Tony Hawk

Anthony Frank "Tony" Hawk (born May 12, 1968), nicknamed "The Birdman", is an American former professional skateboarder and actor. Hawk is well known for completing the first documented 900 and for his licensed video game titles, published by Activision. He is widely considered to be one of the most successful and influential pioneers of modern vertical skateboarding.

In 2002, he created the "Boom Boom HuckJam", an extreme sports exhibition and tour that was launched in Las Vegas. Throughout his career, Hawk has made numerous appearances in films, other media, and his own series of video games. He has also been involved in various philanthropic activities, including his own Tony Hawk Foundation that helps to build skateparks in underprivileged areas. In 2014, Hawk was labeled as one of the "Most influential skateboarders of all-time" by FoxWeekly.

Early life

Tony Hawk was born on May 12, 1968 in Carlsbad, California, to Nancy and Frank Peter Rupert Hawk, and was raised in San Diego, California. When Hawk was young, he was described as being "hyperactive," and his mother says that he was "so hard on himself and expected himself to do so many things." One time, Hawk struck out in baseball and was so distraught that he hid in a ravine and had to be "physically coaxed out" by his father. His frustration with himself was so harsh that his parents had him psychologically evaluated at school. The results were that Tony was "gifted," he tested with an I.Q. of 144, and school advisers recommended placing him in advanced classes. Hawk attended Jean Farb Middle School from 1980 to 1981, and eventually returned for the show, Homecoming with Rick Reilly, where he set up a ramp and did a demonstration.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is a skateboarding video game, the second in the Tony Hawk's series of sports games. It was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision in 2000. It was first released for the PlayStation, with subsequent ports to the Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Game Boy Advance, Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, and iOS. It also was released for the Xbox on November 15, 2001 as part of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x collection featuring the first two Pro Skater games. The game received widespread critical acclaim and remains one of the highest rated video games of all time.

Gameplay

The player, playing as a professional skateboarder (either real-life or created) completes a number of tasks which result in cash rewards. With money gained, the player can then purchase skill improvements and better tricks and skateboards. Pro Skater 2 was also the first game in the series to introduce the manual, a skateboarding trick where the performer balances on two wheels. This improved players' ability to string together high-scoring trick combos. Many new tricks were introduced for the first time, as was the option to edit the combinations for tricks. It was also the first of the Pro Skater games to feature Create-a-Skater and Park Editor features, now staples in the series. Three new professional skaters were introduced to the series on this game: Steve Caballero, Rodney Mullen, and Eric Koston.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is a skateboarding video game in the Tony Hawk's series. It was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision in 2001 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation, GameCube and Game Boy Color. In 2002, it was published for the Xbox, Game Boy Advance, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 64 and Mac OS. It was the first game released for the PlayStation 2 supporting online play, and the last game released on the Nintendo 64 in North America. According to Metacritic, Pro Skater 3 and Grand Theft Auto III hold an average critic score of 97/100, making them the highest-rated PlayStation 2 games of all time.

Gameplay

This game saw the introduction of the revert, a trick that enabled vert combos to be tied together with a manual, by tapping a button when landing in a quarterpipe. This allowed for much longer combos than in the previous two games, where landing in a quarterpipe would finish a combo. The game also added hidden combos. These were variations on standard tricks that could be performed as grab, flip, lip, or grind tricks. For example, double-tapping the kickflip button would, naturally, make the character perform a double kickflip. This system would later be refined in Pro Skater 4.

Tony Hawk: Ride

Tony Hawk: Ride is a spin-off in the Tony Hawk's series of video games. The game was released on November 17, 2009 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. It was released in Australia on March 10, 2010.

Having the lowest ratings and worst sales for a Tony Hawk game, Ride debuted to negative critical and commercial reception. It has been widely criticized by video game critics as the worst of the series. It also failed to meet financial predictions, and led to a severe financial drop that risked cancellation of future Tony Hawk games.

Gameplay

In Ride, the player uses the skateboard peripheral to simulate the riding of an actual skateboard in the game. The peripheral, shaped just like a real skateboard, is equipped with infrared sensors to detect motion and display it on-screen. Turning, leaning, hopping, and other actions all reflect in the game realistically.

Development

In February 2008, publisher Activision said that the game was currently undergoing research and testing. The publisher also said at the time that the game will be a "re-engineering [for] the franchise" and said that there will be "a new direction for the brand."

Tony Hawk's (series)

Tony Hawk's is an extreme sports–adventure video game series endorsed by professional skateboarder Tony Hawk and published by Activision. The series was primarily developed for home consoles by Neversoft (1999–2007), and for handhelds by Vicarious Visions (2001–2007). The series has since been developed by Robomodo since 2008.

The first five Tony Hawk's received critical acclaim for their unique gameplay, varied soundtracks, and expansion over their predecessors. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 and Pro Skater 3 are critically ranked among the best games ever released for the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, respectively.

Gameplay