Tony Hawk's Project 8

Features
By published

Pro Skater goes amateur - and it looks like the best yet

Monday 23 October 2006
Remember when, after a thumb-bruising all-day session of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater on PSone, you found yourself imagining what a skateboarding game would be like in the future? Well, going on our recent experience, Project 8 is pretty much that game.

It'll make you love your skateboard as much as your skater - listening to its wheels click-clack over every crack in the pavement and ring off every surface so perfectly, you'll want to coast and grind everything in the world just to hear how it sounds. Snap into rosy-tinted slow-mo by building up the Special meter and clicking the left stick in and the camera drops to heel-level like you're framing up your own skate movie.

Then there's Nail the Trick. Click both sticks in at any time - although you'll want to get some air time first - to kick it off, leaving the camera lingering on your twirling board for as long as you're holding the sticks. Let go at the right moment to plant your feet back down, and the smack of hitting the ground again on all four wheels is one of the most satisfying hits a skateboarding game has ever served up.