Tony Hawk: Ride - First Look Preview

It's got to be said that when Tony Hawk's Proving Ground came out in 2007, we really got the feeling that Activision and Neversoft had battered the series' formula into submission. Like an oil giant exploiting fossil fuels from an area of natural beauty, there came a point when a barren Wasteland was all that remained. The basic principles of the Tony Hawk series had been appended so many times with gimmicky new features that it was hard to take it seriously anymore, while the core gameplay had remained the same for so many years that, regardless of how many different ways Neversoft tried to dress it up, there was no denying its monotony.

Last year's hiatus from the series was a welcome one then. While we can hardly keep a straight face while suggesting that absence makes the heart grow fonder in the case of Tony Hawk games, we're certainly intrigued to see how Activision are going to reinvent the brand. Of course, we should've known that this would involve a peripheral - if the publisher had its way then every game would require a tacky lump of plastic with a higher profit margin than the contents of a hotel room mini-bar. Nonetheless, given Nintendo's success with its Wii Fit balance board, we can certainly understand why Activision wants a piece of that action.

Riding Fakie

The question is, do gamers really want a peripheral to play Tony Hawk's with and, more importantly, will they fork out the cash for it? Early indications are that the game and skateboard will set players back a whopping $119.99 in the States. If that figure is accurate, then the bundle will probably weigh in at just under £100 in the UK, suggesting a cost of £40-£50 for the board itself. Of course, that's all just speculation at this point, although developer Robomodo has officially detailed the board's hardware layout and it sounds like it's wired up more ways than Robocop.

Two accelerometers will be able to sense which direction the board is being pointing in, catering for both navigation and tricks by sensing the board's pitch and yaw. Additionally, to ensure that the peripheral is more than just a long, flat Wii Remote, Robomodo has also attached four infra-red sensors to its sides. These can sense a swiped foot down the side of the board for a push, or a player touching the side of the board for a grab. The difficulty level is then increased with more complex grabs by touching multiple infra-red sensors at a time.

We haven't gone 'feet on' with the board at this stage and so won't be able to give you the full lowdown on how it plays, but at least Robomodo has provided a peripheral with some promise. However, there's obviously the issue of how the developer has grafted ollies and flip tricks onto the board's controls. The lack of any wheels means that gamers won't be getting any airtime on the board (which is probably a good thing considering the havoc it would cause in a living room), so we can only take educated guesses at exactly how these controls are going to pan out, which we're not going to do. Suffice to say that there seemed to be a lot of manual style gestures and side-swiping movements going on in our demo, so presumably these are fairly prevalent in the gameplay.

Both Activision and Robomodo understand that this might not be the easiest transition for gamers who're used to holding a gamepad (although it's probably easier for those of you who actually skate, or older gamers who remember playing SEGA's Top Skater in the 90s). Three difficulty modes will ease this transition, with the main difference between each setting being how much navigation the player is responsible for. In Casual Mode, for example, the focus is completely on tricks and navigation throughout the game world is automatic, effectively placing the skater on rails.

While Casual Mode serves as an introduction to the new system, Confident and Hardcore take away auto-navigation with the former only offering some guidance and the latter being freely navigated with more complex tricks. In other words, the days of insane high-scores from grind and manual combos may well be over. Throughout the Tony Hawk's Undergrounds and Pro Skaters of the last decade, the biggest challenge for hardcore fans has been finding the highest scoring routes through a level to ratchet up the multipliers ad infinitum. It sounds like the biggest challenge in Ride might just be staying on the board.

It's Tricky To Rock At Ride

This challenge will play out through four different game modes (or, at least, four that have been announced so far), and a total of five city areas including Los Angeles. While there is a Speed Mode with point-to-point races, the focus is on tricking in the Vert, Challenge, and Trick modes. Vert is obviously self-explanatory, while gamers have to complete certain tricks to progress from one area to another in Challenge and go up against the clock in the classically trained Trick Mode.

There's also going to be a multiplayer component for up to 4 players. All we know about this so far is that Robomodo is focusing on a quick pick-up-and-play experience for the multiplayer, angling the game towards swift five minute sessions online. Create-a-Skater makes a return in Ride as well, although we'll have to wait until the next round of preview events to learn more about that.

In 2008, Activision added the drums to its line of peripherals and this year will see a skateboard and record player bolstering the line-up. While we're definitely sold on DJ Hero's peripheral, Robomodo has got a little way to go yet before it's got us thoroughly convinced that its hoverboard-looking piece of kit will be worth the extra cash.