While Activision can pat itself on the back for the phenomenal success of Modern Warfare 2 and be satisfied with the reception to DJ Hero, Tony Hawk: Ride is a completely different story. The latest Tony Hawk game, which comes with a skateboard peripheral, has been blasted by critics and given a 57 percent average on GameRankings.com and a 48 percent score on MetaCritic.com.
Tony Hawk (who was intimately involved with the development of Tony Hawk: Ride and its skateboard peripheral) is not taking criticism of Robomodo’s game lightly.
"They were ready to discredit it before they even tried it, and if it didn't play exactly how they imagined it... then they passed it off," said Hawk to the Sudbury Star [thanks Kotaku]."I don't agree with people who say the board's not responsive. I think that they're just not giving it a fair shake. And I think a lot of them came into it with an attitude that it's going to suck."
"I know that (Ride) is super fun, and I think there's a misconception that I just stick my name on a game," he added. "I brought this idea to Activision, and I saw it through, I've been playing it every step of the way and I am very proud of it."
Considering the $120 price tag and box size of Tony Hawk: Ride, we’d expect the game to start being discounted heavily by retailers after the holiday season. Depending on how the game performs, it might deal a fatal blow to the once proud Tony Hawk franchise as a whole.
5 Comments
December 7, 2009
From what I heard on various podcasts, the game is impossible to steer? On easy-mode, the game steers the board for you, which should've been an eye-opener for the game developer...
December 8, 2009
Love the image associated with this story on the front page.
(The 'Leave Britney alone' guy.)
December 8, 2009
Thanks Speculawyer. It was the first thing that came to mind about a whiny attitude about critics, with Hawk taking an ungracious attitude like the reviewers were biased and didn't know what they were talking about (an attitude, I might add, which never works).
December 8, 2009
Maybe Tony could show us all what a great game it is. Come on one of the video game shows like XPLAY or Attack of the Show and show us all how to play the game.
December 8, 2009
I don't get what Tony's saying. I'm a long time fan of the THPS series and the games have just been getting worse with each iteration. I made the large 120 dollar leap and the game just isn't fun. Its hard to control, not impossible. Causal is too easy, hardcore unusual. The game on easy you can finish in just a few hours. Take me back to the old days Tony and forget about the controller. If he wanted to go more sim like (ie Skate series), he missed the mark with the board. My full review is upcoming at www.mysorethumbs.com if anyone's interested. Thanks!