Tony Hawk 5 : Not as bad as critics said

Every generation had it’s trend, and in the 90’s, it was skateboarding.  If you were not talented enough, you probably envy all of your friends doing these tricks.

At the end of the 90’s, developers were pushing the 3D games on the consoles.  It looked amazing (back then…on your CRT TV).  And one of them, Neversoft, released a game that went viral; Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.  Everything was perfect, new and shiny and I am not talking about the sound track; it was awesome.  That game had the perfect recipes to become a franchise.  They did become one and the following titles were as good as the first one.

Almost 15 years later, Activision released Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5.  Some critics like IGN gave Tony Hawk’s 5 a poor 3.5 out of 10.  I have read and re-read the review and after playing the game; I can’t find what is wrong with it and what IGN didn’t like about the game.  Here’s my review for the ones that still enjoys skateboarding(real or with a controller).

The game graphics are cartooned which gives it a nice “fantasy” gaming feeling.  What I mean is that some sport titles try to be so close to reality that you lose “that” feeling of playing video games for fun.  The sound track is good, not as powerful as the first in the franchise, but hey: even in the real world having a hit when all the rifts have been done already is not an easy thing, plus they are expensive 15 years later unless you are Sony and have access to a bank of songs for your game titles.

The game play itself is fine, the missions are interesting and funny. In addition, there are three levels for each mission making it easier for beginners and more challenging for hardcore players.  The game offers multiplayer option where you can play online with your friends or challenge online players in missions.  The more tricks you do, the more power you gain and, for a few seconds, you become on fire and perform crazier tricks for more points.

Personally, I am not a big fan of doing my own levels, but if you like to spend time and build your own skate park, you can.  Plus, you can share it online with other users so they play and rate your skate park.

The only problem I’ve seen is that the game lags sometimes; especially when you have to grab elements in a mission to bring them back to the specified location.  It seems that it’s too many things on screen for the system’s GPU.  What it means is that the game is not optimized properly(maybe future updates will fixes it).

You will want to buy the digital version because you will play here and there for as long you have your PS4 or until the release of the next title in the franchise as oppose to a title like Tomb Raider(Adventure), where after you beat the game, it’s time to trade for a new one.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 verdict : It has the WINGS to fly

• Reviewed on PS4
• Released by Activision
• Release date: September 29th, 2015