Tony Hawk: Shred Review

I remember the first time I tried out Tony Hawk Pro Skater was on the Dreamcast.  At first it was fun to ride around on the skateboard, but I had a tough time doing tricks.  Eventually I figured out the timing of the game and had a lot of fun grinding my way along the stages.  I have played every single incarnation of Tony Hawk since, except for last year

Three modes are available to play on Shred.  In the single player game you play through different sessions to score point and earn stars.  As you earn stars you

Since it takes a while to get used to the controls, the game has four different navigation settings to help you play through the game.  The easiest is the Casual where you are set on a specific path.  This allows you to performing tricks without worrying about steering the board.  The Casual Plus setting still gives you a path, but you are able to move a bit off the path to get to different lines.  When you are up to it, you can graduate to Confident.  You no longer have the yellow path and you can go wherever you want, but the game will give some small nudges to line up your tricks.  If you

The areas are varied, but they feel like something from Tony Hawk

In a way, Shred plays a lot like some fighting games.  Some fighting games are friendly to button-mashers, but those who are able to play the game for long periods of time will be able to detect the subtleties of the game.  While you can try to flail your arms all over the place and get high scores, learning to Shred with all of its tricks is a much more satisfying experience.  It will take some practice, but eventually it will become second nature.

 

When they say that you should have plenty of room around the board when playing Shred, they aren

Graphically Shred is cel shaded, giving it a bit of a comic look.  With all the big air and crazy tricks you can perform, this style matches the gameplay well.  It helps the game look real enough that you are boarding without looking too real with the number of big tricks you can do.  For instance, grinding in the middle of circus attractions or on bowed rope to get past some water obstacles matches the level of realism of the game.

 

One of the unique features of the Wii version of Shred is that you can skate and snowboard using your Mii.  They do make some changes like enlarging the head of your Wii, making the levels look even more cartoonish than their high definition counterparts.  It

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