Oh, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater... how I love thee. I admit, despite recent titles being somewhat lackluster, I am still a fanboy of the THPS series and would hate to see it diminish into a faded memory.
The sad thing is though, most gamers are getting tired of the unambitious series and want to see something new. The fact that skate. came along and kicked serious ass doesn't help things either... at all. Personally, I was never drawn to skate. as I love the gameplay of THPS (who cares if I could do five consecutive 900's in a combo??), but I can understand why people do like it.
I think Tony Hawk really started to go downhill for most people during the Underground 1 and 2 days, which is too bad, because that's directly in the middle of the entire series. It should be getting better, but it's not. Though there were some redeeming features of the last game, there were so many issues as well, that I was inspired to write a lengthy news post at the time, begging Neversoft to take TWO YEARS to make the next game, instead of just one.
It's kind of funny. After Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4, Neversoft said they would not release a game the following year, but instead take two years. I of course hated this since I loved me some Tony Hawk PS action, but it made sense to me. Taking more time would result in a more quality game. But, apparently the company bigguns didn't like that idea, because there has been a TH game each year since the beginning.
It's apparent I am not the only one who thinks the series needs TLC though, as it seems Neversoft is bringing the man himself in to help revitalize things:
So Activision and Neversoft are going back to the drawing board, and they're bringing Tony Hawk with them. The man, that is, who's working closely with the game's developers so they can bring "new thrills" to the stale, aging series.
Whether this will do much, I'm unsure. I have a feeling if anything, the next game will be more skate.-like, which I won't be too fond of, but it almost seems inevitable. Time will tell, I suppose.
http://kotaku.com/366236/tony-hawk-working-with-activision-to-save-his-series
The sad thing is though, most gamers are getting tired of the unambitious series and want to see something new. The fact that skate. came along and kicked serious ass doesn't help things either... at all. Personally, I was never drawn to skate. as I love the gameplay of THPS (who cares if I could do five consecutive 900's in a combo??), but I can understand why people do like it.
I think Tony Hawk really started to go downhill for most people during the Underground 1 and 2 days, which is too bad, because that's directly in the middle of the entire series. It should be getting better, but it's not. Though there were some redeeming features of the last game, there were so many issues as well, that I was inspired to write a lengthy news post at the time, begging Neversoft to take TWO YEARS to make the next game, instead of just one.
It's kind of funny. After Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4, Neversoft said they would not release a game the following year, but instead take two years. I of course hated this since I loved me some Tony Hawk PS action, but it made sense to me. Taking more time would result in a more quality game. But, apparently the company bigguns didn't like that idea, because there has been a TH game each year since the beginning.
It's apparent I am not the only one who thinks the series needs TLC though, as it seems Neversoft is bringing the man himself in to help revitalize things:
So Activision and Neversoft are going back to the drawing board, and they're bringing Tony Hawk with them. The man, that is, who's working closely with the game's developers so they can bring "new thrills" to the stale, aging series.
Whether this will do much, I'm unsure. I have a feeling if anything, the next game will be more skate.-like, which I won't be too fond of, but it almost seems inevitable. Time will tell, I suppose.
http://kotaku.com/366236/tony-hawk-working-with-activision-to-save-his-series