Sure, you'll probably be able to grind, manual, and revert your way from one side of a level to another, but it never feels like you're uncovering some kind of sweet new hidden combo line. There are tons of circular grind areas where you can rack up huge points, but none of it feels custom-crafted for interesting combos. They have no character and feel slapped together, like someone was in a hurry. The levels found in Tony Hawk 5 feel like they're about a half-step up from the levels you can create with the game's in-game editor. Over the years, the franchise has produced some absolute classics. The levels themselves are also a huge part of a Tony Hawk game. Unfortunately, this game seems to have a small number of goal types, and these are simply replicated and remapped onto each of the game's different levels. The goals in a Tony Hawk game are a huge part of what gives a level its character. Others have you playing Simon Says with skateboard tricks, some have you collecting a whole mess of objects as quickly as possible, and so on. Some of these goals simply ask you to get a specific score. Instead you're dropped into the environment and can trigger goals from a menu (or, when it decides to work properly, you can skate up to an icon in the world and start a goal from there). Most goals are timed, but this game doesn't go back to the traditional two-minute run timer found in the first few games. This means enclosed levels with set goals. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 is a mess of half-cocked ideas, astoundingly poor execution, and technical woes that layer a little insult on top of injury.Īfter a few years of either going dormant or getting into the not-so-lucrative business of selling plastic skateboard controllers, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 is an attempt to return to the goal-based, trick-oriented gameplay of the original Tony Hawk games. But the end result probably couldn't have gone worse. The world probably didn't need another 'classic' Tony Hawk game, but I was sure happy to hear that Activision was giving it another shot.

Xbox tony hawk pro skater 5