Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground Review

Since 1999, Tony Hawk has been the king of skateboarding. While there have been a few other skating games out there, none of them have even come close to the following Tony Hawk has has. Skate may have changed a lot of people’s minds though, putting some added pressure on the Neversoft team to try and deliver a solid title for its 9th installment. Unfortunately, Proving Ground is by no means a breath of fresh air into the franchise. Following a similar design scheme to Project 8, the 9th installment of Tony Hawk offers very little new features, leaving many questioning whether this legendary series is on its last legs.

In Proving Ground you will find yourself skating in three different cities that are all linked to each other without any load times at all. These cities include Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. Although I cannot speak on behalf of DC, having visited Philadelphia and Baltimore on many occasions, the cities are very similar to their real life counterparts. While riding through, you many realize that you have actually been in the area that you are skating and the team at Neversoft deserves some real props for this.

If you compare Project 8 and Proving Ground, you will see that they do not look much different from one another. Proving Ground really only has another layer of polish, but it seems like most of the visuals of Project 8 have been recycled. While the game does not look bad by any means, the graphics just are not up to par with the top tier games out there. Character models are gradually improving though, which gives hope that the next title in the franchise could be leaps and bounds above the last two, but I will not believe it until I see it.

As always, you are treated to a mixture of Hip-Hop, Rock, and Punk music to skate to. The soundtrack overall is decent, but more than likely you will play your own music instead. The environments sound more alive than last time with sounds of cars and people going by as you tool around. All the pro skaters in Proving Ground lend their voice to the game, but they never really have anything interesting to say…ever.

Tony Hawk’s signature move is still included in Proving Ground which offers little change to the gameplay at all. Added since Project 8, you have Nail the Trick and Manual, which are fun to play around with, and Aggro Kick, which allows you to speed up your skater to do sick jumps and get huge air to do some insane tricks. I wound up using the aggro kick a lot in my adventures, becoming my favorite addition. Other things such as bowl riding, mod the world, and smacking really offer very little to the gameplay, in my opinion. The whole reason mod the world is even in the game is because we no longer have a park editor. This only makes parts of the world editable to add a little creativity, but I would much rather have a full park editor, not a stripped down version of it.

The online modes have not changed in any way at all, giving players nothing new to do online other than skate new parks. In comparison to other Tony Hawk games, Proving Ground is extremely short. I beat the game in about 5-6 hours with very little resistance at all. It feels as though the game was dumbed down to try and bring new players to the Tony Hawk franchise, but many veterans will be disappointed by how easy the game plays. Slapping a $60 is more of a slap in the face to the longstanding fans as Proving Ground seems more like an expansion of Project 8 than an entirely new game. If you enjoy the repetition, you will enjoy Proving Ground for at least a little while. However, you should really only give this title a rent or wait for it to show up in the bargain bin. Otherwise, there are a plethora of better games on the market this holiday season to spend your money on.