A couple days back, Tony Hawk took to Twitter to tease an upcoming project, saying that he’d make the announcement today which, as it happens, is the day of the 2011 Spike VGAs.

As promised, Tony Hawk got on stage tonight to announce that a not-so-new Tony Hawk game is in the works – an HD remake of the original that started it all, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.

The debut trailer didn’t give us anything to go by, other than the fact that the game looks much prettier than it did 12 years ago, but Joystiq managed to catch up with Tony Hawk on the VGA red carpet to squeeze a few more details out of him.

Hawk described Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD to Joystiq as a digital package that will take “select” titles from the first two games and give them a fresh coat of HD paint. Other than that, all we know is that it’s set to release by summer of next year.

I wouldn’t mind playing a HD remake of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, but I have to admit that I’m more relieved that this isn’t another abomination like Tony Hawk: Ride. Just about anything would be better than that.

To see the brief trailer that Tony Hawk showed off during the 2011 Spike VGAs, see below.

[Image]

2011 VGAs: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD announced, coming next year [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Tony Hawk has already got defensive about the reaction to the latest videogame to bear his name, Tony Hawk’s Ride. Last month, the former pro skater hit out at the overwhelmingly negative reviews for the game, claiming that critics were  “ready to discredit it before they even tried it.”

While all our hearts bled because the millionaire skateboarding star with his own videogame had hurt feelings, Hawk himself was formulating a method to get people to give Ride another shot. Last night, he appeared on Twitter and promised that anyone who played Ride with him on Xbox Live would be added to his friend’s list.

Thing is, I’m sort of torn about this. On the one hand, I wouldn’t mind being Tony Hawk’s Xbox buddy, and I also respect how he backs his game, while most celebrities would simply lend their name, cash their check in, and never be heard of again.

On the other hand, I really don’t want to play Tony Hawk’s Ride again. Choices!

[Twitter, via Kotaku]

Play Tony Hawk’s game, and he’ll be your friend is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s the end of a year and a decade, so if you read a lot of gaming sites, it’s likely you’ll be bumping into “best of lists” every way you turn. These are usually based on writer opinions, and typically consist of a very samey “safe” canon of games. But what does science say? Or more specifically, what does score aggregator site Metacritic?

While the best reviewed games of the decade do contain games from the aforementioned canon, a few are titles that no games writer would ever dare to rank so highly – I can’t see Out of the Park Baseball 2007 featuring heavily in such countdowns, for example. And that number one? Totally out of left-field.

1. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 – 98
2. Grand Theft Auto IV – 98
3. Perfect Dark – 97
4. NFL 2K1 – 97
5. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 – 97
6. Halo – 97
7. Metroid Prime – 97
8. Grand Theft Auto III – 97
9. Super Mario Galaxy – 97
10. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty – 96
11. Half-Life 2 – 96
12. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker – 96
13. Resident Evil 4 – 96
14. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – 96
15. BioShock – 96
16. The Orange Box – 96
17. Out of the Park Baseball 2007 – 96
18. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – 96
19. Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn – 95
20. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – 95

Is Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 really the best game of the decade? Probably not (and there’s no danger of the latest Tony Hawk game making top spot in anything), but this list does tell us something interesting about the hype that surrounds games at their time of release – and also about the benefits of cold, sober reflection years later.

[Via MCV]

The best videogames of the decade, by review score is a post from: The Inquisitr

I never had Tony Hawk down as the type to wear cranky pants, but now the Birdman has taken to sulking about the critical reception given to Tony Hawk: Ride.

Ride is about the gazillionth Tony Hawk game released since the series debuted in 1999, and comes with a skateboard peripheral that is supposed to simulate the riding of an actual skateboard in the game. Except, according to the reviewers … it doesn’t.

A number of critics have accused the board of being unresponsive and frustrating to use, a game-breaking gimmick that is yet another insult to a once-great series. Currently, the game has a score of 46% on Metacritic, making it the 440th best game on the PS3, out of all 460 titles.

Well, Tony’s not having this. Speaking to the Sudbury Star, the skateboarding legend suggests that the dozens of people criticising his game – the people who review games professionally – are all wrong, and he is right.

“They were ready to discredit it before they even tried it, and if it didn’t play exactly how they imagined it… then they passed it off. I don’t agree with people who say the board’s not responsive. I think that they’re just not giving it a fair shake. And I think a lot of them came into it with an attitude that it’s going to suck.”

But jeez, why does skateboarding legend and multi-millionaire Tony Hawk care?

“I brought this idea to Activision, and I saw it through, I’ve been playing it every step of the way and I am very proud of it.”

Ohhhh, makes sense now. Those nasty reviewers made it personal.

[Sudbury Star, via Kotaku]

Reviews say latest Tony Hawk game is rubbish, Tony Hawk begs to differ is a post from: The Inquisitr

Just kidding, it’s this advertisement that tells me not to get one. It just doesn’t seem right. We’ll just stick to Rock Band.

Guitar Hero World Tour with Kobe Bryant, Michael Phelps, A-Rod, and Tony Hawk is a post from: The Inquisitr