Sports Games

[Foggle]

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[Spark Of Spirit]

Ha! Now you know what it's like!

How about this?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Tony Hawk was at its best when its levels were actually designed for skateboarding, sort of like this one, as opposed to just being obnoxiously big for no reason.

Ha! Now you know what it's like!

How about this?

I got the same message with this one.

[Rynnec]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcmaMPh3v40

I still remember that Tony Hawk 2 demo in Marseilles with this song playing and averaging over 1 million in tricks.

That it fell so far is almost Sonic 06 level awful for me.

"This video contains content from UMG. It is not available in your country" :/

But yeah, thinking about it, I guess THPS could be considered the Guitar Hero of its time. Though, at least with Guitar Hero, Activision was wise enough to kill the franchise before its complete zombification (but dumb enough to oversaturate it in the first place). 

I think there was a couple of problems with 4 at the time.

The first was that the series was over-saturated, and overexposed. I'm not even going to tell you how many hours myself, my friends, and kids I barely even knew put into the first two games. Then there was the portable stuff, Tony Hawk 2X (which if it had levels from 3 would probably be the best THPS game), and finally the first true next-gen game in THPS3 which made everything bigger and more accessible than even the first two games. By the time 4 came out, everyone was Tony Hawk'd out and the game didn't really attempt anything to shake everything up.

Next was that the game itself was just plain uninspired. The level design was pretty awful and outright dumb from what I remembered (The first level alone had way too much flat ground and a really stupid parade event), there was nothing as game changing as the manual or the revert introduced, the goals were not fun because unlike the first few games it was basically impossible to do 100% 2 minute runs because of how pointlessly big the levels were, and most of the goals were too goofy.

Actually, that became my biggest problem with most Tony Hawk games after 3- they became too goofy. Part of the fun was that balance between realism and impossibility that made you seem incredible when doing tricks. After 3 you just tended to look lame.

From what I remember, 4 did have that sort of MTV-style humour vibe to it (I don't know how else to describe it), which I didn't really care for at all. And I barely remember any of the level's, so they must've been pretty bland, the Aggressive Inline level's that the game included might've been better, but I never got to unlock them. Really, the only things I distinctly remember from 4 were a few music tracks, and that it had Jango Fett as its joke character.

Ha! Now you know what it's like!

How about this?

Nope.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Okay, the song is Cyclone by the Dub Pistols. It's pretty much THE Tony Hawk song to me.

But if you want a really good skateboarding game, the first three games can't be recommended enough. And since they have different mechanics (like 2 having the manual and 3 having the revert) they're all pretty different experiences in the same style and they all have really good level design but different people have different favorites.

I think if Activision would have stopped with 3 and cooled off a bit on the series, it would still be AAA.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, even if skating games don't seem like your thing, the THPS games can probably convince you otherwise. On that note, I would never naturally have any interest in a skating game (or a sports game in general, for that matter), but my brother once rented THPS for the PS1 and we actually had a lot of fun playing it. Later he bought THPS2 for the N64 and we became addicted to it, and then I went over to a friend's house to play the Dreamcast version specifically because it was actually an even better version of the game from what I can remember. I remember that I snagged THPS3 as soon as we got an XBOX because of how much I loved the 2nd game, and it did not disappoint in the slightest. For me it was the pinnacle of the series (though I can see how people would like 2 the best, as it can go either way between liking the 2nd or 3rd game the best for different reasons).

The first game was definitely good, but 2 and 3 are downright great. I'd definitely recommend picking either or both of those up if you just want a damn good game with lots of content, in general.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Also, here, I think this is what Desensitized was trying to link us to. This song brings back a ton of my fond nostalgic memories of playing these games.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The biggest turn-off for the first game might be those downhill levels that have definitive ends to them. They jar with the rest of the game and are just not all that fun. But the lack of the manual and revert make scoring a LOT harder, and the levels are still great so you should absolutely give it a shot even if it isn't as great as 2 or 3.

Also, here, I think this is what Desensitized was trying to link us to. This song brings back a ton of my fond nostalgic memories of playing these games.

That's the one!

[Rynnec]

I've been thinking of picking up 3, most of the copies I can find cost little over $4. The only reason I haven't gotten it yet is because of my ever increasing backlog, but I suppose I shouldn't let that stop me from buying quality games at a low price.  I'd also like to play 2 as well, but that one isn't as easy to find (other than the most-likely watered down N64 version).

Which versions of 2 and 3 would be the best?

[Spark Of Spirit]

The Dreamcast versions of 1 and 2 are the best ones but as for 3 I've only played the PS2 version, which I assume was the worst, and there wasn't anything bad or wrong with it so I guess you can go either way on that one.

EDIT:

I also forgot that XBOX had Tony Hawk 2X which was basically a port of THPS 2 to the XBOX with levels from the first game in it. I'm not sure how well the port holds up now, but it was really good at the time.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've only played the XBOX and GCN versions of 3 and both were equally good (the XBOX version had slightly sharper graphics, but its barely noticeable, really). From reviews, I'd assume that the PS2 version was of the same quality. I remember that at least Activision were pretty consistent with all of their multi-platform releases last-gen.

Also, I remember that I really liked the use of lincensed soundtracks in both the 2nd and 3rd games (I barely remember the 1st game's soundtrack, so I can't comment on that). As you all know, I know next to nothing about good music, but I liked most of the songs featured in both of those games.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I also forgot that XBOX had Tony Hawk 2X which was basically a port of THPS 2 to the XBOX with levels from the first game in it. I'm not sure how well the port holds up now, but it was really good at the time.

I never played that port, myself. I did play the N64 version of THPS2 which I did genuinely enjoy until I was spoiled by the superior Dreamcast version of the game.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I believe it's BC with the 360, so if you see it cheap it might be an odd curiosity.

And yeah, I liked the soundtracks of the first 3 games- they were very diverse and had a lot of different styles to them. Starting with 4 they became very bland and boring, I guess coinciding with that game. And I'm sure Foggle's already studied up on the horrors of the American Wasteland soundtrack. The HD re-release missing so many iconic songs for the series was a big disappointment.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I believe it's BC with the 360, so if you see it cheap it might be an odd curiosity.

It is. I can confirm this directly since I dug it out of my own collection of games and played it for a few hours the other day. The only thing that you need to keep in mind, though, is that the console needs to be set to the 480p standard definition video setting. For whatever reason the game won't run if you set it to 720p or 1080i, and also it won't scale to widescreen, though most BC games for the XBOX360 don't do that, anyways, so it shouldn't be a big deal. Its still perfectly playable, though, and at least while I was playing it I found that it ran smoothly.

[Foggle]

THPS 2 is on Dreamcast? Will have it to pick it up then! It's been years...

And I'm sure Foggle's already studied up on the horrors of the American Wasteland soundtrack.