I quite enjoyed revisiting THPS3 last night, so I thought I might want to keep the train rolling. I knew THPS4 would take ages though, because it shifted to more of an RPG thing where you had to talk to NPCs to do goals. I wanted something I could play through in an hour, and remembered the later ones included a "Classic Mode". A bunch of goals and a two minute time-limit. Lovely.
I'm not going back to THUG2.
Classic Mode isn't playing American Wasteland, though. Of its six levels, three are remakes of ones from THPS1, two are pulled from the weird expanded PSP port of THUG2 and one is original. There isn't a single location from the Story Mode here. Classic Mode in THUG2 was an alternate option for those shielding from CKY-inspired comedy. Here, it's a whole distinct entity, mainly stemming from Neversoft's (or more likely, Activision's) insistence not to drop a single feature from a prior entry. It's bizarre.
It's fine enough, in a way. Tony Hawk's gameplay had advanced dramatically over the ridiculous number of annualised sequels, and those who are familiar with the recent THPS1+2 remake can find all their reliable combo abilities here. The C-O-M-B-O goals are a bit of a development from the old S-K-A-T-E ones, requiring players to plan an unbroken chain of tricks through each icon, and they complement the old format well.
But there's no amount of old formulas or levels can hide the face that the series had adopted by this point. There's mid-combo parkour, 40 foot airs and ceaseless vert transitions. Fittingly, the final level in Classic Mode (its one original one) is named "The Ruins"; a hellish post-apocalyptic vision of LA, where you collect roadkill. You can't live in Tony Hawk's anymore. I don't want to take a wholesome barngrown boy like Rodney Mullen here. Get out while you can.
It's how American Wasteland reflects contemporary skater culture that's possibly the most curious. A soundtrack filled with Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday and My Chemical Romance. I'd never normally say this, but it's a relief when a song from American Idiot comes on. I don't know if you could have something like Tony Hawk's today. Something that attempts to capture the wider attitude of the culture. Skateboarding today is a bunch of penniless 14 year-olds with shocking Instagram follower numbers. The new skateboarding videogames sideline any sense of injected personality, and encourage personalisation, modding and social media integration. That seems like the future, but it's also a future shaped by 50 year-old hippy programmers. I don't know. All the kids seem so confidently individual, but so lacking in their own spaces that they're easily funnelled into juggernaut brands owned by inept billionaire psychopaths.
Apparently, Classic Mode has two more levels if you bought the US-exclusive "Special Edition" version of the game. Gotta be some political insight you can mine from that, surely.
I'm not going back to THUG2.
Classic Mode isn't playing American Wasteland, though. Of its six levels, three are remakes of ones from THPS1, two are pulled from the weird expanded PSP port of THUG2 and one is original. There isn't a single location from the Story Mode here. Classic Mode in THUG2 was an alternate option for those shielding from CKY-inspired comedy. Here, it's a whole distinct entity, mainly stemming from Neversoft's (or more likely, Activision's) insistence not to drop a single feature from a prior entry. It's bizarre.
It's fine enough, in a way. Tony Hawk's gameplay had advanced dramatically over the ridiculous number of annualised sequels, and those who are familiar with the recent THPS1+2 remake can find all their reliable combo abilities here. The C-O-M-B-O goals are a bit of a development from the old S-K-A-T-E ones, requiring players to plan an unbroken chain of tricks through each icon, and they complement the old format well.
But there's no amount of old formulas or levels can hide the face that the series had adopted by this point. There's mid-combo parkour, 40 foot airs and ceaseless vert transitions. Fittingly, the final level in Classic Mode (its one original one) is named "The Ruins"; a hellish post-apocalyptic vision of LA, where you collect roadkill. You can't live in Tony Hawk's anymore. I don't want to take a wholesome barngrown boy like Rodney Mullen here. Get out while you can.
It's how American Wasteland reflects contemporary skater culture that's possibly the most curious. A soundtrack filled with Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday and My Chemical Romance. I'd never normally say this, but it's a relief when a song from American Idiot comes on. I don't know if you could have something like Tony Hawk's today. Something that attempts to capture the wider attitude of the culture. Skateboarding today is a bunch of penniless 14 year-olds with shocking Instagram follower numbers. The new skateboarding videogames sideline any sense of injected personality, and encourage personalisation, modding and social media integration. That seems like the future, but it's also a future shaped by 50 year-old hippy programmers. I don't know. All the kids seem so confidently individual, but so lacking in their own spaces that they're easily funnelled into juggernaut brands owned by inept billionaire psychopaths.
Apparently, Classic Mode has two more levels if you bought the US-exclusive "Special Edition" version of the game. Gotta be some political insight you can mine from that, surely.
Yuggy
1 year ago