Hawk with a simple handheld controller – those are clearly for wimps – instead try controlling your skater of choice with a new life size skateboard-shaped plastic controller.
Are you fed up with going outside and partaking in real-life activities? Would you rather stay indoors all day, every day, never having to leave the house? Now you can do just that with the aid of the new breed of interactive controllers coming your way. Forget the Wii with its motion-sensing controller, it’s time to jump on your skateboard with no wheels and look like a real tool in your living room.
According to VG247, Tony Hawk himself announced the details of the game and commented on the new peripheral it will ship with. He said “The board controller is a marvel of new technology. Responds like a real skateboard. You can even go for grabs and the sensors detect it.” Ooh, sensors? Really Tony? How 21st-century.
I’m really not too sure about this whole thing. I know the Wii is hugely popular and I know motion-sensing and interactive gaming are seen as the future of gaming, but is a piece of plastic shaped like a skateboard really the future you and I want for our hobby?
This could be either really cool or really lame and we won’t get to find out until the game and peripheral are unveiled at E3 in June. But I can make a good guess and that is that Tony Hawk: Ride will kill the franchise off due to being completely naff and only good for novelty value. Guitar Hero and its fake guitars are one thing, but fake skateboards? I’m not convinced.
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13 Responses to “Tony Hawk: Ride skateboard peripheral – genius or desperation?”
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May 18th, 2009
Desperation is the perfect word to say it. Tony Hawk is milked out so much already wow.
May 18th, 2009
Haha Dave, not a fan? I don’t see that is any dafter than swinging a bit of plastic and pretending it is tennis, or like you say, plastic guitars. Yet these things have proven to be very popular so far.
Do these things float my boat? Not. At. All. Though I’m less than a hundred yards away from a newly built concrete skatepark.
May 18th, 2009
I’m going to go with desperation also. The plastic guitars can at least be used for three games, and the Wii balance board, is now being used for multiple games also. I don’t see this peripheral having any other uses.
I really loved laying Tony Hawk on PS and PS2, but been there, done that. I don’t think using a plastic skate board will do the series any good.
May 18th, 2009
What if you could use it in a snowboarding and Surfing game or skiing game. it wouldn’t be such a bad perpetual.
May 18th, 2009
Apparently, Tony the man has already suggested it being used for snowboarding / surfing games.
The board is obviously desperation to find something new for the series, but I’m going to say it now:
I HAVE FAITH. Probably only because it looks cool as a peripheral in the pictures and I do/did skateboard.
I’m a little concerned the frustration factor could be quite high though.
May 18th, 2009
I used to skateboard when I was younger. I ended my skate boarding career when I broke my ankle in 5 different places, plus tibula and fibula. I actually had to be home schooled for a year… good times.
May 19th, 2009
@ Barnabe,
Fuck me! All I got was a little bit of gravel rash during my skateboarding days.
May 19th, 2009
There death traps on wheels. I still snowboard though. Snow is a a lot more forgiving than concrete.
May 19th, 2009
I sustained a similar injury slipping on wet grass playing softball when I was 22 (15 pins and 3 plates: 2lbs of steel, 3 surgeries, 18months of rehab ftw!)
Never skateboarded, mostly for fear of such an injury… damn. Should of just skated.
May 19th, 2009
I pretended I knew how to skateboard to get close to a girl in college. Surprisingly, I only wiped out once, which resulted in her giving me quite a lot of attention with a first aid kit. Other than that one time, though, I did pretty well for myself, considering I was just winging it…
-Arvis
May 19th, 2009
Chris,
You should have said you broke your donger so she would kiss it better.
May 20th, 2009
And there it is, the inevitable reference to genitalia…
-Arvis
May 20th, 2009
It was going to happen…