Tony Hawks Project 8 demo review

It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's a skater that intentionally bailed! Welcome to an actual next version of a Tony Hawk game. This is really just a review of the Xbox 360 demo of Tony Hawks Project 8.(sorta)


American Wasteland was the last version in the series that was on all consoles. I first played it on the original Xbox. Not a bad game but glitches and it wasnt really as open as I thought it would be made it so-so. Then I bouht it for the 360 thinking that it would look better and those pesky glitches would be gone. Wrong! I have no idea why they put that on the 360. Then the announcement of Project 8! This got me all tingly inside. Especially watching vids and seeing screenies. However, those don't really do the game nearly as much justice as playing the demo.


Four or five days ago, I downloaded the demo (slowest download ever!!)
As I have played every single Hawk game in the past and being let down by some of them, I was not really sure what to expect. As soon as the demo started though, I knew it was going to kick ass and after playing it for hours on end, best game in the series!

The graphics are the first thing you will notice (at least on the 360)
Much improved from AW. I am not going to spend too much time on the graphics as they are what you would expect from a next gen game. They are pretty though. Cracks in the sidewalk with grass growing out of them, sky and water effects are beautiful, all the characters look like their real life counter part, etc..

Physics are much improved as well! Gone is the crappy way you crashed in previous versions. Wrecking is quite cool and for the most part realistic. Sure, it is not quite true to life but, what fun would that be. As I am on the physics, might as well go into the hospital bill. This is a new feature and one that I have lotsa fun with. When you wreck, be it on accident or on purpose, you get a bill. You can bail on purpose to try and get a high score and highest amount of bones broken.
In the retail version of the game there will be mini games dealing with this in the fasion of FlatOut. Bowling, target practice, break the most bones, etc...

Graphics, physics, and the hurt yourself feature would make me buy the game alone but, there is more!


The Nail the Trick addition has got to be the best thing in the game. I swear, I almost do it evertime I ollie! Nail the trick allows you to take control over your skakers left and right legs, via the left and right analog sticks, to control the board. The damn thing is amazing.
You can use the NtT mode at anytime by pressing down on both analog sticks. This causes you to go into slow motion and the camera zooms to about mid thigh down. Left stick controls left leg and right stick controls right leg. (duh!) Once in air, you are free to flip the board any way you desire. Hold the left stick to the left, for example, and the board goes head over heels, so to speak. When the griptape comes back around, pull the right stick down and the board goes into a spin.
Of course there are many different combos you can do here, which is very cool! It is also possible to use NtT in a combo which will skyrocket your score if done correctly.

In the demo, I assume in the game as well, there is a pro that will give you a tutorial on NtT so you get the gist of it.

ANd there is more! Yes indeedy kids!

Project 8 has also added a plethora of other goodies as well. First time on film, Nail with variety, highest combo, turf wars, and 96 others that will be in the game. These are your goals and most of them have three levels to achieve. Amature, Pro, and Sick. Ill give ya an example. In the demo, there is a nail with variety challenge. For am, two different tricks, pro four, and sick six. Now in other versions of the game, the three levels didnt really matter except for maybe bragging rights and finishing the game at 100 percent, in this one, however, there are multiple endings! (so I hear anyway)

The other thing is the map is just one big place. You can kinda see it when the demo ends but who knows if there is more to it than what you can see.

There is a lot to do in the demo and I know it will keep me busy until the game arrives in stores. (hell, I am playing as I write this) They did leave out the movable rails and such though which is appropriate for the demo I suppose.

Also for every goal, there is a leaderboard. I am 190 on the Nail with variety at the moment. The leader board is good I suppose but, people have already found glitches in teh demo and have scores that are impossible to get. Hopefully this will be fixed as well.


There are some things I would like to see improved in the retail version though. Oh! Did I mention that the demo is from a June build?
So keep that in mind as well. The speed of the skaters and the bails seem a little slow. This could be due to the skater in the demo might not have a lot of speed skill yet but, the bails really do seem slower than they should be. From the demo anyway, the game does not seem to have those huge combos anymore. In AW, it was nothing for me to get 2mil point combos on any map. Project 8, 309k is my highest! I love the big combos and I hope the full game has them. There is other minor stuff but, I wont bore you with it as, like I said the demo is from a June build, so I have my fingers crossed that these minor annoyances will be fixed.


I cant reccomend this demo enough. I will be getting it the day of release due to this demo. I would encourage anyone who has a 360 do to the same. Later Skaters!


There is one thing that pisses me off in the 360 versions of AW and Project 8 though and that is having to use two buttons to get on and off the board. The original Xbox version of AW only required the use of the black button for that. I HATE having to use two buttons for such a simple task!

Great review, is Project 8 Available for the original xbox too?

Man the demos fun, got my copy of Double Agent today but before that i played the Vegas demo, now thats wicked as well

I do believe it comes out for the original xbox and the ps2 as well

Prettt sure it will come out current-gen, but I don't think those versions will have Nail the Trick mode...

Originally posted by DD31@Oct 25 2006, 04:51 AM
Prettt sure it will come out current-gen, but I don't think those versions will have Nail the Trick mode...

I really hope they do have the nail the trick mode, if so i'll buy it immediately because i always was a great tony hawk fan

I didn't like THU2, THU1 is more fun with that storyline

THPS2 is really old but still fun to play, right now i'm playing THU2, not the latest but always fun!