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's Pro Skater

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, released as Tony Hawk's Skateboarding in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Europe, is a skateboarding video game developed by Neversoft. Published by Activision in 1999, it is the first entry in the Tony Hawk's series of video games. Development began after Tony Hawk's debut stint at the 1998 X-Games.

Pro Skater was originally released for the PlayStation on August 31, 1999, and was later ported to the Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, and N-Gage. It also received a Game Boy Color adaptation, and was released for Xbox in 2001 as part of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x collection. The game was met with critical acclaim from critics, who praised it for its innovative gameplay, level designs and control scheme. It was also commercially successful, selling rapidly upon its opening month. The game resulted in a successful franchise that has continued to be active, with the tenth installment and latest release, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 released in October 2015.

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground is a video game developed by Vicarious Visions for the Nintendo DS, by Neversoft for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and by Page 44 Studios for the PlayStation 2 and Wii. Proving Ground is the ninth installment in the Tony Hawk's series, and the last to be developed by Neversoft as the franchise was then transferred to Robomodo.

Proving Ground was not as successful as Project 8 (2006). When it debuted in 2007, critics were hesitant about its controls, despite receiving praise for its visuals and audio. Amidst this somewhat lackluster reception, it was a financial success. The Xbox 360 version in America came with a demo of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, which was released on October 28, 2007.

Proving Ground was the last game in the main series of Tony Hawk games for 8 years until Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 in 2015.

Gameplay

It features same gameplay from earlier Tony Hawk games; it includes new features as Nail the Manual and Nail the Grab. Similar to Nail the Trick off of the previous Tony Hawk games but features different moves to do.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 is a skateboarding video game in the Tony Hawk's series developed by Robomodo and Disruptive Games, and published by Activision. The game is the tenth game in the series, being the first main entry in the series since 2007's Proving Ground. The game was released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 29, 2015. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released on December 15, 2015 in North America and Europe, after they were delayed to improve the original versions.

Upon release, the game received negative reviews (especially in comparison to its predecessors), with many critics panning the game for its numerous technical issues, simplistic missions, bland environments, environmental clipping, and physics issues. The game's environments were criticized for their poor aesthetics, unmemorable theming, small size, dull challenge tasks, and for not containing as many hidden secrets as those in previous Tony Hawk games. The nature of the game's online modes were criticized for providing little incentive to players and exacerbating the game's performance issues. Patches have since been released to fix the game and add new content.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD is a skateboarding video game in the Tony Hawk's series of skateboarding games. The game, developed by Robomodo and published by Activision, is a high-definition re-release featuring classic levels from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Pro Skater 2, and, via download, Pro Skater 3. It was released for Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade on July 18, 2012, for PlayStation 3 through PlayStation Network on August 28, 2012 and Steam on September 18, 2012.

Gameplay

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD is a skateboarding video game, with an arcade-style emphasis with regard to realism. The objective is to score points by successfully completing various skateboarding tricks such as grinds, flip tricks, and aerials. Performing several moves in succession without any pause results in a combo. The player's score is multiplied by the number of tricks in the combo. If the player successfully lands the final trick the score is then banked, otherwise all points in that combo are lost. Pro Skater HD is an amalgam of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, and as such the game does not feature any additional tricks or moves added to later games in the series. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 downloadable content (DLC) was announced on July 3, 2012. Included in the content will be the ability to perform a revert, a trick which involves changing the direction of the board while keeping forward momentum. Originally this ability was only going to be limited for use in the levels that came with the DLC but due to the protracted release schedule, Robomodo released an update for the game that added the revert in all levels.