Bringing old school to the future...
The graphics have gotten a makeover into the next gen era. They look clean and crisp, but since it's made with the Unreal Engine, the graphics kind of have a Gears of War or Unreal Tournament look to them. They hold their own though, but they still have a gritty look to them.
The sound is very nicely done. Sounds effects are spot on, the music is great and everything else has been re-worked very well. Minus the soundtrack only having 8 songs. Half of them are new and the others are from THPS original soundtrack. You can't change the song you're listening to either, so whatever is playing is what you're stuck with.
The controls are possibly the main downfall of this game. All the controls are the same from how you remember them back then, but they feel much more sloppier and don't respond half the time. I understand this game was basically built from scratch due to a new developer, but the controls are such a vital part of being a THPS god. Not having the controls work properly is a disappointment in the end, but it honestly doesn't detour the fun that can be had.
The gameplay is typical fare of the old games. You have high score, collect the secret DVD, collect SKATE style objectives just like the Pro Skaters had. It's fun, but there are some objectives that are border-lining being absolutely difficult due to the controls being wonky half the time.
The levels are just like I remember them. There are only 7 levels and they are all great, except for 2. The Mall and Downhill Jam from THPS 1 are not my first choice of levels for this HD remake. Everything else is great except for the 2 least favorite/popular levels in Tony Hawk history. It is questionable why they picked these levels. Once you start playing these levels, it's cool, but after a couple rounds, you start to realize why you hated them so dearly.
The mutiplayer is fair game I would say. Local multiplayer is nowhere to be seen, but online is available. Unfortunately, there are only 3 game types and the famous and favorite game HORSE is missing. It's still worth a go around, but not for very long with the limited selection and no local multiplayer available.
The skaters all return with the addition of some new ones and elimination of a few from older games. There is no create a skater or create a skatepark in this game. Which I was sad to hear that wasn't in this game. It was cool to skate my own guy and create a park and share it with friends.The stats are still the same in the way of using money to buy stats to your character.
The animations are very questionable. They are very awkward when you wreck and they sometimes glitch around in the environment. The respawn times don't feel quick enough when you wreck which kind of puts you on edge when you're racing against the 2 minute clock.
Overall, this is a good attempt at making the original nostalgia of THPS games coming to the future. It does have a good amount of problems, but if you're a THPS fan, it's worth a download just to play it for old times sake. But I would more likely recommend playing it for the original PS instead though.