Tony Hawk: Ride Was "Rushed," Gives Credit To EA's Skate

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Tony Hawk: Ride didn't turn out well, as most critics will tell you.

Now, the man himself talks about the game, and how he felt it was a "little rushed." That being said, he also believes that reviewers didn't give it enough of a chance; i.e., they didn't take enough time to learn how the board worked.

In speaking to Joystiq at GDC 2012, Tony elaborated on the poorly received Tony Hawk: Ride:

"I think that Ride was a bit rushed for a number of reasons, mostly because probably for about the first half of the development process it was just figuring out how to make a board and how to make it work -- we were in uncharted territory. So the game was a bit rushed, but I still feel like the critics never really gave it a chance in terms of learning how to play. They got on it and went straight into expert mode, because supposedly they're expert gamers. And they didn't really learn the mechanics of how the board works, and so I felt like they already had their mind made up before it came out. It was a gimmick and it was a peripheral and whatnot, and they never really took the time to learn how to play it."

Well, no offense Mr. Hawk, but...that really wasn't it. The board just wasn't anywhere near responsive or accurate enough. Don't have to play it long to figure that out, ya know. But anyway, he also talked about the competition in EA's well-reviewed Skate franchise, and he doesn't have a case of sour grapes. In fact, he applauds the series:

"I appreciated that someone could come out with a new control scheme for a skaterboarding game. That was very unique and progressive. Honestly, I was happy that skating had come so far as a genre in video games that you could have two main titles. Prior to that, some people had tried to do skating games, but they were just copying us."

Now, Hawk's focus is on the recently revealed Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD, a revival of the classic title(s) that made such a big splash back in the PS1 era. Now see, those were pretty amazing games.

Tags: tony hawk, tony hawk ride, tony hawk shred, tony hawk game

3/8/2012 8:36:31 PM Ben Dutka

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