Tony Hawk: RIDE feets-on
by Tim Stevens 
posted Jun 3rd 2009 at 12:21PM
Gallery: Tony Hawk Ride
If you've missed out on the news about Tony Hawk Ride leading up to now, it's the latest iteration of the storied franchise of the Birdman, radically tweaked to do away with the twitchy button combos and reflex-driven gameplay of its predecessors. That's done through the new controller, a AA-powered wireless plastic board that looks a little like a children's skate deck; shorter and narrower than your average plank. Sitting on the carpet it looks an awful lot like a snowskate, and according to game devs that wintery flavor of the sport was something of an inspiration in the design here.
But of course it's rather more sophisticated than that, featuring accelerometers inside and four infra-red cameras, one for each side. Together these all combine to give a reasonably close approximation of the motions of skateboarding. An ollie is performed by raising the nose of the controller up quickly, kick-flips with a little tilt one way or the other, and grabs by waving your hands in front of one or more of those IR cameras. (Those who haven't been keeping up on their stretches will be glad to know a full grab is not required.) To turn, of course, you just lean back or forth, and a boost of speed is just a kick away.
It's immediately immersive and fun, and not particularly easy -- at least not at first. Turning and ollies are simple enough, but, for example, rotating your board to change from a 50-50 grind on your trucks to a sideways one is tough, as you actually have to twist the board sideways. Kick-flips and grabs aren't particularly difficult (at least not on the easy setting we were told to use), but after spend a few moments on the vert pipe trying to chain things together it quickly becomes a little overwhelming. Tapping a handful of buttons at either end of the pipe to launch off a flurry of grabs is one thing, but it's quite quite another to regain your balance in time to pull off another trick -- ideally a different one.
The pipe is a little tiring, too, as you're constantly shifting your weight and maintaining balance on the thing. Obviously the skill and exertion required here don't compare to rolling on urethane, but if you needed matching levels of those sorts of skills and endurance to play here we'd peg this as the least likely to succeed peripheral at the show. As it is, though, it strikes a good balance between fun and challenge, accessibility and accuracy, and is certainly a lot more interesting than any successive iteration of the Tony Hawks franchise since its inception. Developer Robomodo seem to be betting the farm on it, saying Activision doesn't have much interest in going back to the high-flying, button-friendly gameplay that's been the staple of its predecessor.
Mind you, Ride will work with buttons too, but only in the menus. Get in the game and the only way to play is on the board, which will surely cause some negative reactions from die-hard franchise fans. We, however, tend to think change is good, and look forward to the game's October 13 release date on the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360. That $120 price is a bit of a shame, though.
But of course it's rather more sophisticated than that, featuring accelerometers inside and four infra-red cameras, one for each side. Together these all combine to give a reasonably close approximation of the motions of skateboarding. An ollie is performed by raising the nose of the controller up quickly, kick-flips with a little tilt one way or the other, and grabs by waving your hands in front of one or more of those IR cameras. (Those who haven't been keeping up on their stretches will be glad to know a full grab is not required.) To turn, of course, you just lean back or forth, and a boost of speed is just a kick away.
It's immediately immersive and fun, and not particularly easy -- at least not at first. Turning and ollies are simple enough, but, for example, rotating your board to change from a 50-50 grind on your trucks to a sideways one is tough, as you actually have to twist the board sideways. Kick-flips and grabs aren't particularly difficult (at least not on the easy setting we were told to use), but after spend a few moments on the vert pipe trying to chain things together it quickly becomes a little overwhelming. Tapping a handful of buttons at either end of the pipe to launch off a flurry of grabs is one thing, but it's quite quite another to regain your balance in time to pull off another trick -- ideally a different one.
The pipe is a little tiring, too, as you're constantly shifting your weight and maintaining balance on the thing. Obviously the skill and exertion required here don't compare to rolling on urethane, but if you needed matching levels of those sorts of skills and endurance to play here we'd peg this as the least likely to succeed peripheral at the show. As it is, though, it strikes a good balance between fun and challenge, accessibility and accuracy, and is certainly a lot more interesting than any successive iteration of the Tony Hawks franchise since its inception. Developer Robomodo seem to be betting the farm on it, saying Activision doesn't have much interest in going back to the high-flying, button-friendly gameplay that's been the staple of its predecessor.
Mind you, Ride will work with buttons too, but only in the menus. Get in the game and the only way to play is on the board, which will surely cause some negative reactions from die-hard franchise fans. We, however, tend to think change is good, and look forward to the game's October 13 release date on the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360. That $120 price is a bit of a shame, though.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Andrew @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:25PM
so who is gonna be the first to paint theres like a hoverboard
Templarian @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:27PM
Just don't go over water.
Pacey @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:34PM
Would you like that in the grey and black of the Pit Bull or in the hot pink of the Mattel?
cayton @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:41PM
Definitely the hot Pink. Loved that hoverboard
TheAllmightyDollarama @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:43PM
Looks like overpriced crap...
Why not just stick a WiiMote in a slab of cheap plastic shaped like a board....
Nintendo started this and all these nubz are leaching off... Apple should hire Apple to do the pattents then sue each and everyone of these nubs...
To bad The Wii does not have good graphix, because playing GHOSTBUSTERS with 2 WiiMotes would beat a controller...
WiiMote (graterthan) Dual Poopshock
Noo Ha HA!!
Chris @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:55PM
@TheAllmightyDollarama
Are you f*cking high?
PedoJokerBear (aka Deeznuts) @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:56PM
"apple should hire apple" = FAIL.
OZ-13MS @ Jun 3rd 2009 2:38PM
Don't you mean: who is going to hack theirs first to work like a hoverboard?
Mark @ Jun 3rd 2009 7:21PM
What are these "nubs" you speak of?
VanillaSpice @ Jun 3rd 2009 9:04PM
@Chris, no, he's not f*cking high, he's a yet another f*cking troll doing the same old f*cking straw man trick that has been completely f*cking up the comments section since the start of last year. Take away the fake fanboys (the straw men) and the people who respond to (i.e. feed) them, and what you have left are the "FIRST!"ers, the "Engadget bias" conspiracy theorists, the people complaining about the comment system itself, and a few paltry decent comments (on average about one per article).
Mr. Ford @ Jun 3rd 2009 11:10PM
I'm f*cking high.
Templarian @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:27PM
That looks really fun actually. Plus I expect them to use this for snowboarding also.
Tommo @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:45PM
Can someone tell me what's new about these? They had them for the PS1 and PS2 Tony Hawk games years ago and they sucked conceptually then, new technology wont remove that suckage.
SOOPERGOOMAN @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:27PM
If you can't just use a controller instead of the board then this is useless to me. I can't walk let alone jump around my living room on a plastic deck, my ankle would be the only thing to bust out on that..
Someone get me a Segway....
SOOPERGOOMAN @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:30PM
The vid sucks, no split screen action of you on the board and close up of the on screen actions...fail, negative 2 stars...
joe23521 @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:28PM
When can we expect the feet-on?
Templarian @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:29PM
I just imagine someone falling back and sending the board into their flat screen.
d889 @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:28PM
i want to see who will be the first to actually ollie on the thing and split it in half
Mike Uram @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:30PM
This looks like alot of fun. But you know someone is going to put trucks on theirs and actually pull tricks in their living room. There probably is going to be people submitting pictures of flatscreens with skatedecks implanted in them. Let the fun begin.
Student Driver @ Jun 3rd 2009 1:52PM
Meh, I'm 36, still skate, and do kickflips in my living room with my regular skateboard. You can guarantee that someone will take one of these and slide a handrail with it, so living room kickflips are a given. I just want to see the first grip tape "mods" and other crap that will be attached to it. :-)
superhobo @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:30PM
Feet is actually plural, you know.
Ryan McGrory @ Jun 3rd 2009 4:37PM
Thats what I was looking to see if anyone had commented on, wtf...feets?
superhobo @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:32PM
So...does Natal make this obsolete or what?
why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:51PM
No. Natal cannot recognize fine motions. Hands open and closed, usually. Arms flailing around, yep. But it won't be able to tell you tipping the board slightly sideways.
Saad Rabia @ Jun 3rd 2009 1:19PM
Actually why not the LS2LS7?, Natal has facial recognition built in. Now that is precise.
Natal is able of recognizing your fingers opening and closing, it is able to recognize objects such as "your own" skate board or a cheap handgun to use in many games to come. You are not tied to one object, although one object is an option. You can, for example, use your whole body and lean forward for real-life-like actions. You can use any round object to represent a driving wheel or just an imaginary one.
Natal can do everything Wii and PS3 did and are going to do when it comes to motion controllers, you can buy a physical controller and use it with Natal or just use Natal on its own.
Also remember all the footage you've seen from MS is still not the final product, so what is coming could be even better than what we've seen. If Sony are doing 1:1 motion controlling, Natal can do it with an extra mile ahead in the creativity and usability sector; all what MS need to do is simply sell extra controllers like Wii and Sony, or just let it be open for every person to use whatever they like.
Open your mind and think about it a little.
superhobo @ Jun 3rd 2009 2:45PM
why not the LS2LS7?:
Wait, so it can see if your hand is open or closed, but it cant detect a whole line of pixels moving slightly right or left (your body leaning right or left)? I doubt it.
In any case, you might have seen the video where the kid does exactly that, with his own skateboard.
Peter @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:33PM
i thought feet was plural
Kinger @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:39PM
Nice shoes... but can we see the video game?
I get how the deck works..sort of
asdf @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:44PM
q95ontsvexrbrhcf
jkl; @ Jun 4th 2009 3:16AM
Ah, a fellow touch typist i see!
Niklas @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:44PM
truly looks action-packed, aight guys?
Niklas @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:52PM
truly looks action-packed, aight guys?
Philpott @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:48PM
The soothing piano sounds make that demo utterly boring.
dbonelee @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:53PM
Looks like a prop from back 2 the future
why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:54PM
$120 is a lot of money for a little tilting action.
I see the buttons on the side are Xbox 360 specific. Does that mean they're going to try to sell three variants of this? They'd be wiser to make a single board work with all 3 games, because retailers don't want to stock so many huge controllers anymore.
KRIS_C_123 @ Jun 3rd 2009 12:58PM
hahaha feets is the best word EVER!
Student Driver @ Jun 3rd 2009 1:54PM
"EVAR" is the best word ever, but "feets" is in the top 10 easily. ;-)
JSP @ Jun 3rd 2009 1:34PM
looks cool.
Victor Stuber @ Jun 3rd 2009 1:41PM
that video was terrible.
jon @ Jun 3rd 2009 1:53PM
How well does it work on not carpet?
solidsnake @ Jun 3rd 2009 2:08PM
i want a pit bull!
ED @ Jun 3rd 2009 11:04PM
+1 because Pit Bulls work on water
Eclecticos @ Jun 3rd 2009 2:13PM
They have gone and done it now. Turned skateboarding into a carpet sledding event for slugs.
I would probably still buy one though just to see how it reacts when I bust a sick kickflip. :D
egghead @ Jun 3rd 2009 2:40PM
It would crack below you and splinter into jagged shards of thermoplastic causing you to lose your concentration just long enough for the splinters to freakishly mutate into the castration tools they were recycled from and demolish what manhood you retain.
Or, you would land said "sick kickflip" and return to the ground unamused and slightly older with an urge to politely request your money back from the uneducated store clerk from which you purchased the object of your disdain which in some parallel universe could have caused you irreparable harm.
johnny @ Jun 3rd 2009 3:27PM
I think I can speak for everyone when I say, "I ain't buyin' that crap!!"
JL @ Jun 3rd 2009 7:49PM
wow, BUY A REAL FUCKING SKATEBOARD. you all look real fucking cool playing with your 120 dollar piece of plastic, that in no way truly portrays skateboarding. GET A REAL SKATEBOARD, SCUFF UP YOUR ELBOWS, AND HAVE SOME REAL FUN. or just go get a ps1 and thrashers skate and destroy, no skate game beats it.
Massmass @ Jun 3rd 2009 8:12PM
AHAHHAHAH!
BUY A REAL FOOTBALL/BASEBALL/HOOKER/CAR/ETC/ETC/ETC!!!!
Skating is one of the few sports that can easily kill you if you take it too far, and/or are stupid. How the hell is this controller any different from one used with hands? Oh, right it isn't because IT IS STILL A VIDEOGAME.
That said, I won't support this controller until I try it and until then, I stick my nose up at it and huff through my upper lip. Now where did I put my monocle...?
dabrown27 @ Jun 3rd 2009 8:57PM
Anyone else notice in the main/first picture, THAT DUDE HAS NO FEET! Just jean-stumps....
ED @ Jun 3rd 2009 11:05PM
But does it hover?
(looks like it should, despite the lack of hot-pink-ness)
Boards of Canada @ Jun 4th 2009 2:00AM
I dont see Tom Hanks riding anywhere...wtf?!