It can be to the player’s benefit, basically realigning their center of gravity and flipping the skater back vertically before they face plant, but it’s nowhere near the revolution of reverts or manuals. Previously, players could continuously hit the triangle button to lineup a grind, but now doing so will break up a combo if they’re not properly placed. It’s now assigned to the triangle/Y button whilst in the air, making it hard for longtime fans to adjust.

While that sounds great on paper, how it’s implemented isn’t particularly great. This allows players to get from air to ground in no time, cutting milliseconds off airtime if they desperately need it. Unfortunately, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 isn’t the generation leap its predecessors were, with its “highlight” being the slam feature. Players will be able to build up a combo score by getting some air and performing flips, grabs and grinds, along with manuals and reverts that were added in some of the older mainline titles. Mechanically speaking, THPS5 features similar skateboarding mechanics fans are used to, but there’s one new addition that will drastically change how the game is played, or at least paced. Unfortunately, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 misses the ramp and takes one hard face plant into the ground. This brings us to 2015 where Robomodo has been given one more crack at the Pro Skater brand, hopefully setting themselves up for a new lineup of games.

Even past Tony Hawk: RIDE and Shred, the HD remake of the first game was met with a tepid reception upon its release two years ago, although it was at least a step in the right direction. This lead to some of the most gimmicky and outrageous attempts to bring the Guitar Hero formula to the franchise, getting unknowing parents to purchase an overly expensive top of a skateboard so their child could feel like they’re actually skateboarding. While you can argue that the downfall began with American Wasteland, it really wasn’t until Activision pushed the series onto Chicago-based studio Robomodo to try and innovate what Neversoft had started. Since its debut in 1999, the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series grew exponentially, that’s until Neversoft was removed from the series. Whether you weren’t capable of riding a skateboard or just didn’t want to learn, there was an option in the form of video games that allowed everyone and anyone around the world to shred like Tony Hawk.

Tony Hawk was not only an inspirational skateboarding figure to the youth in the ’90s, but he inspired millions with his video games.

Tony hawk pro skater 5 ps4 game