GENRE
	Simulation
	DEVELOPER
	Buzz Monkey
	PUBLISHER
	Activision
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-4
	WI-FI ENHANCED
	No
	DS COMPATIBLE
	No
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Nintendojo was provided a copy of this game for review by a third party, though that does not affect our recommendation. For every review, Nintendojo uses a standard scoring criteria.

At the end of last year, Tony Hawk condemned video game journalists for trashing his game through his Twitter account. He claimed that journalists were all jaded and would have actually enjoyed Tony Hawk: RIDE if they had approached it with an open mind. Unfortunately for the Birdman, after playing the game for awhile with an open mind, it still comes up lacking in major areas.

The game starts off well enough. Players set up a character, calibrate the board, and then go into a training area. In an effort to give players a new experience, the game ships with a skateboard peripheral. Tricks are performed similarly to how they would be in real life, with exceptions. Ollies are achieved by popping the back of the board up, flip tricks by wiggling the board while performing an ollie, grabs and such by covering sensors on the board itself. At first it's smooth sailing. Ollies and manuals work perfectly. Then players get into flip tricks, and everything goes downhill.

The board just does not work like it's supposed to. Flip tricks in particular are only recognized when the game feels like it, and it is almost impossible to pull off tailgrabs at all. The constant misinterpretations of even the most basic tricks will cause even the most patient gamer to try and break the board out of frustration. (Thankfully the board is extremely durable-- its designers may have the skills necessary to design nuclear bomb safe rooms with as indestructible Ride's board seems.) Once players get tired of the frustration of being unable to complete the training area, they can skip it and move onto the real levels.

These levels are split into locations, sub-locations and type of run. Every main location has several sub-locations that are unlocked as players fulfill challenge requirements. These requirements can vary from getting a certain score in a run, racing through a level in the fastest amount of time, or performing certain tricks in specific locations. Of these types of runs, the time-attack is probably the most fun since the only tricks players need to know are ollies. Unfortunately the game focuses more on the other modes, so even getting 10 out of 10 challenge points will not unlock the next area that features a time-attack mode. The high score mode is just like a normal run in older Tony Hawk games with players given a certain amount of time to complete tricks in the level at which point their scores are evaluated and a certain number of challenge points are awarded. The trick attack starts off as the most fun mode, requiring players to pull of specific tricks in specific areas. However, it quickly degenerates into a swearfest when the skater does not do what the players want, and unfortunately, breaking the board is not a rewarded mechanic in this game.

With lots of practice, players will gain some semblance of control over their virtual skater, but no matter how much time is spent learning the game, there are still times when the board misinterprets one type of move as another meaning players will fail out of the challenges and have to do them over again.

Lest Mr. Hawk thinks that this is an uninformed opinion given by a jaded journalist who has played way too many games to know what is and isn't fun, while reviewing RIDE we let various people try it out including a few that skateboard in real life. All of them got fed up with the game before making it out of the training level. One player said that while he had been thinking about asking his parents to get him the game, that after trying it out he really didn't want it anymore. Thankfully there are a few bright spots within the game.

While most of the levels are street skating, a few of them switch it up with vert competitions. These competitions are one of the few times that the game's controls feel like they work. While there still are the occasional weird control hiccups, most of the time the board responds to player commands well in these levels. All vert levels are high score levels and are limited to the character skating in a vert ramp, but really this is their only downside.

Thankfully this Tony Hawk game forgoes any kind of overarching plot. That's right, there's no real story in RIDE. Players are just skating and meeting world-famous skaters who want to see what they do. It's a nice throwback to the older Tony Hawk games which had no story. The graphics are a little weak compared to other games available for Wii, and the Mii support feels tacked on, and probably will not be used as it is not unlocked from the get-go. Once again in the Tony Hawk series, the soundtrack delivers, giving players plenty of enjoyable tracks to listen to while shredding.

One final complaint about the game is its interface. While it gets the job done, glaring load times and resetting the board stance every time players go into a level is a major annoyance. Hopefully the RIDE team will be able to find ways to minimize these in future installments.

It would be easy to write off Tony Hawk RIDE. The controls are atrocious, a definitely no-no when they're also your big hook. However, the game is not without any redeeming qualities. It really all depends on how much players are willing to pay for a game that ends up being mediocre at best. Hopefully the next game in the series can fix the control flaws and make something worthy of the Birdman's name.

4.8/10