Tony Hawk's Project 8 - PlayStation 2 Game Review

Tony Hawk's Project 8 for the PS2 is a fantastic game. Though it is on the PS2, the graphics are awesome. They aren't up to snuff with the XBOX 360 or the PS3, but it's good enough to make the game seems realistic. The tricks are fun, and the ability to go into Slow Motion to complete creative tricks is a lot of fun.

There are about 10 areas in which you can skate, not including tournament areas. Each is large, and the world is built up as a skate park. You can grind a rail on a school building, Nosepress off a bike rack, and Ollie from roof to roof.

The characters are where the game falls short. There are only 3 startup models, and your ability to customize them is very limited. The players like Tony Hawk, Jason Lee, and Paul Rodriguez are all pretty well done. They look a lot like they do in real life.

The gameplay is fast. And when I say fast, I mean fast. The game is never sluggish, and its framerate must be up above thirty. The tricks are awesome, and there are at least a hundred different ones. There is also a mode where, if you jump correctly off of a rooftop high enough, your player goes into slow motion and you control his feet. This makes it so you can do tricks that are not pre-programmed. But don't go overboard, because if you do, your player wll flip off his board and crash into the ground.

Another one of the great features of this game is that once you are skilled, you almost never fall. You can link up flips on halfpipes with manuals and score tricks worth more than a million points!

The game is very difficult to master. The objective is to be in the top 8 skaters in the area. Project 8 is a collection of 8 skaters who will work with Tony. Your objective is to become one of those skaters. You start at about number 800, but as you complete goals, your score goes down. The higher goal you achieve, the more your number will drop. To be in the top 8, you will need to complete all of the goals with the easiest merit, most of the goals with the medium merit, and only about half of the goals with the highest merit. If you complete all the goals with the highest merit, you will be #1.

This game is a lot of fun, but its lack of online play on the PS2 limits its potential. It would be a lot cooler if you could play with your friends over the internet.

I would rate this game a 7 out of 10. It is only rated T for Teen because of the blood, which can be turned off.