tony hawk's proving ground

What was cool ten years ago on the Dreamcast is definitely still cool today-or is it "rad" now? Regardless, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, while never earth-shattering, proves itself to be a solid step forward in the franchise's history. Everything about this game is over-the-top, from the grittiness of the environment and dialogue to the tricks themselves.

The mainstay for Proving Ground is the game play. The title does justice to its history as well as to the newest generation of consoles. For anyone who has played a previous Tony Hawk title, the control system has changed little, so no guesswork is needed on how to pull off the "sickest" combos and rack up the highest points.

Character development is through the performance of tricks, which increase core stats (jump higher, grind harder), and the completion of plot objectives and side challenges, which give points to spend on stats that unlock abilities such as climbing fences, bowling over unsuspecting pedestrians and even initiating bullet-time. Newcomers will have a small learning curve as the game seems focused on exploring new game play mechanics, but the controls are intuitive enough and do not require the hair-tearing tedium of Electronic Arts' Skate's tutorial mode. Multi-player, while seamless, is lacking in drive, missing the old magic of dramatic one-on-one's.

Beyond game play, Proving Ground has all the extras you expect from a recently-published sports game. Fully-customizable characters-down to the shape of the eye-allow for the creation of the most thuggish of 'toons. Versatile camera control, including the ability to add film effects and overlays to recorded shots, will let all your friends know how great you are at armchair skateboarding. Large amounts of clothing, board designs and items are available for unlocking to customize both your character's look and his personal skating hangout.

The few annoyances, such as trying to take a picture while flying through the air to complete a goal, are few and far between. The only consistent sources of discontent are the reused motifs, too many recurrences of "dude" and cheesy encouragement force fed to the player.

However, reasonable graphics, intuitive game play and the ability to fast forward through most of the explanations are enough to make this top the list for those looking for an arcade skateboarding game. If you are looking for realism... well, since when did you get that from a Tony Hawk game? Colliding with an oncoming subway train, or grinding on electrical wires or pulling off that 1080 Rodeo Fingerflip Darkslide into a Nollie?