Tony Hawk's American Wasteland - Best Yet, or Beginning of Downward Spiral? | Skater Reviews
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- Опубліковано 15 жов 2024
- This one is the favorite of a lot of you guys out there. I wanted to take a fresh look at it and see if it was really that good. I don't think it really stacks up with the past few games, but I go very in depth with this one and break it down. Enjoy the review.
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Tony Hawk's American Wasteland on Xbox 360 online works still. After all these years the servers are still on for it..
Wow, that’s pretty neat!
Yes! but I never found anyone to skate with.
Lukas Klein let's set a date ;)
people still play THUG 2 remix online on PSP
Pink Lemonade shut up
American wasteland was the last good tony hawk game, but I also feel that it was what started the spiral down.
I like P8 too
Grym on ds
thps4 was the last good game. Even that one was more cartoony than thps3 but it was still good. Thug was overly unrealistic and thug 2 was the same game with more crap, thaw was slightly better than those 2 but not close to thps4.
@Grym I agree
THP8 & THPG were both good games.
This game is gold. Everything takes place in 2000s California with skate culture. Destroying stuff to build a skatepark. The soundtrack was a good mix of classics and modern bands, hip hop and punk. The story was cool too.
The soundtrack very deliberately had new bands covering old punk songs (MCR covering Misfits, Alkaline Trio covering TSOL etc)
THAW is truly a masterpiece.
Seriously? I thought it looked worse than previous versions.
Dan L no it's probably the best one only flaw is that you can beat the game in a few hours
naw
Far from it. In fact, it's nowhere near.
meh, there's a reason thug PRO won't touch AW - because it's trash
The stall is actually very useful once you know how to use it. You can use it to instantly halt your momentum and redirect yourself while in a combo, without getting off your board. Also you won't do it on accident on the PS2 version because the button is separate from the spin.
i use it to do a bunch of switchups and then continue the grind
This game WAS my childhood. I fucking loved it. I still have it on GameCube, still play it, and still have fond memories of it. It's my favourite Tony Hawk game from the GameCube era. THUG as good, THUG2 wasn't too bad, but since I started with THAW and then went to those games, they just didn't seem to live to the hype and anticipation I had in playing them -- even though they're still good games in and of themselves.
Dude same for me but I'm afraid I'm a little bit older, I've been playing THPS 1 and 3 on an emulator, and, damn, I really missed those
Played all of em. THPS got me into skateboarding. But this one was just fucking sick,the story,the new features,the music, so fucking good.
I too had played THAW before THUG 1 & 2, but I still ended up liking THUG1 more. THUG and THAW are my favorites in the series.
Played on the GameCube too!
I've had the 360 version for some years now and I can say with ease that it's the best version of THAW. The load times are much nicer and I always thought the 360 controller had the best feeling for the Tony Hawk games.
Venator #5507
I like my 360 controller better than my PS4 controller
I thought so too, but nothing beats the PS1/2 Controllers. The precision of the D-Pad is unmatched. The 360 Controller is the best Stick-Alternative though, no other Controller can match this.
The online multiplayer still works on THAW xbox 360 too
Honestly, having played both versions, I’m one of those rare one’s that prefer the OG Xbox version over the 360 one. Always thought the controls felt weird on that version to me, and that it looked rougher on the 360. Though, it really comes down to preference at the end of the day.
Out of all the Tony hawk titles, this was my favorite.
Actually, Matt Hoffman played more or less exactly like Tony Hawk. X and B + direction for tricks. The bike controls in this game are original.
Yes, they are original. I thought they were testing the water for a new MHPB game with new controls. I really think they dropped the ball with this. MHPB with the stick controls could have been their "realistic" game play game. And THPS their arcade game.
Yes. The best one they made. I don't know why it gets any hate.
Milk man True statement.
Milk man the physics i think maps are awesome story is awesome but yeh
Since when did this game ever got hate?
Levi Castelo anytime I discuss this game on an image board I browse this gets shit all over and thrown in with project 8.
Google "planet tony hawk THAW long winded review" and read the text. You will see a couple of good reasons. I thought it was the worst of them all.
American Wasteland is THE best Skateboarding game I’ve ever played to date and I’ve played all the Skates and TH games! The amount of stunts you can do no matter how ridiculous is unreal and endlessly fun.👌🏻💯
The load times in this game is like GTA: Vice City loading times... It last 2 seconds.
2 seconds for the actual load but 30 seconds in a boring empty loading tunnel
@@Echomemes boring? How is anything boring when you can skate everything?
@@christianmallien3123 Have you gone into the metro station that leads from downtown it has fucking nothing, and what about the santa monica pier parking lot, there is yet again nothing to skate in
@@phdman the game lacks a lot of line potential
@@jetthejudge it does, and it's good they fixed it in proving grounds
Personally, for me I was attached to Tony Hawk's Underground.
My all time favorite! The soundtrack, the art direction and the story man. So great.
Bert slides weren't useless, i used them at the very end of my combos for extra points, they are useful if you are going down a long bank. Thaw was one of my favorites in the series just, because i could do more stuff there then in any other tony hawk game. If it had nail the trick and neil the grab as well, then i would give it a perfect 10 with maybe my only minor complaint being that there just wasn't as much cool videos to unlock like in the pro skater series.
zukodude487987 I use them to make donuts.
Bert slides were my favorite
i think they added them cause the game came out a few months after the movie "lords of dogtown" and they do it all the time in the movie
ｂ o ｚ o ｎ e ｒ Tony Alva was in the game too so I think you're right
@@bozoner well all the dogtown stuff really happened and the game takes place IN California. So its not just because the movie, its because its skateboarding history. Stacy peralta was in underground 1
I always found stalls really useful for changing direction when you are grinding. Makes it easier to control where your combo goes next.
I've played every single game with Tony Hawk's name on it ever released, and can 100% say without a doubt that THAW is the absolute best one by a milestone. This game needs a remaster ASAP. I actually just finished replaying Story and Classic mode and they're just phenomenal
man...this is one of the most broken and buggy but sure.
@@jetthejudge the only bug I encountered in my newest playthrough was during the last mission where you're running from the cops. As soon as I would start skating it would fail the mission. Luckily about 5 or 6 tries later I must have done something bc when I started the cops didn't spawn in at all. I never tried resetting the console though so maybe that would've helped. I see what you mean though. Still my favorite and the best imo
@@stagnantlasagna I've been playing it for 3 days now and I have so many bugs and glitches so far. I can kicker jump through the grounds, you can manual accidentally on ramp edges and it will automatically re-manual without inputs, you can randomly bail in the middle of combos for no reason, you can skitch in mid air, I was using a weird bert slide into grind on the edge of a QP and clipped through the entire thing, I have a lot of random glitches and either way even if I didn't, I feel it's a pretty average game overall. I feel no intrigue or incentive in making the park or travelling between zones in these abyss tunnels. Eh.
Thaw, P8 & proving grounds is all the same lol
@@xSpicySaltx that ain’t a bad thing
Not a single word about, the AMAZING soundtrack???
Honestly think it's an okay soundtrack compared to previous games
There is a use for boned ollie and bert slide. The boned ollie gives more distance instead of the improved height of boneless. The bert slide is a great combo ender especially if you hit the left trigger to do a 720 bert slide. Honestly this is my favorite game in the series, especially from a story perspective. It has a very underground, street skater life feel to it.
IMO the splitscreen in this one was the best in the series. So many game modes and the levels sparked a lot of creativity
i found this channel recently and i have to say youre awesome. all of your topics are well researched and you present them well. i usually dont comment on youtube but i just had to say kudos
17:00 there is also the Nintendo GameCube version, which introduced me to the Tony hawk series and currently is the only one I've played but that will change soon I have a lot of fun with that one and I play this version every so often but not much for the story mode, mostly for the classic mode
Why do people keep dissing the GameCube!?
@@LicensedGuitarist2000 I love the GameCube, but the controls after thug1 became really tough to deal with. I hate using the dpad for spins.
I racked up so many hours to this game...if I only I would’ve spent that time actually skating..
I absolutely loved this game. When I first bought it (the same week it came out) I literally couldnt believe you could go into a store and change your clothes and hair in a skateboarding game. Also picking up the bike and getting on the bus were awesome. Challenges like getting the alien suit( I wish you could keep it but it's gone once you've completed the mission, even though you need like 350$ to buy it ). This game was innovative and probably the most "realistic" skating game; at the time.
Watching your videos on cell data since I just moved to Virginia and need to set up my WiFi, love ur videos, dude!
The Bert Slide is so underrated. It is very useful if you use it right.
Graffiti always felt out of place when mixed with skateboarding. It's the reason why my group of friends stopped skating. Always hated how skateboarding somehow turned into graffiti, crews and then eventually gangs in real life. It always seemed like such an awkward transition.
You should do a review of American Sk8land next.
Living2Skate so underrated. Tons of content packed in on a handheld. Loved the shit out of this game. I wish the online still worked!!! Tony hawk needs a new portable game on the 3ds
Living2Skate trash
Just make a HD one for the Switch with online
my friends tried getting me to play it on the bus and at school as a kid and i was always like “fuck this shit” but they played tf outta that game ngl
I understand it's a review but it seems to be mostly nitpicking to make it seem like it wasn't as good as it actually was.
When was the last time you played the game?
@@stephenthedude4383 this past Monday..
@@stephenthedude4383 watching thjs video again now for some reason but I also have to say I have never had a problem with stalls..
@@davidalvaradoda well he didnt say it was bad lol, Just his opinion man. I love it, it use to be my favorite until i replayed underground 1 and thps 3. But i think Rad rat can't deny that THAW has the most mechanical depth than all the others. P.s i can totally see his point of view. Just rememeber that its his OPINION not his facts lol p.s.s i also never had trouble with the stall i play on OG xbox. What console do you have it on?
Maybe on Console, that's I why I play PC.
finally someone who talks about the trick animations. or details like the boned ollie. this is how a skater sees this game and usually gamers miss these things when reviewing a game because they dont skate. so really impressive and appreciative the attention to detail!
I never used the triggers to spin I would just use the left analog... still would be able to out combo my friends lol
I remember as a kid that i literally could not progress past the first mission in hollywood because my disc was scratched tf up😄 So i had no choice but to play the classic mode over and over again. Itd crazy seeing all these missions and different environments
As for THP8 on the PS2 it has the same Downhill level from THPS3 from the ps1 version, but slightly modified.
I honestly can’t believe these comments as despite AW being my all time favourite I’m mad sure I remember it being slated and criticised by the masses, but positively surprised to see how many actually liked it! Really hope they remaster!
This is my favorite skateboarding game of all time. I have it for the original Xbox, ps2, GameCube, and PC. It's been my favorite game since I first played it in 2006.
the THAW classic mode levels were my favorite levels in tony hawk because i was a little kid and i loved to roleplay everything, i still do. So my little brother and i would go to santa cruz and pretend to be dogtown style skaters hanging out on the pier, then we'd race to the skatepark and try to one up eachother.
Hey Rad Rat I just wanna say how much I appreciate your videos, you're so interesting in the way you emphasise parts of sentences, but also how calm and collected you are! Live the videos!
It always made me laugh when Daewon Song came out as the Flatland Challenge Boss 😂😂😂
love your videos dude, you are very knowledgeable about skateboarding and it's awesome to learn the history behind tricks I grew up learning, mostly from games like thps and old skate videos. Please do more trick history vids and bio vids for classic skaters. I'd love to see you do a video on the gnarliest pro bails in skate history.
So i played THAW for the first time and I'm just finishing up with the gaps and stuff, and to me is ok i would say, not really good but ok. I think that if i played this at a younger age the nostalgia would've make me actually love it.
it's a pretty average game
The Xbox 360 version is amazing. Looks great.
I think the bert slides were added because lords of dogtown came out before this or after this i dont remember. Tony Alva is in the game too so.
i remember growing up having my girlfriend ramble on and on, on the phone while i crank out hrs on this game
THAW has too much weird stuff in it for my taste, like parcour. but as rad rat said, the physics-"hack" with the bank drop is amazing.
By far my favourite of the Tony Hawk games, although Underground 2 was pretty good too. Unfortunately they don't compare to the Skate series for me
Having the bike in there was a huge deal for me being that I'm more of a bike guy than a skate guy!
Damn you're opinion sucks, Skate will never even come close to Tony Hawk. Skate was just a technical fucking mess
@@stagnantlasagna Isn't skate held in high regard, though?
@@stagnantlasagna Totally different interpretations of skateboarding but Skate absolutely holds up against the best of the THPS series.
@@ministryOFmuff yes
The last good game was Proving Ground. After that is when Ride came out and it was clear they were done
Congrats on the progress man I'm loving it.
Here's a suggestion Id love and I'm sure others would too, you should review new skate parts/team vids. That'll be cool to see you talk about that.
It had some of the best music in the entire series though
Btw on the ps2 version there is an extra skater and only in the ps2 version
Robo-Tony or Robo-Hawk don't fully remember the name but it's a robot version Tony Hawk
Dust no I have him on the Xbox and GC version
Oh
It's not on 360 so I thought it was only on PS2, because on my PS2 i have him but not Xbox 360 (I have 360 version 100% complete and don't have Robo-Tony)
more like Robo-Moto-Hawk
I thought you had to enter a cheat to unlock him upon completion
I've never seen somebody complain so much about a good game. I don't know man, I like your videos but come on this game really put forth a lot of effort. And this is why we get games like Tony hawk shred or thps5, because developers think way too hard to try to win us back when really they should expand on games like Wasteland.
It was my favorite because of the story and missions
This was always my favorite tony hawk game of all time and heavily influenced my taste in music
The nostalgia is real. Used to play this all day during the summer while it was hot out then go out and skate with the homies when it cooled down
I have a lot of great memories with THAW and the Underground games growing up. I think American Wasteland has a lot going for it, and I wish they'd carried over some of those ideas rather than completely changing everything for Project 8. Something about the way your character moves and controls feels so free and fresh. It gets rid of that stiff feeling that the THUG games sometimes had. The primitive "open world" added to that sense of freedom too. I also still remember the main crew, who were all very distinctive - Mindy, Boone, Dave and Iggy. Just a great game overall.
These videos are so awesome, i'm glad you're making all of them! Grew up playing pretty much every Thps game with my brother, but on Ps2. Actually played very well at the time & still respect the games. Which one was your favorite?
the new tricks like stalls and the slides are pretty useful getting massive combos, almost needed
I actually used to play AW online back on PS2 and would host “Realistic Skate” lobbies. Stalling was very useful back then because when skating mini ramps or transition it broadened your abilities. We used to try so fucking hard to make it realistic and honestly did okay haha. I kinda miss it actually
The soundtracks from all the Tony hawk games got me into the music I listen to nowadays...im 26.
Gotta ask. Did you get your name from the old Rad Rat banana skate decks in the 90's?
Because I totally had a couple of those back in the day.
that last race was always my favorite part how it all comes together like that. how can you just glance over it like it wasn't awesome lol
Stalls are actually very useful for changing your skaters direction mid-grind. You'll use it a lot in Project 8 for the "owned" and "get there" challenges.
Maybe because I was still a kid when it came out, but I loved the sheer variety of options. I know the parkour stuff was probably easy to dismiss for the oldschool crowd but I loved the weird places you could get to with it. And Bert slides had some surprising uses, especially since you could jump out of them and I think you could do them out of manuals. Honestly it played like the classics but even more, with some pretty fun levels, a good character customization, and a decent story mode. I love this game!
controls are not even close to being complicated. That's like saying mortal combat is hard.. And P.s Burt slides and manuals are the only good way of keeping your combo streak going.
Its the only one I've ever owned so far. Very fun and had a good story, maps, and characters. Lil John is on there
The bert slide was actually immensely useful in THAW's multiplayer. Specifically the king of the hill mode. I distinctly remember just how overpowered it was.
2:50 bert slide was useful for conserving your manual balance to prolong your combo.
Tony Hawk American Wasteland felt a lot as if Pro Skater 2 had a love child with Grand Theft Auto. It shouldn't have worked, and in fact most of the time it didn't, but when it did boy was it a sight to behold. Probably my favorite in the series as well.
THAW was my childhood. Had the best soundtrack too.
Thanks for subtitles, bro. I'm Russian and I love your vids
Excellent review. I played this on a friend's Gamecube and it was alright but at that point I was done with Tony Hawk and started playing Thrasher (and Grind Session) again. Luckily, Skate was only 2 years away in 2007... Hard to believe 10 years have passed already. I do remember playing a demo of Project 8 and enjoying the feel but it was a very small slice though.
The stall grind is not completely useless. Sometimes I will accidentally grind the wrong way so I will stall and flip around. It has saved some big combos for me.
Thug is still the best
I think my main gripe with THAW coming from THUG2 was definitely the toned down/removed character customization. We went from being able to play as a skeleton clown (My dads personal creation) or any other type of person and abomination; to only being able to buy clothes for some mid-2000's skater stereotypes/tokens either by necessity or deliberate "artistic choice".
I remember despising this game back when it came out, but after watching your review I'm not entirely sure why. It seems like a logical evolution for the THUG formula, those games of which I adore. Tony Hawk's Underground 2 and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 are always toss-ups for my favorite entry in the series. The only thing I can think of is that the game maybe threw too many new things at you? It seems a little daunting, the way you explain it, and that could absolutely mean I hated it back in the day!
After watching this review, though, I'm willing to give it another shot. Another reason I may not have liked it at all is that I played the living hell out of THUG 2 on the GameCube and the PSP. Soooo many hours played in both versions, and as a human being with preferences and getting used to certain things, playing probably around a million hours of those games and being so comfortable with them, jumping into a brand new one with new levels, a new story, new characters... I'm thinking it was just a bit of a culture shock.
For the longest time I also considered Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 to be trash. Notice a commonality between me hating that and hating American Wasteland? Both games were the immediate successors to my favorite ones in the series. Haha.
Anyways... sorry for the long comment. I'm sure no one cares. But here's something you might care about, Rad Rat: I'm really enjoying your series of Tony Hawk game reviews :) Very well-written and well thought-out reviews, and it is so interesting to hear thoughts on the games from a seasoned IRL skateboarder.
Are you going to venture into reviewing other extreme sports games? Like Activision's other ones such as Kelly Slater, Shaun Palmer, and Mat Hoffman? Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure or whatever? Dave Mirra? And that -objectively- awful BMX XXX?
All I can say is keep the reviews coming! Keep up the awesome work :)
enjoying these videos man, brings back some good memories!
the ground tricks were fun for me because it matched my own style more.
4:25 halfcabs and full cabaerails are in the game, you have to add them manually to your trick list
THAW is my favourite at least from a story perspective, building the skate ranch is awesome
I have fond memories from this game from my childhood. Used to play it online a lot
There is one thing you forgot to mention about Classic Mode. You can play Co-Op via split screen.
I loved project 8 on the ps2, the game has a heavy focus on skill challenges, the amount of hours that I spent trying to get sick on everything were insane
Is the collectors edition only on ps2? I wanna download an iso for the game, but I wanna download the version that has the best graphics,
is PC the best version? 360?
At 13:36 you talked about how the game uses forced pacing with those required side missions like tagging. I found that the BMX challenges, and the entire monetary system for that matter, also did that. Recently though, I played through the game on the GameCube port, and I found that if I did all the BMX challenges as soon as I got off the bus in Hollywood, and continued to complete every graffiti challenge in any area as soon as it was unlocked, I had more than enough money to pay fees in those in-game micro transactions to get skate ranch stuff, and the game played far more cinematically after the first 30 minutes of BMX challenges.
Hey Rad Rat, why haven't you done the Xbox 360 port for American Wasteland and instead the original Xbox port?
my biggest pet peeve with AW is that they took away the progressive board damage. it was such a cool touch in THPS4, THUG and THUG2. Why did they take it out? haha
animations used blends from one to another animation so up + x equals kickflip but it will try to blend into the closest frame of the double kickflip, and triple, meaning that if the boards transverse rotation was a similar place on a 0-360 degree scale then it would not account for it and blend to that frame of the double kick animation.
tl;dr that triple kickflip problem def was a glitch.
Needs a remastered version. I love this game to death
3:08 What's this music
I think the original EA Skate is the best skateboarding game ever made.
The focus on having to film video parts is awesome and sorely lacking from the sequels.
Munkee Man I think the mechanics in skate 3 were better, but the story in skate 1 was better.
***** True
I used to play THPS2 for hours, days, weeks on end. Literally..... But when I was 15. And because it was the only skateboarding game that was decent back then.
EA Skate/2/3 ANNIHALATE the THPS series. I would bet money hat the Birdman plays Skate 2 when he's at home and no one is watching haha.
He's gotta be like, "man this shit is fucking lame but fuck yeah $100,000,000 baby I'll make 50 of them!"
I would.
I think it just depends on what you want to play and/or if you actually skate in real life.
THPS is a fun game. It's got it's challenges and such. That's pretty much it.
Skate has a bit of that but more so it's more of emulating actual skating. THPS takes a small amount of skill to do it but Skate requires quite a bit of skill to pull off exactly what you want to do.
You can button push sure, but trying to hard flip back tail a tall ledge and come out of it with intent. Shit can be hard!
You sounded sarcastic when you said you didn't know Tony invented the Hurricane, so who did invent it?
I had American Wasteland on the Xbox 360, I think the Bert slides were with the bumpers instead, so it didn't have the body varial, Nollie, and fakie issues like the original Xbox. Again I don't remember clearly but that is my memory of it, sorry for being so fuzzy on it.
Personally my favorite was Tony hawk pro skater 3 but that's probably due to my nostalgia and it was my first Tony hawk game. Thanks for the videos rad rat, keep it up!
Absolutely love this game. I have a 360 copy, and its graphics are only slightly better. Not drastically different like project 8 onward👊🏻
Thps4, thug, and thug2 were my favorite
Think you could throw my piece up there?
Ah, American Wasteland. Still one of my favorite and most memorable games from my childhood. Right alongside Underground 2 as far as the Tony Hawk franchise is concerned.
my thaw disc was scratched so the levels wouldnt load inbetween the halls and they actually have doors in front of them that tou dont usually see
I gotta admit, it's pretty impressive looking as far as the tech goes
American Wasteland is to Tony Hawk as Resident Evil 4 was to Resident Evil. Both had innovative features and were quite good games if viewed in a vacuum...but they departed significantly from the series of their namesake and were the harbinger of decline. Everything that followed no longer had that magical 'something' their predecessors had and would fall further into mediocrity with each successive release.
@Paul Bell And I don't dispute that. RE4 was a very good game viewed by itself, and was very critically well-received...but a 'good game in general' and a 'good RE game' are different things.
RE4 set the precedent - it changed Resident Evil from its roots as a survival horror experience into a generic action game and all the RE games that would come after it would suffer in the attempt of re-creating the less horror/more action of RE4 and falling short.
Everything that came after RE4 was a huge departure from what previous RE games had been because they were trying to replicate 4, and that ruined the series.
Sure, if Capcom stuck with the classic formula they wouldn't have had the critical success that was RE4, but they would have maintained the survival horror series of Resident Evil as a whole. And I think Capcom and the series overall would be far better off if they stuck with the survival horror instead of becoming just another action game.
my only complaint about the 360 version is that you have to press LB and RB at the same time to get on and off your board, as opposed to pressing White button on xbox original. it made the game feel much worse.
To me, this has the best Classic Mode if you played the Collector's Edition, that there should have been an independent game inspired by it using the Pro Skater toots. But they should've used Oil Rig and Las Vegas, and the levels should feel alive like in 3.