Tony Hawk's Proving Ground

A relatively solid game, but it really doesn't do anything new and significant. We've seen all of the good parts from the game multiple, multiple times now, and it really just feels like we're playing a large expansion pack.

Solid gameplay, which you'd expect at this point in the series' life, but it just doesn't bring enough new or innovative features to keep you interested, especially with a competitor as good as skate.

While it's an enjoyable enough experience this game just cannot shake the 'been there, done that' vibe it gives off.

Predictably, Proving Ground falls into the 'more of the same category'. When that means more of the same of something brilliant and proven, there's reason for both contentment and disappointment, but if you know you like Tony Hawk, though you'll not be blown away you should certainly feel comfortable here.

With all its faults, Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground is still a fun experience. And even though you know exactly what you’re going to get even before you open the box, that doesn’t make the game bad, it just means it’ll fill you up with empty calories.

This is brilliant, challenging and rewarding as you pull impossible stunts out of thin air; but it's hard to get excited about another game in the series with fundamentally the same gameplay so soon. [Christmas 2007, p.108]

If you want to try and recreate the sort of fluid, graceful runs you see in skate videos and don't mind putting in the practice it takes to achieve them then skate is obviously the title for you. On the flipside, if you don't care so much about your skating lines looking good and want a score attack game that bears very little resemblance to reality but gives you a million tasks to plough through, then go with Proving Ground.

Proving Ground feels like filler in the end. It has great ideas and a great start on all areas like visuals and audio, gameplay and replay value, but they’re rushing these ideas and the end product is suffering.

I can only recommend Tony Hawk's Proving Ground to only the biggest fans of the franchise who simply want more. If you're looking for something new with a rewarding experience, I recommend "SKATE."

Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground adds all kinds of new features, but it also adds all kinds of new problems. And yet for everything new they’ve absent-mindedly tossed in here, I’d really rather just go back and play Tony Hawk 4.

While this may be Tony Hawk’s 9th game it is hard to say that much has changed since the other games. At a full retail price of 60 dollars it is hard to recommend this game over any of the other now bargain priced Hawk games.

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground gets most of the Tony Hawk formula down, but the parts that stray from that formula are the parts that don't work out so well.

The nuts and bolts of Tony Hawk still provide some fun, but at this point it's just ancient left-overs of what used to be something special. [Holiday 2007, p.68]

In spite of its solid online multiplayer, good video editor, and fun arcade game, the overall experience can't rise to the level of the game's great predecessors.

Tony Hawk brings a mixture of joy and frustration to this reviewer. On the one hand, I still find I always have room to improve. On the other hand, this really is the same game we've been playing for nine years.

Several years and numerous iterations of Tony Hawk have passed, but the series' progressive innovation appears to have slowed. [Holiday 2007, p.75]

I spend so much time criticizing this game only because the core mechanics are so good.

It's unpolished, unfocused, and proves nothing more than the now undeniable fact that the series needs a serious makeover and a lengthy vacation.