As the man behind countless skateboarding tricks, legendary skater/game kingpin Tony Hawk is no stranger to invention.
But the device powering his next video game could be his greatest creation yet.
Last night, Spike's Gametrailers TV flung open the doors on his comeback effort, the newly christened Tony Hawk: Ride, which features something no one saw coming: a wireless skateboard game controller.
Click the image to view Tony Hawk: Ride trailer!
The sleek device sits on the floor and looks just like a normal skateboard deck -- including slightly curved heel and nose sections -- but it's hardly just a replica. Players will be able to pull off basic moves by actually performing them on the board, which purportedly responds to any "tilting or turning motions." Sliding your foot next to the board will let you push it, while infrared sensors let you pull off grabs without having to physically bend down and touch it. My lower back thanks you, Tony.
If that all sounds too tricky, don't worry -- Hawk claims that you don't actually have to know how to skate to do well in the game. Plus, it completely replaces the standard gamepad, so you won't need to master yet another assortment of insanely complicated button presses to play (and you can have both hands free to break your fall when you inevitably topple over.)
So why the sudden shift? Tony Hawk himself explained that they decided to take a year off to really rethink the series from the ground up, though that might have a thing or two to do with EA's upstart Skate games. Despite Tony Hawk's decade-long grip on the skating game genre, the Skate series has enjoyed comparable sales figures and significantly better review scores -- hence this Star Trek-like reboot of the Tony Hawk line.
The new game and board will come out this fall for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii, but if you can’t wait that long, definitely check out the full Gametrailers episode for a deeper dive into the actual gameplay.
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Posted: 14 May 2009
