Tony Hawk's Project 8

"I think I just threw up a little..."

First of all, let me say that I like the Tony Hawk series. A lot. When I first heard about this game, I was pretty excited. Then, when I walked into Blockbuster and rented this game (the one good choice I made instead of buying), I was still pretty happy. Then, when I placed this game into my PS2, I was still in a good mood. Then the main screen popped up, and I suddenly started to realize the mistake I had made.

Story - 5/10

Basically, the story of the game is that Tony Hawk is coming to your town, as he hears that there is a bunch of undiscovered talent there. You have to try to work your way up from the rank of 200 to one of the top 8. Not really up to par but I guess almost none of the Tony Hawk games' stories have been. If you were thinking about getting this game, then I assume you weren't expecting much, which means that you won't be that disappointed.

Graphics - 1/10

Even though last year's American Wasteland wasn't altogether that good of a game, at least the graphics were pretty good. This year, however, Shaba Games decides to murder your eyes by providing Project 8 with the worst graphics since THPS2. At least back when it came out, the THPS2 graphics were pretty good. But this game has no excuse for its bad graphics. The faces are terrible and the terrain is terrible. Sure, graphics aren't the most important aspect of the game, but it can get pretty difficult at times to look past the horrible graphics.

Create-a-whatever - 1/10

This part of the game is so bad that I shiver when I think about it. They took out the create-a-park feature, which is really stupid. The create-a-tag feature was deleted, which I am fine with, but they also decided to take the heart and soul out of the create-a-skater. You get to choose from a tiny amount of types of skaters, and the ones that are present are terrible. Their faces look bad and there aren't many options when it comes to making your character different. In the previous games they stressed about how you should make your character unique, but in this game they don't really allow you to make your character unique.

Sound - 4/ 10

When you first start the game and get to the gameplay, you realize that something is off. That something is the sound. The music selection this year is okay, not spectacular but not terrible either. That is not the thing that gives the sound such a bad score. The thing that gives the sound the bad score is how choppy it is. The sound is so muffled that it sound like someone is stuffing a blanket in your TV speakers. But no, that is really the sound of the game.

Level Design - 5/10

I think this is pretty much personal preference, but I still hated the first couple of levels in this game. The later ones were somewhat good, but not great at all.

Gameplay - 2/10

You might assume that you will be able to ignore the terrible sound and graphics, but you are most likely wrong. If you do manage to ignore those aspects, you won't be able to ignore the terrible gameplay as it is the key part of every game. The game is incredibly choppy, almost to the point where it is hard to be able to concentrate. To top it all off, the goals are really, really, really dumb. The jokes really aren't that funny. We don't want to wallride posters to get the stupid chipmunk or whatever to dance lessons. It won't make us laugh. It won't make us enjoy the game. Also, the part of this game that people looked forward to, nail the trick, was at first a little fun, but they made it way too easy by making your board flash at the time that you can kick it. Also, when you bail, you get the same animation every time. The animation is your character flying through the air for about 10 seconds while they're flailing their arms and legs. Not too great. Nail the Trick is okay, but not good enough to make you want to play the game.

Replayability - 3/10

I don't see why you would want to replay this game in the first place. It's terrible. If for some reason you do want to, you won't find much that will entertain you.

I pretty much feel like I have been robbed of the eight dollars it took to rent this game. Don't buy this nor rent this. If you're thinking about getting this for the 360, go ahead. It's supposed to be a lot better.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 11/13/06, Updated 11/15/06