Activision confirmed today that the next installment of the Tony Hawk franchise is Tony Hawk: Shred. Despite the continuing use of Ride’s skateboard controller, Shred is a departure from the rest of the series with a focus on a younger audience. With that in mind, Activision has added an arcade-style look with big tricks and big venues. The publisher wants kids to “get off the couch and into the action.”
The other big news is the first-time addition of snowboarding to Tony Hawk. Perhaps as a challenge to Ubisoft’s fledgling Shaun White series, Tony Hawk: Shred will let players snowboard down Whistler, the French Alps, and Beijing, China.
“Tony Hawk: Shred is all about experiencing over-the-top, almost unbelievable GO BIG moments throughout the game – the kind of tricks and stunts that we can only hope to achieve as our sports continue to evolve,” said Tony Hawk. “I’m also excited about including snowboarding in Shred, because when we originally came up with the board motion-controller, we didn’t just have skateboarding in mind, and it’s nice to finally see that idea coming to fruition.”
Like previous game, Tony Hawk: Shred will let gamers control some of the biggest names in skateboarding and snowboarding today. The full list of controllable athletes includes Tony Hawk, Lyn-z Adams Hawkins, Corey Duffel, Sean Malto, David Gonzalez, Geoff Rowley, Stevie Williams and Chaz Ortiz; and snowboarders Travis Rice, Louie Vito and Olympic Gold Medalist Torah Bright. On the Wii, gamers can also not only control Mii versions of the previously named athletes, but they can import their own Miis. Xbox Live Avatars are also available for import in the 360 version.
Tony Hawk: Shred is being developed on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 by Robomodo, the Tony Hawk: Ride developer. The Wii version is being developed by Buzz Monkey. The game is rated ‘E’ for Everyone and will be released this holiday season.
1 Comments
August 17, 2010
"with a focus on a younger audience" . . . that sounds like bad news. (Hey the game still sucks . . . well, let's tailor it for younger kids since they'll play anything.)