Tony Hawk's Proving Ground


Tony Hawk's Proving Ground is a skateboarding video game developed by Neversoft for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Vicarious Visions for the Nintendo DS, and by Page 44 Studios for the PlayStation 2 and Wii. Proving Ground is the ninth installment in the Tony Hawk's series, and the last to be developed by Neversoft as the franchise was then transferred to Robomodo.
The Xbox 360 version came with a demo of , which was released on October 28, 2007, and was also developed by Neversoft.

Gameplay

It features gameplay that is more reminiscent of earlier Tony Hawk games, whilst including new features such as Nail the Manual and Nail the Grab. These are similar to the Nail the Trick mode from the previous Tony Hawk game - Project 8.

Single-player

There are 9 levels in the video game. They are in 3 East Coast cities, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.. The levels differ between the different console versions. In the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, there is one open world. In the Wii and PlayStation 2 versions, levels have to be selected by pausing the game. Three different types of goals in Story Mode are available; Rigger, Career, and Hardcore. In each level, there are two arcade machines, one for high scores and the other to play classic mode. This game has three Nail the Trick modes. The PlayStation 2 and Wii versions do not include the Nail the Manual feature. The Classic Mode feature allows the player to play each city section in the style of early Pro Skater games. There is a Free Skate mode on the PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS, and Wii versions.

Multiplayer

Development

Demo

Proving Grounds demo was scheduled for release on Xbox Live Marketplace for Xbox 360 on September 10, 2007 but was delayed to September 12, 2007. The release date for the PlayStation 3 demo in the PlayStation Store was September 13 in the U.S. The UK demo was released on October 25, 2007. The demo allows ten minutes of free time, but allows players to try out each skater class, including a detailed tutorial on the new Nail The Grab mode, as well as a toned-down version of the Video Editor.

Reception

Proving Ground was met with mixed to positive reviews upon release. On Metacritic, both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions had an average score of 72, the PlayStation 2 version had an average score of 65, and the Wii version had an average score of 57. All of these scores are considered "mixed or average" by the site.
The PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii versions were criticized for not having the same mechanics that are in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. The Nintendo DS version received generally favorable reviews from critics. On Metacritic it received an average score of 79 out of 100 based on 21 reviews. On GameRankings it received an average score of 78% based on 19 reviews. Notably however, the game received a 9/10 from the Official UK Xbox Magazine. The Official UK PlayStation Magazine awarded the game 7/10.