I haven't played the new Tony Hawk Underground 2 video-game, and I'm not sure that I'm going to. I've enjoyed the Tony Hawk franchise for years. I've found the games to be elegant, challenging, and just absolutely crazy fun. The games have become larger, longer, and more immersive while maintaining the fun aspect that often seems to disappear as franchises move on. These games are also notable in that I can actually play them with my brother, and at his request which is a big deal as he tends to stay away from electronic gaming.
So why am I not playing this game?
There was a moment in Tony Hawk 3 where a man was trapped in his car, which was teetering on the edge of a precipice. He was screaming for help. One of the missions in the level was something like "Help the guy in the car." But as we found out, you weren't supposed to rescue him, you were supposed to plant the hood of his car and knock him to his death. This made me feel extremely uncomfortable, and I actually knew it was coming from Josh's warnings.
The new THUG: 2 game looks to be all about causing mayhem. Obviously, the acronym they've chosen to go with is "thug." The commercials for the game talk about it as a world destruction tour. Tony himself is seen in the commercial slashing a car's tires.
I think it's actually pretty sad that they're taking the franchise this route. The punk, property-destruction element of skateboarding is not appealing to me. At all. It's the skill, and beauty, and ingenuity of the skaters that amazes me, as well as the camaraderie that exists around the sport. As my brother and I have discussed, even professional skaters that are competing as a living seem to be genuinely more interested in seeing the sport furthered than in winning themselves. The previous games mirrored the elegance of the sport with elegant control. There were missions and some of them were silly, but "tagging" used to mean turning a park bench flashing neon-blue not spray painting slogans on private property.
Tony Hawk has his own foundation which helps build skate-parks in low-income communities. This reduces vandalism, provides community, and gives skaters a legitimate, legal place to practice their activity without being hassled by the po'. I think it's then weird to market a product that seems to glorify the very trends that make skaters and skateboarding seem so rogue. Anyway, maybe send your $50 to the foundation, and take another crack at Tony Hawk 4. You probably haven't finished every challenge with every character yet. Just try not to kill anyone.
So why am I not playing this game?
There was a moment in Tony Hawk 3 where a man was trapped in his car, which was teetering on the edge of a precipice. He was screaming for help. One of the missions in the level was something like "Help the guy in the car." But as we found out, you weren't supposed to rescue him, you were supposed to plant the hood of his car and knock him to his death. This made me feel extremely uncomfortable, and I actually knew it was coming from Josh's warnings.
The new THUG: 2 game looks to be all about causing mayhem. Obviously, the acronym they've chosen to go with is "thug." The commercials for the game talk about it as a world destruction tour. Tony himself is seen in the commercial slashing a car's tires.
I think it's actually pretty sad that they're taking the franchise this route. The punk, property-destruction element of skateboarding is not appealing to me. At all. It's the skill, and beauty, and ingenuity of the skaters that amazes me, as well as the camaraderie that exists around the sport. As my brother and I have discussed, even professional skaters that are competing as a living seem to be genuinely more interested in seeing the sport furthered than in winning themselves. The previous games mirrored the elegance of the sport with elegant control. There were missions and some of them were silly, but "tagging" used to mean turning a park bench flashing neon-blue not spray painting slogans on private property.
Tony Hawk has his own foundation which helps build skate-parks in low-income communities. This reduces vandalism, provides community, and gives skaters a legitimate, legal place to practice their activity without being hassled by the po'. I think it's then weird to market a product that seems to glorify the very trends that make skaters and skateboarding seem so rogue. Anyway, maybe send your $50 to the foundation, and take another crack at Tony Hawk 4. You probably haven't finished every challenge with every character yet. Just try not to kill anyone.
posted by Dave @ 10/20/2004 03:20:00 AM
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