New Tony Hawk Game Listed at $120

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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New Tony Hawk Game Listed at $120

Gamers looking forward to Tony Hawk: Ride [http://thride.com/] are going to have to plunk down 120 bucks to take home Activision's latest and greatest skateboarding videogame.

Announced last week, Tony Hawk: Ride is a "reinvention" of the famed Tony Hawk videogame franchise built around a motion-sensing "skateboard controller" that players will balance and move on to control the in-game action. "The skateboard controller will redefine sports games by offering players a true skateboarding experience, hands-free, playing with friends and family at home or online," said Rob Kostich, Activision's [http://www.activision.com] marketing chief.

But that improved interactivity won't come cheaply: GameStop currently has Tony Hawk: Ride retails for $189.99 [http://www.gamestop.com/browse/search.aspx?N=0&Ntk=TitleKeyword&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntt=tony%20hawk%20ride] and in that context, the pricing for Tony Hawk: Ride isn't out of line.

What is possibly out of line is the assumption that gamers will pay double the price of a conventional videogame release for what is essentially a jumbo-sized Rock Band [http://www.nintendo.com/wii/what/controllers] might suggest that gamers are willing to dig deep for a more interactive experience but the phenomenon could just as easily be unique to music games, related more to the ancient art of air guitar than to the videogames themselves. Activision claims the elimination of "complex button combinations" and analog sticks makes Tony Hawk: Ride more accessible to gamers of all skill levels but as the gameplay video shows, balancing on the controller presents challenges of its own. Like not falling and smashing face-first through the coffee table, for instance.

I've sunk a few dollars into some pretty specialized controllers over the years but I have a hard time seeing this as much more than a gimmick. Then again, I'm a guy who firmly believes that the keyboard-mouse combination is and always will be the greatest game controller ever, so maybe my perspective is a bit off. What say you, button mashers? Does this look like 120 bucks well spent or is Activision overplaying its bundled peripheral hand?


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HobbesMkii

Hold Me Closer Tony Danza
Jun 7, 2008
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Wait... so they hopped the price up another $60 because they threw in a plastic skateboard deck? I mean, at least Rock Band and Guitar Hero have massive drums and guitars and microphones to justify (in part) their super high prices. One piece of plastic... well, it better cure cancer or make puppies. Or make cancer-curing puppies.

When are the FPS games going to catch up to this? "Oh man! The new Call of Duty 18: Shoot Hitler in the Face! comes with a plastic M1!"
 

cjbos81

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Apr 8, 2009
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Someone should just punch Tony Hawk in the face...just punch him. He'll understand.
 

Julius M

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Apr 16, 2009
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Guitar Hero World Tour is for more than one player. So it may be not that out of line but I'd say perhaps between 90 or 100 dollars is more reasonable. Then again, since a game is 60 euros for me (which is about 80 dollars) I don't know what the price in euros will be. It does look like a very cool gimmick to me though.
 

Ben Legend

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Apr 16, 2009
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NoMoreSanity said:
$120 for:

1)Crap motion-sensing controls

2)Stumbling around like an idiot while on it.

3)0% of the game includes fun and new content, with 100% of the characters throwing around terms like "RAD" and "HELLZ YEAH!!1!".

4)TONY HAWK OMG

5)Another milking of the recent peripheral renaissance.
Considering youre called no more sanity, your response is rather sane and correct.
 

MrPop

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May 14, 2009
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O_O And the fact that activision claims that was either this is "complex button combinations" is frightfully wrong. Have they ever tried the simple and intuitive Skate controls. They were brilliant and not at all hard to understand.

Seems very steep and I'm guessing it will be a very niche game. Has Tony Hawk's began to flop a bit though so maybe they need to jazz it up a bit. I know I bought all of the Tony Hawk's games up until the one after Underground that seemed to bum Bam Magera and MTV.
 

Avida

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Oct 17, 2008
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Why not just buy a skateboard?! Old tony hawks games were fun, skateboarding without the skateboarding, and now they want to make a skateboarding with the skateboarding... Why not just skateboarding!
 

Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
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Ummm...How about no? I like games with cool acrobatic feats, and skating games have that. But they also don't usually have $120 price tags, and I'm even hesitant to spend $60 on other skating games. I could get 4 DS games for that money!
 

Mewick_Alex

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May 25, 2009
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all the tramps said:
you may aswell by a new skate board and learn how to do it for real :L
This. I like how they say it offers gamers a "true skateboarding experience"..... except that, well, you're not actually experiencing it.
 

Julius M

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Apr 16, 2009
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HobbesMkii said:
Wait... so they hopped the price up another $60 because they threw in a plastic skateboard deck? I mean, at least Rock Band and Guitar Hero have massive drums and guitars and microphones to justify (in part) their super high prices. One piece of plastic... well, it better cure cancer or make puppies. Or make cancer-curing puppies.
Please, the drumkits and guitar of Guitar Hero are far cheaper with regards to technology. They're just basic controllers shaped like instruments. Plastic is cheap, good motion sensing isn't.

Course, this only goes if the board is actually good. I hope it is and makes the game play far better than a standard controllers, but I'm not sure yet. If it's cheap motion sensing and makes the game play like shit it won't be worth it.


Anyway, as to whether it will sell, it's not like games haven't begun using new ways of playing and having succes. It's not just Rockband and Guitar Hero, you got Wii Fit and the steering wheel for Mario Kart wii and some basic plastic things you put on your wiimote so that they look more like the thing you want on it. (I dunno if that last bundle sells well, but I see it everywhere so I suppose.)
 

A random person

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Apr 20, 2009
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Why the hell would I pay $120 for a game I wouldn't pay $20 for with likely crappy motion sensing added? I think I'll stick to my games where you do fun things, thank you.

Seriously, how the hell did Tony Hawk get his own series? And why is it successful?
 

NeedAUserName

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Malygris said:
Gamers looking forward to Tony Hawk: Ride [http://thride.com/] are going to have to plunk down 120 bucks to take home Activision's latest and greatest skateboarding videogame.
Well considering they stopped making good Tony Hawks games after Underground 2 (which was mediocre), I would say this in all probability will be awful. Either the board will be way to responsive or not responsive enough, or they will let the board gimmick pile drive everything else out of the game...