Tony Hawk: Shred

The Good
What happened to Tony Hawk and its stagnant series? I don't know what's gotten into the company that Pitfall built. But with a skateboarding legend like the retired former X Games champ that spawned memorable games like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater's 1, 2, and 3, and Tony Hawk's Underground 2, things were pretty rough since it all started in 2009.

Activision tried its best with Tony Hawk: Ride and the game was a fall from grace much to its loyal fanbase. And it only gets much worse when they release Shred in 2010. It has a few good moments including unique levels, art design, and soundtrack.

The Bad
Shred also has a lot of miscalculated attempts to fall off guard with the use of the awful peripheral board. The board lets players learn special moves until you continue to fall off the half-pipe over and over again. Just the same as Ride, Shred has becomes a laughing stock of the series and flipping the board just won't help that much. Even more frustrating is that the series is put on hold after the bad reception and sluggish sales at about 3,000 copies worldwide marks the beginning of the end for this ailing brand.

The Bottom Line
Ride and Shred are both unplayable duds. So I would think it would be a great idea if Activision should stop the bleeding and reboot the franchise from scratch. It may sounded very strange, but I missed the old Tony Hawk Pro Skater and its counterparts from the early decade. Being as one of the greatest skateboarding gaming franchises ever, it needs to get back on its true form and hopefully it should revitalize the nature of its critics and fans how improving they have to show what it takes to be the master of the half-pipe.