If you love the Tony Hawk series like me, all you want it more levels and goals, and this game has PLENTY of both...

User Rating: 8.7 | Tony Hawk's Project 8 PS2
First of all, the Tony Hawk series has been one of my favorite series in all of gaming. I can still remember the first time I saw the original Tony Hawk Pro Skater on the PS1 when I went to visit my friends up in BG, Ohio. Then when THPS2 came along and introduced the manual, and great hidden characters, more levels, etc.
THPS3 is why I bought a PS2, and the revert move virtually made the core gameplay perfect.
THPS4 added...skitching? Still, new levels and moves...
THUG tried very hard to change the style, but the addition of being able to get off your board ended up being unreplacable at this point in the series.
THUG2 had some of my all-time favorite levels, and better incorporated the "slow motion" element for huge combos. I am STILL working on all my goals on the PSP version, and it's still plenty of fun.
THAW....hmm....well you know what? THAW had more levels and goals, even if the new moves weren't so great.

And here we are at Tony Hawk Project 8. Until now, and aside from THPS3, the series has usually taken a great "meal" of gameplay and added some spices on top or some sauces on the side for new installments.

But in Project 8, it's clear from the very start that the entire game is just.....different from the rest. Moves you have been accustomed to have been changed slightly. The graphics are completely re-done, which they have done before, but this time it's so different that it really does take more getting used to that the other games in the series. I was instantly able to play every Tony Hawk game when I first picked them up, but this one takes some time to get used to. In fact, there is a tutorital that I would have skipped but only started playing on accident. And I'm glad I did! No matter who you are, even if you're like me and you always go for the "sick" difficulty goals, it's highly reccomended that you go through the tutorial. It's short, 15 minutes maybe, and will help you learn the new moves, as well as the changes to the moves you've gotten used to. Speaking of new moves, that's where it's hard to for me to judge if this game is "better" than the other Hawk games. For instance, you can just hit a button to start a manual, which is easier (?) than hitting up-down, although you can still use the up-down control as always. However, you can't do front/backflips the same at all. Instead of holding a grab and tapping a direction twice, now you have to hold a button and point the analog stick up or down to flip. It works, but it's not as easy to do as tapping up or down twice, and what really stinks is you HAVE to use this control-----they completely removed the double-tap flip control. And now you can only do front and backflips----they took out the barrel rolls. There are plenty of other things to do in the game besides roll and flip, but I had gotten so used to doing flips any time I could in the other games, I still find myself tapping up twice from time to time. Grr...

With that said, it looks like they are trying to make this game more....realistic? The motion-captured animations, the environments that look more like real places would look, the physics, the "special" moves, etc. I remember the first few Tony Hawk games having strange levels (Airport, Cruise Ship, the Mall, etc), cool but random special characters (Wolverine, Spiderman, the Succubus, etc), and CRAZY special moves (like grind 'n barf, boomerang, Spiderman's crazy move where he web-shoots the skateboard in-flight, etc), and the series keeps going farther and farther away from being crazy like that, in favor of being more like real skating. It's cool in a way because the moves really do look much more realistic------just like in real life, even the simplest moves in the game now at least LOOK more difficult to perform than they did before, and the way the board moves and slants on the trucks is more life-like, plus the skaters in the game really do look like they replicate the unique style of their real-life counterparts. But then again, I really do miss those crazy special moves, and I used to look forward to the next game in the series to see how they created even more of the most bizarre moves to top the last game. There are some interesting special moves for sure, as well as plenty of the ones we've become familiar with in the past, but I still think THPS3 was the peak of what made special moves "special" in the first place. The nail-the-trick feature is the new major gameplay element to the game, and it's surprisingly good. Ok, so it's not as revolutionary as the revert, and it's not as desirable to me as adding more scripted special moves, but it's cool because it works--------when you use your feet to tap the board, it REALLY looks like the rider's feet are actually doing the work. It's a great use of the physics, and the level of realism if obvious. It takes a while to get used to (just like any new element in the series), but once you figure it out, it really does become a lot of fun and it's very rewarding to get the board to do precisely what you want and expect it to.

The sound is great, with some very noticeable changes. It's not an enormous improvement, but the sound effects have a bit more variety, and the bone-crunching falls are teriffic. The new track list is enormous, and while the first few games had music that seemed to perfectly fit the skater lifestyle, the last few games have kinda been a mish-mash of songs. Project 8 is no different, but the songs themselves are a bit better-------less hip hop, more rock and punk, including Ministry and The Cure and Mogwai. If you're a big fan of the series like me, then all it really takes for you to be stoked on a new Tony Hawk game is new levels, new moves, and most importantly, new goals. And Project 8 has PLENTY of new goals. Many of them are standard-issue for the series---------classic goals like high scores, high combos, S-K-A-T-E & C-O-M-B-O collects, hidden items, etc. But one of my favorite aspects of Project 8 is the new "types" of goals in the series. First of all, you don't just select a difficulty level at the beginning which determines all of your goals through the game. Instead, as you get a new goal, you have different and more challenging ways to do the same goal. For example, say you have to do a certain number of moves for a local skater------to earn "AM" level you might have to get 4 tricks in, for "Pro AM" level you might have to get 6 tricks in, and for "Sick" level you will probably have to get 10 or more. I really like the way the goals are streamed together like this. It really encourages you to go for sick difficulty because you can see it right there, just out of reach of your last run, and it's a perfect way to challenge Tony Hawk veterans.
Not only that, but the goals are have a lot more variety than previous games. I am afraid if I mention too much it might spoil some of the best parts of the game, but I'm really happy with the goals and variety in the game, and it's a good change of pace for the series.


Bottom line? Is Project 8 better than any other Tony Hawk game before it? No. But that's not really fair. TONS of new goals, all new graphics, realistic physics, and that fantastic sense of accomplishment the series has been so good at are all great reasons to check this game out. If you've enjoyed the Tony Hawk series through the years, you'll likely be pleasantly surprised at how different Project 8 is from the rest of the series, and the sheer number of goals is more than enough reason for me to be happy with Project 8. The little touches like the vidoes playing during loading screens, the detail in the boards themselves, and the abillity to immediately get up after a fall rather than rapidly tapping a button all help give Project 8 a more complete feeling, and although the new levels aren't as memorable as in past games, they are loaded with big drops and combo opportunities. If you didn't like the other Tony Hawk games, you certainly won't like this one. But if you're a fan of the series, you know as well as I do that it doesn't take a perfect rating to have an abolute blast with a new Tony Hawk game...