Why Tony Hawk Ride Failed

Fail ride.

There's no question that Tony Hawk Ride is a disappointment.  Not only is it one of the worst-playing sports games of the year, but it's the absolute lowest point that the Tony Hawk franchise has reached in the past ten years.  It's hard to believe that we were jamming along in 1999 to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, only to face this eventual outcome now.

As you can see from our review, everything that could go wrong does.  The presentation is below-average, the options are limited, and the game plays as effectively as a piano with broken keys.  But it isn't enough we lambaste it in our review.  We need to take a close look here and figure out why Tony Hawk Ride failed so miserably.  Here's the breakdown...

1. The price.  At a time when the recession is taking a huge chunk out of everyone's wallets, players can barely afford games as it is.  But for Activision to produce a peripheral alongside a game and ask over $100 for it, that's just plain overkill.  We already have a list a mile wide of games we want, including Activision titles like Modern Warfare 2 and Guitar Hero 5, and cramming Ride in there is ridiculous.  If it were more reasonably priced, like, say, $60, then we might've been a little more understanding.  At $120, though, you might feel tempted to pick up a real skateboard instead.  It's cheaper and more stylish.

2. The pressure to innovate.  EA's Skate series was slowly but surely becoming the new king of skateboarding games, as the previously released Skate 2 proved a few months back.  To keep up, Activision went a little bit drastic in deciding how to innovate the series in a whole new way.  The board is a novel idea, don't get us wrong, but it executed poorly when we finally got our hands on it.  Worse yet, the game itself is actually a few notches below previous Neversoft releases, like Proving Ground and even Project 8.  Robomodo just couldn't keep up with the skateboarding goodness the original studio provided over the past few years.  As a result, the game felt and looked lukewarm, and certainly isn't up to current-generation standards.  All of a sudden, Skate 3 is looking a lot better.

3. The board.  Yeah, the board controller innovates, but it's a pain in the ass.  The four motion-sensitive sensors on each side are cool, but the build itself is very, very flawed.  It stands on a pivot, meaning it's easy to fall off if you lean too much left or right.  Furthermore, the demand to do kickflips and tricks in the air by balancing on the front or back is near impossible unless you have the balance of a circus performer or ballerina (or actual skateboarder, who would probably enjoy this game the most).  Activision should've kept some design tips in mind when they were building this thing.  All it's doing for us is leaving sore calves and making us wish we had a controller in our hands.

4. It's all been done before, and for cheaper.  Tony Hawk Ride would be a bigger novelty had it not been for Sega's sharp arcade skateboarding games that had come out years before.  Top Skater and Air Trix are still lingering in arcades and Dave and Buster's today, letting players feel like they're riding an actual board for only a dollar a pop.  What's even better, the game has safety handrails, so you don't run the risk of falling off like you would with Ride.  Had Sega made a game of this stature, we're sure they would've done a hell of a lot better than this.

Top Skater, it's not.

5. Lack of options.  Bottom line, there's very little in this game to actually do.  The modes are barebones, with free ride and story options, and the online community...er, what online community?  No one's playing this online, not with only three options available and long connection times.  It actually takes as long to calibrate the board as it does to connect to a match.  We didn't even bother after a few failed attempts.  Just plain sad.

6. Robomodo is no Neversoft.  This is one of those times Activision should've simply waited on the services of Neversoft between Guitar Hero games to work on Tony Hawk Ride, rather than turning the reigns to a developer that couldn't handle it.  Tony Hawk Ride looks and sounds below average, between lame character models, bad skateboarding videos, a repetitive soundtrack and glitches galore.  This was clearly rushed, and no one is feeling the benefit from it.  Except drunken skateboarding fans, perhaps.  But even they may feel cheated once they sober up.

7. It's either too easy or too hard.  Activision should've included some sort of middle ground here where you could actually play the damn game, rather than teeter between simply controlling jumping motions and turning so tightly that you ram head-first into a wall.  The game fails on all accounts, either boring you to tears with simplistic jump and tilting motions or frustrating you to no end as you attempt to perform simple turns.  You can't even turn properly!  Wham!  Wall.  Talk about epic fail.

8. The advertising sucks.  The TV ad (as seen below) gives the illusion the game is more than it is.  The interactive floor pad would actually be a stellar idea for a game such as this, as you'd actually feel like you're getting somewhere.  Without it, you're brushing your feet on a pad (while trying to keep your balance and trying to do grab motions), and it feels awkward.  Activision should've been more honest here, instead of going with something that's simply non-existent.  (At least in home gaming, anyway.)

Let's hope Activision takes these criticisms to heart and brings the Tony Hawk series back to prosperity.  If not, well, this Ride is going to end way too soon, and the Pro Skater legacy will be no more.  We'd hate to see it end like this.  Especially like this.