What I Think Of...Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5

There is no denying the significance of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, both in the video game industry and for my personal gaming life. I can't even begin to tell you how many hours I have put into this series, primarily Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1, 2 and 3. Not only was I exposed to a damn fun franchise, I was exposed to a lot of kick ass music that found its way onto CD's thanks to Napster.

The series would spawn several sequels and spin-offs with BMX bikes, snowboards, and even surf boards. The overall problem, however, was Activision treated this series like it did with Guitar Hero, Spider-Man, and Call of Duty, and release game after game, eventually beating a dead horse, releasing mediocre products and tapping the money well for all it was worth. Obviously, Call of Duty is getting its act together, Guitar Hero is getting a new entry after a hiatus, and now we have Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. After all the attempts at the Tony Hawk series with games like Project 8 (good), Proving Ground (not so good), Ride  and Shred (terrible), and so on, we are finally getting what is touted as a return to the Pro Skater greatness.

Just HOW great is this supposed return of the skateboard king? Well....uh...just read on...here is what I think of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5.

(For the purposes of this review, let it be known I played the Xbox One version of the game)

From the very beginning I knew to keep my expectations low, as the Activision splash screen's audio would cut out every couple seconds."Nevermind" I thought, "just a simple bug that a quick patch can fix later on, no big deal.". Little did I know, this would set the tone for the experience I was about to have.

After finally getting to the main menu, I am greeted with a couple options here, "Create-a-Park", "Customize Skater", the obligatory "Options" and "Credits", and only one "Play" option. So...there is only one real game mode and it's "Play"....ok.

After hitting "Play", you have the option of THPS5 levels, your created levels, or community made levels. After choosing a map to play on, you enter into basically an online freeskate lobby. By "enter", I mean you wake up in a fuzzy haze while the power of the Unreal Engine loads those textures in. I'm used to Unreal games having texture pop-in but, whew, this has SERIOUS pop-in.

Now I am in the lobby, free to skate wherever I want to with a bunch of other people who are warping around the level. No time limit, no restrictions outside of the level geometry...alright...so when does the game begin? Turns out there are missions inside every level that I need to complete to earn stars and progress to the next level, which I found out by accident. I did get stars for spelling S-K-A-T-E, collecting the VHS tape and so on, but those stars didn't seem to count...ok. (Also, just be warned that I will be using a lot of ellipses in this review).

These missions run from getting a high score in a certain amount of time, to racking up a long distance grind, to knocking objects around, and *gulp* running through rings (Superman 64 flashbacks). You are given 1-3 stars depending on how well you complete these tasks, and you need 15 stars to unlock the next level. These missions are boring as hell though. In one level I was tasked to do flip tricks into targets to set off fireworks...cause, you know, skateboarding. These missions are also repeated in every level, so not only are they boring, they are also repetitive. Yay!

So why do these missions, aside from opening other levels? I asked myself that question too. Apparently, doing these missions also gives you XP so you can level up and unlock stat points for your skater. You also unlock cards. I also had to find out what these cards did by accident as I was scrolling through menus. They unlock different parts you can use to customize your skater. Notice I said "customize", not "create", more on that later. The cards also unlock emblems which...I still don't know what they are for. Also, worth noting, the stat points you acquire do not carry over to other skaters, so you have to do all this with whichever skater you want to level up. This recipe calls for repetitiveness with a dash of redundancy.

So, leveling up your skater and gaining XP sounds kind of cool, and it is...kinda. My biggest problem with the system is that I can't actually upgrade or change my character in the level, I have to back out of the lobby, and go into a second and third menu to change anything. This is super annoying and time consuming. Also, there is no "Create-A-Skater", all you are doing is changing the appearance of the current skaters. Sure, you can change the heads and bodies to look nothing like the actual skater, but it's still that skater in name and moveset...which is weird.

While fumbling with hitting random buttons again, I found the multiplayer option. There are a number of modes in the multiplayer, including King of the Hill, Score Attack, a combo contest, and so on. When you select a mode, the game loads into a separate instance and waits for others to join your room. I tried a couple matches and ended up being in a game by myself each time, as in the match just starts with one person...wonderful.

So what's the point of the online freeskate lobby? Another great question that I asked myself. I still don't have the answer. You can initiate challenges to riders in the lobby but that's really the extent as far as I know. Again, I am trying to figure it out on my own since the game doesn't tell you what's going on at ANY point. I actually do not know why the game is structured this way. You can forget about the online lobby and just start a private match instead, but you still have to open menus and do challenges and it just a pain in the ass.

On the technical front, the game looks...ok. It's going for a Borderlands-style cel shading that looks weird. Some of the lighting is ok, but even after the texture pops in, it looks so-so. Performance-wise: yikes. There are flashes of brilliance when it runs at 60 frames per second, but more often than not it dips hard. Whenever you crash and break something, it dips, when first loading in, it dips, when I'm in the middle of grinding a rail, it dips, you see a pattern? Very inconsistent.

I dabbled in the "Create-A-Park" feature, just to give it a look. The tools are there to create a basic skate-park and the system seems easy enough to use. There weren't too many created parks for me to try out when I played but I assume the right person will come along and make something cool.

One very important aspect of the Tony Hawk games is the soundtrack. I have found this soundtrack to be pretty good. Fans of the series will find tracks to really get into here...

...but that's assuming the fan still wants to play this game at all.

This is a bad game, and it makes me sad, given how much I have adored certain parts of this series. The structure is bad and mind-boggling, it doesn't look great, it plays sloppy, and overall, (I hate using the "B" word, but it fits this game) this game feels broken. I try to play bad games to find redeeming qualities, and I really don't want to play any more of this game.

Developer Robomodo tried to appeal to gamers like me who loved this series early in its lifespan. With Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5, it seems as if they didn't know what kind of game they were making. This game is not worthy of the Pro Skater name, and not worthy of being on my hard drive. Which hurts me to say.

What I Think Of...Super Mario Maker

30 years ago, 2 very special births happened: (A) Me (You're welcome, world) and (B) Mario. The original Super Mario Bros. was such an important and influential game not only in 1985, but to this day. Even people who aren't "gamers" know who Mario is. Since that first game, several sequels have kept the series fresh and left their marks on the gaming industry.

Now, Nintendo gives control to the fans. With Super Mario Maker, players can create the Mario level of their dreams/nightmares, share them online and play other creations. How does that experience measure up the Mario lineage? Here is what I think of Super Mario Maker for the Wii U.

Let's begin with the whole reason this game exists: to make Mario levels.

When you first boot up the game, it runs you through a quick tutorial of a "1-1"-like stage where you replace some pieces that are broken. It really helps to ease you into the tools that are about to be thrown upon you.

Once you get past the tutorial, the game gives you a sample of the creation tools, letting you design in the Super Mario Bros. and NEW Super Mario Bros. U tile sets, using a few assets, like Goombas, Koopas, Question Mark Blocks, etc. You unlock more tile sets and assets just by using the creator, eventually opening up the Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World tile sets, as well as underground, underwater, ghost house, airship, and castle backdrops for each game. The original idea was to unlock new stuff every real time day, meaning you had to play the game and use the creator for at least 5 minutes for about 9 real days to unlock everything. Thankfully, Nintendo patched this on launch day so now you could  unlock everything in about an hour or so. A quick Google search will bring up the fastest way to get it all.

Though you may not want to do the speed version right away. The idea behind gradually unlocking things is so the player doesn't feel overwhelmed, because it can be that way up front. Later on, the parts become more complex, introducing different enemies, traps, and tracks for moving platforms. You can also modify the assets as you see fit. For instance, you can place a Question Mark Block, and maybe you decide a Goomba should be in it, go for it. What if that Goomba happened to be a giant? Simple, add a mushroom to the Goomba. Want a Bullet Bill Launcher to spit out Hammer Brothers instead of Bills? Put a Hammer Brother in it then. You can also shake the item to turn it into something else, like taking a green Koopa, shake it, it becomes a red Koopa, not all items react to it, but it is fun to experiment.

That's only the beginning of what this tool is capable of. You can adjust how many seconds the stage has, you can add sound effects at certain instances in the level or create your own (though those won't go with the level if it's uploaded to the internet, for obvious reasons). You can place a pipe, put Mario in it, and open up a sub-level, you can add doors which take the player anywhere in that level, or (if you're a heathen) you can add autoscroll to your level, even the speed of the autoscroll. Don't use autoscroll, you asshats.

A huge part of the game and what will only add the fun and craziness: the costumes. Using the Mystery Mushroom, you can turn Mario into a number of different Nintendo characters. You unlock these costumes either using Amiibos or unlocking them from playing the other modes in Mario Maker. I won't spoil who is all in the game, but there are 100 different skins, most of which come with their own sound effects and music at the end of the level. Note that these characters can only be used in the Super Mario Bros. tile set.

The creation tool is super intuitive and works great on the Gamepad. This is the perfect example of what the Gamepad is capable of. It's also full of charm while creating, as the voice will announce what you added to the level and even does it in tune with the music in the background.

Before I move on, I will say this: if you are going to be a serious Mario level designer using this game (and it's very possible I will go down that route), buy graph paper. This way, when you are away from your Wii U, you can be plotting what you want to happen when you do get back to it. Also, that's how Miyamoto and Tezuka designed the original game 30 years ago. It's effective.

What's more, the game comes with an idea book that pretty amazing. Even if it doesn't give you ideas, it's a great piece of Nintendo love.

Once you create your levels, you can upload them to Nintendo's server, where others can play, comment, and favorite (star) them. The more stars you get for your levels, the more levels you can upload. You start with 10 slots and that increases depending on how many stars you receive for your levels.

These levels go into "Course World" where you can pick and choose one-off levels to play. The main mode of play, though is 100-Mario Mode. You are given 100 lives and choose whether to do Easy (8 Courses), Normal, or Expert (both 16-courses). These consist of random user-made levels for you to play. If a level becomes too difficult, just hold down  the minus button, lose a life, and move on to another level. Complete the entire course, and you are rewarded with a new costume for the Mystery Mushroom.

The goal with this mode is to ideally give you ideas for your own levels. I have played through the mode SEVERAL times and it has given me plenty of neat ideas for my own stuff.

There is already plenty of levels to choose from thanks to the community. Not all of them great. This is true for any community-based game. The really great thing is that before a stage can be uploaded, the creator must beat it themselves to prove it can be done.

One trend is definitely dominating the server right now: the Autoplaying levels. Levels where you literally press nothing and the levels guides Mario to the exit. On one hand, these complex machines are amazing to look at and basically works of art, on the other hand, they aren't particularly fun, as all you are doing is watching. I'd rather actually PLAY a Mario game instead of the game playing for me, but I do see the appeal of those levels and some of those levels are quite the sight to behold.

I have put SEVERAL hours into this game and have been thoroughly enjoying it. In fact, right now I am getting the itch to go make some more levels, or go buy graph paper.

Super Mario Maker is amazing to me, purely in that it exists. Nintendo has been super protective of all its properties, so seeing them handing all of it over to the players and saying "Here, go nuts" is pretty mindblowing. Luckily, all the tools are there to create some astounding levels.

Super Mario Maker is every Nintendo fan's dream, and definitely one of the ever-growing reasons to own a Wii U.

Update: Here are my level ID's if you want to play them:

1E9B-0000-001B-C251

F789-0000-001C-2EEB

FE0A-0000-001D-2D85

124E-0000-001D-B320

0CD1-0000-001E-AA1D

F0ED-0000-0028-6403

C8B1-0000-0033-7CE0