Tony Hawk's Proving Ground

Proving Ground kicks things off by teaching players how to do the basic moves using the Wii controller. Now, this was a massive opportunity for the developer to show off just how sensitive the Wii-mote is and how innovative a game can be made using the features in the best possible way. Sadly, though, the process of having to flick your controller in various directions is certainly not intuitive in the slightest. In fact, more often than not your movements will not actually be recognised, leading to frustration building up as constantly having to repeat the same manoeuvre 'correctly', only for the game to not acknowledge said movement sucks any enjoyment out of the experience at all. Things become a little clearer as to why this is shoddy when compared to the previous Wii outings when you realise the regular developer was not on-board for this edition, with that team focused on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions instead. Whilst the game runs at a fair pace, with decent enough visuals and an excellent soundtrack full of varied songs (as per the norm), the control set-up here just does not lend itself well to such a game. Having to do subtle movements very quickly merely ends up with players not being able to pull off their desired moves, despite great efforts being made to do so.

 

The game is split into three different types of play: career lifestyle (which features competitions and photo-shoots), hardcore skating (for the traditionalist Tony Hawk fan) and rigging (creating your own skate environment using what is in the immediate surroundings). But whilst this may sound varied and fresh, it all blends into one big familiar racing game. Levels feel decidedly empty and lacking in any real fun factor, style or true atmosphere, unfortunately, so despite looking similar to the PS3 and Xbox 360 editions, it looks like the pale, weak younger brother of those iterations. An unequivocally bland churned out effort all round.