Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 is a 2015 skateboarding video game developed by Robomodo and Disruptive Games, and published by Activision. The sixteenth installment in the Tony Hawk's series, the game is the first traditional entry in the main series since 2007's Proving Ground, as the series had been put on hold following a lack of critical and commercial success with later games. The game was released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 29, 2015, while the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released on December 15, 2015.
As the licensing deal between Tony Hawk and Activision was set to expire by the end of 2015, the game was hastily developed within a few months and released unfinished. Upon release, the game was a critical and commercial failure, and was panned heavily by critics, with criticism centering on its graphics, bugs and glitches, controls, and lack of design. It became Robomodo's final game, as it shut down in August 2016. This would be the last major game in the franchise until Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, a remaster of the first two games, was announced in 2020. They have added an update 1.07 on July 28th 2020.
Gameplay
Like most other games in the series, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 oriented its gameplay to classic arcade games. The goal of most modes of the game is to achieve a high score or collect certain objects. As with previous Pro Skater games, the game does not feature a story. To score, the player has to successfully perform and combine aerials, flips, grinds, lips, and manuals, with successful executions adding to the player's score. The point value of the trick is based on time maintained, degrees rotated, number of tricks performed in sequence, performing tricks on specific landmarks on the map, and the number of times the tricks have been used. Successful tricks also add to the player's special meter, which, once full, allows for the execution of special tricks which are worth a great deal more than normal tricks. Bails cause no points to be awarded for the attempted trick and reset the special bar to empty. The controls of the game deviate to a degree from previous entries, omitting features such as branching, flatland tricks, the ability to get off the board, climb, slow time, or drive vehicles. Entirely new controls include the ability to stomp to the ground mid-air to reach certain rails or destroy objects. Also, each level features a unique power-up, such as a double jump, gigantism, or a burning or electric skateboard.Levels in the game are all-new to the series, although the vast majority is derivative of popular levels featured in earlier entries. In total, Pro Skater 5 features 10 levels, albeit only seven were available at launch. Furthermore, the game features the ability to create custom skate parks, as was the case with most previous entries. The game does not feature the option to create an individual skater, however; all skaters available can be modified by exchanging their head, torso, or legs. Returning to the series are Tony Hawk, his son Riley, Chris Cole, Andrew Reynolds, David Gonzalez, and Nyjah Huston, while Aaron "Jaws" Homoki, Lizzie Armanto, Leticia Bufoni, and Ishod Wair make their video game debut. Rapper Lil Wayne serves as the celebrity skater for the entry, while fellow rapper Tyler, the Creator and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were added with a post-release patch.
Development
On November 7, 2014, Hawk confirmed that a Pro Skater console sequel was in the works. Updated news came from Hawk's appearance at Sony's CES conference in January 2015, where the skater stated that a new game was "much further along than he anticipated" and would be coming to the PlayStation 4 console at some point during 2015. To point out its return to the series' roots and heyday, it was named Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. In an interview with GameSpot at E3 2015, Hawk stated that Robomodo had consulted with some former Neversoft employees to ensure that the gameplay felt like the original Pro Skater titles.Because the licensing deal between Activision and Tony Hawk was set to expire by the end of 2015, the game was hastily developed within a few months and released unfinished with little promotion. The game was so rushed to release that it was unplayable without an 8GB day one patch, with only the tutorial and park creator being accessible. Essentially, the patch was what contained the full game. After initial footage received negative feedback by fans and commentators alike for its completely outdated graphics, Robomodo made a complete departure from the attempted realistic look to a cel-shaded style two months prior to the game's release. Even though Activision marketed this as a conscious stylistic decision unrelated to the feedback and solely owing to allow a consistent frame rate, the results did not save the game from being bashed by critics upon release in September 2015.
Reception
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 was panned heavily by critics upon release. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Xbox One version 38/100 based on 17 reviews and the PlayStation 4 version received 32/100 based on 43 reviews. It has the fourth-lowest average score of any PlayStation 4 title and the fifth-lowest average score of any Xbox One title. Developer Robomodo was shut down soon after releasing the game.Most critics noted that the graphics were inferior even to the games released on the PlayStation 2, while the gameplay barely resembled previous releases and the fact that the game was rendered almost unplayable by numerous bugs. Furthermore, the simplistic, bland environments and missions, as well as the complete absence of NPCs were noted, while some critics pointed out that better levels could have been designed with the Create-a-Park feature of previous games, whereas most levels were simply inferior copies of levels from the original games. It was named the "Worst Video Game of 2015" by Entertainment Weekly. Edge even went so far to call Pro Skater 5 "an insult to its history, to its licensed skaters and sponsors, to modern hardware, and to anyone who plays it."
Marty Silva of IGN awarded it a score of 3.5 out of 10, saying "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5s rare moments of nostalgic joy are drowned out by its abundance of faults." He was critical of the newly adjusted control scheme, especially the new stomp function that was using the same button as grind, thus interfering with combos more often than not. Also, the sheer abundance of bugs and framerate drops rendered the game unplayable, especially online. Furthermore, he found the levels to be inferior copies of levels from previous games, thus "lack any sort of charm or identity." Lastly, he characterized the challenges in the level as a chore, as they were extremely repetitive, bland, and questioned the decision of making them unskippable even when the objective was completed.
Peter Brown of GameSpot gave the game a 3/10, saying that the game was "riddled with technical glitches and design missteps, making it a huge step back for the series", naming his article "cheap skate." Like Silva, he criticized the level design, as he deemed the levels to be small, ugly, boring, and lacking clever combo elements found in earlier entries of the series. He too was critical of the new stomping mechanic, while finding the online gameplay to be hindrance, as it not only slowed down the framerate, but also required constant connection to a server, which failed more often than not and could only be solved by disconnecting the console from the internet. Unlike Silva, he noted the soundtrack as a positive aspect of the game.
Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb gave the game 1 out of 5 stars and opened his review with the phrase "don't play this game." As for the levels, he noted that they felt "about a half-step up from the levels you can create with the game's in-game editor. They have no character and feel slapped together, like someone was in a hurry", referencing the short development time. He was especially critical of the Rooftop level, naming it "the worst level this franchise has ever produced." He went into detail criticizing the new trick system, especially the changed mechanics of double and triple flips, absence of branching and flatland tricks, and the new special meter, which essentially boiled down to attaining a higher multiplier. All in all, he found the level and controls to lack flow. He also called the game out for its inability to skip tasks once completed and the abundance of different loading screens and loading time when starting an objective. He concluded his review, stating: "Don't waste your time. You deserve better. Tony Hawk deserves better. Hell, even guest skater Lil Wayne deserves better."