Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD Coming to Consoles in Summer 2012

It might come as little surprise, but where the console vs. PC debate is concerned, I belong to the latter team, playing the vast majority of my games on the PC. Quite simply, I don’t play any current console games. It might be petty, but the level of graphical detail is appalling to me, so I stick with the older games I already own. And one thing’s for certain – whenever I boot up my Xbox 360, it’s probably to play a title from the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series.

As far as game series go, THPS is one of my favorites. I own each one of the games up until Ride and have multiple copies of some of the earlier ones (such as THPS 2 for the PlayStation 1, Xbox, N64 and Dreamcast). But, in recent years the series has plummeted in value. With the likes of skate., Neversoft felt the need to really try something different, and with Ride and Shred, the games were received to a rather lackluster response.

This is a problem I foresaw happening with the launch of the ninth game in the series, Proving Ground. Though I enjoyed the game for the most part, I wrote an open letter to the developer begging them to take more time with the next game, because the series was obviously losing steam. Neversoft apparently didn’t hear me, because it released Ride and Shred after that and have no doubt regretted it.

It’s with all this that I was stoked to learn that a reboot of the series is being planned, with the release of the next game happening next summer, called Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD. At first glance it sounds like remake of the original, but it’s in fact going to be an amalgamation of the first two. It also goes without saying that the game mechanics will be updated to better match the later games in the series, as the originals lacked a lot of moves that allowed you to keep tricks going for a while.

Regardless, this news is awesome, and judging by the first gameplay trailer released, it looks like Neversoft is finally going back to the series’ roots and giving fans more of what they want. As a downloadable game, THPS HD isn’t likely to break the bank either. I do hope at its release it proves enough of a success to see a true THPS follow-up added to the series. We don’t need no stinkin’ skateboard peripherals.

There is one downside, however. It appears that the original soundtracks for the first two games are not going to see an inclusion here, though it’s still up in the air. If this proves to be the case, then the game is going to lose a lot, because the excellent music choices made by Neversoft have always been the highlight of the series. It was the original game that introduced me to Goldfinger – and now I own all of their albums. Other classics include Dead Kennedys, Primus, and from the second one, Bad Religion, Millencolin, Lagwagon and so many more.

The developers need try to secure as much of the original music as possible, because it can change the entire feeling of the game. The PC version of Crazy Taxi lacks the original music from The Offspring and Bad Religion, and as a result, the game honestly feels flat.

Either way, I am stoked to see a new Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater en route, and can only think, “It’s about time”. Hopefully it lives up to everyone’s expectations.