Famed skateboarding star Tony Hawk continues to impress the world with his skills and his own video games. His first skateboarding video game released nearly 8 years ago and was a big jump for the extreme sports genre as there weren’t really any notable extreme sports games back in the day. Having pretty much no competition, Tony Hawk has been able to dominate the skateboarding genre in the video game industry for so long, but now with EA’s new innovative game Skate coming out, Neversoft and Tony Hawk will have to step it up a notch to prove to fans if they’re still number one. We recently sat down with the latest build of Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground, a demo released on Xbox 360, to get a good feel of what we can expect from the game when it releases in October and where exactly the series is going.

Steeping into Proving Ground, most gamers who have played previous installments of the series will find themselves right at home as the basic control scheme is intact for pulling off moves. There are definitely a couple new things. For example when you go into a manual or grind, the bar that used to be there has changed drastically into two blurred angles on the side of your screen on which you must guide right to left. Other than this, though, most of the moves you could perform in something like Project 8 are still here. This is technically a good thing as the system itself was never broken in the first place with the exception of the ability to get off your skateboard, which still feels a bit clunky to navigate.

In Tony Hawk’s last installment – Project 8 – the biggest attraction was the new Nail the Trick mode and it really innovated the series, moving it away from traditional button pressing. Proving Ground keeps this mode but adds more. Along with being able to kick your board the way you want, you can now access grab tricks, pulling off tweaks and finger flips. This new addition is well appreciated and adds a whole new aspect when going into Nail the Trick. It did take us a little while before we got the hang of things because finger flips can become confusing when trying to figure out how or when to land them, but the smooth animation makes it all the more enjoyable. Now, in Nail the Trick mode you can do a couple things. Firstly, you control each of your skater’s legs with the two thumb sticks when kicking your board. Like Project 8, if you try to kick your board at an awkward position, you will find yourself with a face full of gravel. Now kicking your board is fun and all, but the new grab system really puts the gamer full faced down into the game as it offers the ability to pull off sick new beautiful tricks. While it isn’t as entertaining as the original flip tricks, it still offers a great challenge on which can sometimes get quite difficult to perform. With that said, there is another fabulous addition to Nail the Trick, in which you can now rack up major combos by going into manuals. Unfortunately, the demo we played had this feature locked away from us.

There are three major components that allow any good skateboarder to perform killer tricks: timing, skill and speed. Instead of taking the traditional route, Neversoft has included a mix of short mini-game style functions that most gamers will find great uses for. You are able to speed up your character while pumping your legs by pressing down when your character’s legs are straight ahead to gain a boost, but if you miss this you will lose all that stored velocity. This works rather well, and at the same time, it becomes a big aspect of the game from getting to place to place. Of course, though, if you’re in a race it becomes a bit of a gamble as if you lose your speed, you might find yourself facing your opponent’s back.


One of the major features Proving Ground has to offer over the previous installments in the series is the ability to choose your character’s style. There are three styles to choose from: Pro – skaters, who do everything for their next pay check; Hardcore skaters, who do it for the rush and excitement; and an Innovator, who constructs his/her own performance. These three classes bond well with one another as it gives you a lot of options to customize your own character besides the traditional create-a-character outline. Working through the demo, it looks as if Nail the Trick is better suited for the professional skaters, whereas the speed boost is best for getting some lengthy air for hardcore skaters.