Tony Hawk's Proving Ground

"Perfect Skate Check!...Not!"

Your quickly skating up to some goon. You get your Wii remote and nunchunk in position to check him. Right as you approach him, you lung the Wiimote and nunchunk forward, in an attempt to lung him. WTF?!? The motion sensing controls did not read your action. You run right into the goon. He turns around to face you and...BAM! He pwns you, knocking you straight down to the ground!

Stuff like this happens all of the time in Tony Hawks Proving ground for the Nintendo Wii. This flaw is just the beginning.

~Sound~

The soundtrack for this game is really not too bad. However, it seems like Sympathy from the Devil is played WAY too often...like, every other song, how about. I'm pretty sure there are a few more songs on versions for different systems. Voice acting is pretty little, and it's pretty mediocre when they do have it. What is really lacking in this game, though, are the sound effects. The sound effects occasionally seem out of place. A few of them seem pretty low-quality, too. Overall, the sound in this game is pretty pathetic.

~Graphics~

The graphics here are actually pretty good looking...for a Playstaiton game. It's not just that the graphics are really bad; the graphics are, in some cases, are pretty hard to look at. Character models are just crappy. You look at the water in one of the levels and it just makes you want to turn your game off.

The artistic graphics aren't the only bad thing: the technical graphics are not that great either. A lot of times, it looks like you go throung surfaces. Animations are sometimes kind of buggy. Fortunately, the framerate holds up. That's probably the only pro- for graphics.

~Gameplay~

As if the game hasn't died already, this is where it commits suicide. Regular button controls are at least responsive. However, Tony Hawk + Motion Sensing Controls = Torture! The motion sensing controls pretty much work every one out of five times. Nail the trick is back, as well as nail the grab and nail the manual, and it is not very enjoyable with motion-sensing controls. As if that wasn't bad enough, the game makes you use motion-sensing controls in about every other mission for career.

Speaking of career, the game has done things out of the ordinary with it. There are three different types of classes in this game: hardcore, which is like your typical street skater, doing it for the fun; career, which is like whatever you are in the rest of the games; and rigger, which is like a designer of sorts. Everyone has its own benefits, but career skater challenges need to be completed to move further in the game, making the career boring.

Multiplayer feels pretty stripped. I don't know about any of the modes other than free skate, but if they are anything like that, then it's pretty boring. You can't place any of the rigger parts in multiplayer, which I found to be a bummer. In addition, you'll get knocked down sometimes even if your friend is nowhere in sight. Overall, the gameplay in this game is just terrible.

~Entertainment~

What entertainment? You'll get bored of skating around and trying to use the games broken controls after a few minutes.

~Overall~

This game sucks. If you see this game for the Wii, just leave it where it is and slowly walk away. Just make sure not to get skate checked in the process.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 05/05/08

Game Release: Tony Hawk's Proving Ground (US, 10/15/07)