THPS5, is an amazing game for nostalgia's sake. It looks, plays, and plays better than any other game in the original series. Granted, you can't get off the board, but you couldn't get off the board in the original games, and I kinda like that they kept the Pro Skater style, rather than the Underground gameplay. Call me nuts, but I even like the graphics they have in the game, I'm glad they don't looks so real you can see nothing but ass sweat through the entire game, I'm glad when you fall it looks like a really bad rag doll, and not all cuts and scrapes like say, in Skate. I know power ups, and shooting fireballs takes away the realistic skating,but is it so wrong to have a video game be a fun, crazy, unrealistic game for once? I mean do we remember that gaming is about escaping reality, not necessarily emulating reality? I don't play Fallout for accurate guns, and realistic environment, I play it to fight zombies,giant killer monsters, radiated bears, and giant green goliaths!
Still, the game is flawed, even for emulating....old-school gameplay. Granted, the graphics, and the S-K-A-T-E letters come back, but the graphics could still be a bit better than they were, even though they look nearly, if-not eerily similar to those found on the Playstation 2. The quality seems lower, but it's surprisingly fast-paced, and the load screens are rather slow, however, having to load back and forth from single player, and multiplayer. Still, we go Gaga over playing games that look like 8-bit "art", but when we do something that's looks nostalgic from ten-to-fifteen years ago, it's not worth a dime of our money. I think it's hypocritical for a gamer to braise a game like Braid, or Bastion, then condemn a game like Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5. I have to paraphrase a line from the Fresh Prince himself, Will Smith: Young Gamers Just Don't Understand. This is a hypocritical nation, and we are surrounded by the hypocrites that don't see the irony in their disdain for a "next-gen" title, which looks like a bunch of polygons, or like it was made on a twenty year old engine, but clap their elitist hands when it looks like every other 8-bit RPG rip-of of overrated titles like Final Fantasy to begin with! News flash! Final Fantasy was Squaresoft's going out of business sale, because they couldn't sell a blessed cartridge. Still, RPGs are the stuck-up "cultural" facades of the gaming community. We gamers are not just some "98 Quite Bitter Beings" that have been there to play every one of the old-school THPS games, we respect that the old adage that games are designed not for some cultural statement, but to be played for fun.
In a culture that makes me feel like the old man screaming to those young hooligans: "Get off my Oregon Trail, ya damn whippersnappers!!" I feel a sudden disdain for gaming journalists who gave this game such snotty scores like 3 out of 10, why I never cared much for given a game a numeral score anyway! This game is fun, I can see it's fun, and plays like an older game, which isn't a bad thing! Seeing as every newer game has so many candid flaws, and glitches that crash your console, so it needs to go in the shop to be fixed by Bubba, who charges you enough to might as well buy the newer system. Sorry, but this game deserves a median score of 6 out of 10, maybe even a solid 7. I'm not crazy, I'm a gamer who has been playing games since the second generation console cycle, and hanging out at an arcade to play something that was truly communal, unlike online gaming that never levels the playing field.
Yeah, I hate to be that guy, but many gamers are sick of the liberal use of making indie companies to fight the so-called "man" over actual gameplay, because the trends will be trends, but love or hate it, there is a need for games like Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5, so hypocrites have to stop playing gaming politics in journalism, and actually give a fair, unbiased (hah!) score. Now I may stick with third-party titles, and I may do only Playstation exclusives, I love gaming overall, but I also know what I personally like! Canni appreciate a 2-D game? Absolutely! Yet don't doubt me when I say that these games only succeed because some old farts in the gaming journalism elite, hate the fact they're getting old, and jumping on a trend so that grey streak running down the sides of their receding hairline, is somehow ignored becaue they jump on a sheep bandwagon. Am I a hypocrite for saying all this? Hey! Welcome to 2015!
Personally, if you're a fan of the rest of the THPS games, and I happened to find them to be rather dull after the first Underground game, and yes, the original Skate game was okay, but it didn't even compare. Is this game great? Does it compare to Skate 3 even? No! It was never supposed to though! It's pales and oranges, and Tony Hawk is one of those old fogey guys who I talk about in their said industry, and yes this game is an obvious rush job, but for the complaints people have for this title, they're the wrong complaints, and a sad, sad sin as to what the gaming journalism industry has become.
The controls on this game are slated to be basically carbon copies of their older counterparts, and although analog controls have been added, they seem to be responsive from what I've seen, and the reviewer experienced from the stream I've watched. The gameplay itself is a bit repetitive, but it's a skateboarding game, so if you think it's supposed to be varied and complex, I'd suggest only playing user-made levels, or building your own parks, becaue that to me seems like the meat of this game; as it was for the grandfathered prequels.
If this game was made, let's say either ten years ago, or ten years in the future, it would have received a much stronger score overall, so is this just bad timing? Even though it was rushed out because the liscense expired, I have some mirth over how well accomplished this game was, and who the hell didn't want some trophies/achievements to go along with the original Tony Hawk Pro Skater games? The problem is most people are finding the game too easy...well, it is the fifth rendition of a game most of us mastered at fourteen, so yeah, older gamers are probably not having that much of a problem, although younger gamers who are so used to just mashing square and/or Y buttons to achieve something, are probably not used to actually having a challenge. I could be wrong, still, I think the only thing this game does wrong is the lackluster playlist, and that has more to do with shitty music, rather than a poor playlist choice, but that's another rant.
To conclude, this game is a stellar choice for nostalgia gamers that are sickened by the flooded market of eight-bit wannabes, and helps in a lacking market of skateboard/extreme titles. I would hope that this game opens the said floodgates to other major titles of extreme sports titles, but most likely, it's a dying genre, because it doesn't have nearly the impact it used to; that I can agree with most naysayers. Still, I happen to still love the X-Games, and can appreciate what skaters put their bodies through for perfection, and it is earned with broken bones and scraped skin. This game is fun, and it may harken back prices of thirty dollars per game, but it deserves it's full-price, despite how much that may piss off "gamers".
Thank you for reading my anger, but if you are an old-school gamer, from Maine to Ajerbijan, you can appreciate what I'm saying, and you may or may not appreciate my vigor on the subject, but I know that gaming for gamers isn't about brand, or age, it's about the experience. Sure we older gamers make it seem like the Rose-colored glasses of the past make it sound like games were better, but in-truth, many of them sucked, yet they were built with a pride that didn't come with developers being personal slaves, where they were more defined, more in control before games became big business. I sense the irony in my subtle disdain of newer indie studios, but they have not the same fortitude as older developers of yesteryear, and have a great deal of growing up to do. I say criticize until we make sophomoric results reshape into perfection.
Again,thank you for supporting the Malacast Eidtorial, and I hope you all continue to have a wonderful October!!
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