Anonymous Guest asked:

Why Project 8 over any of the other ones generally considered to be "peak Tony Hawk" (ex. 2, 3 and Underground 1)?

a couple reasons. first of all i like all the moveset additions in the years since the series peak, there's a reason they kept spine transfers and getting off your board in THPS1+2. certainly the later games lose the pure game design clarity of the classic era but i think the more expressive and varied trick system makes up for that.

but secondly and more importantly there is a game design nightmare in the middle of tony hawk's and it is the timer. the timer gave context to the levels and encouraged you to link goals together, making the spaces form a coherent whole. it was good. but it also meant you could only play a level for two minutes before having to do it again. this is totally fine as a game mode (as it would stay for the rest of the series) but is a massive limitation on the series potential as an expressive 3D platformer/sports game hybrid. finding a way to structure the campaign as to not limit people to set runs but keep the same spirit of interconnected design is the design problem you have to solve if you are making tony hawk. and so of course neversoft almost never tried.

i hate the goals from THPS4 onward so fucking much man, everyone does. famously they are the worst things in the world. Project 8's top 200 list is basically the only time in the series they tried to step out of that shadow and come up with an open, expressive structure of progression that simply encourages you to poke at the levels, make discoveries, hit lines and get rewarded for this by climbing up the rankings. it is not perfect. there are far too many THPS4 style goals where you talk to a guy and do a set boring task. but it was the only step they ever took in this direction, and so it's the one that i land on as my favourite, even if it's compromised, runs like shit, doesn't actualy execute on that vision etc.

the burnout paradise of tony hawk's is possible even if neversoft never got the time to make it back in the day. i believe this. phil let them cook again


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