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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
@@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
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.
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.👌🏻💯
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
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.
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.
@@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'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
@@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.
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
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.
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.
@@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?
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
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 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
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.
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 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.
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
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)
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 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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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
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.
2:30 genuine question, I grew up using the analog sticks to turn in air, I never thought anyone actually used the triggers. Does anyone else use them? Or is this dude just different
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.
really, you can't fathom why you would use the stall? I used to play online on PS2 and host a lobby called "realistic skate". We'd seriously take turns skating mini ramps as realistically as possible-- those Stalls allowed for some really proper lip tricks. I also thought the bert slides were great, especially since this was released in the wake of Lords of Dogtown. I watched all your reviews for these games and mostly enjoyed it. The critique was just a little too intensive for me but that's how I feel about most video game reviews honestly. I like your channel.
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
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.
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!
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.
you press the white buitton to nollie before ollieing so bert sliding isn't harder. thaw is so fun because of all the different shit you can do once you get good at it
The hurricane grind wasn’t invented by Tony Hawk. It was made by Tom Groholski(New Jersey vert skater) I can’t think of the year off the top of my head.
360 Version had 720p, it was the exact same game but with online (other versions of the game had online but it got discontinued sometime in 2010.) btw i have that same exact version on original Xbox.
THAW is the one I replay the most. I'm to the point where if I play any of the Gamecube-Gen Tony Hawk games that aren't American Wasteland, I end up throwing myself off because I'm expecting to be able to do certain things (such as rail stalls) and not be able to.
8:35 THAW came out before Project 8 so the LA Ruins couldn't have come from Project 8. Unless I am missing something. They both just happened to have the same level. EDIT: Oh you mention something about it right after. Odd way to segway into saying the opposite XD
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!
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 :)
I'd love to see you give american sk8land and downhill jam on the ds a go. They're pretty terrible in my eyes but I haven't really played anything else in the extremely limited catalog of ds skateboarding games.
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)
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.
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.
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
Out of all the Tony hawk titles, this was my favorite.
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
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.
My all time favorite! The soundtrack, the art direction and the story man. So great.
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.👌🏻💯
I always found stalls really useful for changing direction when you are grinding. Makes it easier to control where your combo goes next.
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.
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.
Personally, for me I was attached to Tony Hawk's Underground.
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.
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 racked up so many hours to this game...if I only I would’ve spent that time actually skating..
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
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
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.
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.
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.
I never used the triggers to spin I would just use the left analog... still would be able to out combo my friends lol
The Bert Slide is so underrated. It is very useful if you use it right.
As for THP8 on the PS2 it has the same Downhill level from THPS3 from the ps1 version, but slightly modified.
Watching your videos on cell data since I just moved to Virginia and need to set up my WiFi, love ur videos, dude!
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.
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
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!
2:50 bert slide was useful for conserving your manual balance to prolong your combo.
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
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.
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
It always made me laugh when Daewon Song came out as the Flatland Challenge Boss 😂😂😂
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.
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
4:25 halfcabs and full cabaerails are in the game, you have to add them manually to your trick list
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 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!
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
the new tricks like stalls and the slides are pretty useful getting massive combos, almost needed
enjoying these videos man, brings back some good memories!
i remember growing up having my girlfriend ramble on and on, on the phone while i crank out hrs on this game
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.
12:15 Makes sense, Daewon Song was the shit at that time. This was after the 3rd Mullen vs. Song video part.
I've been waiting for this review. So happy!
3:08 What's this music
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!
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.
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.
The last good game was Proving Ground. After that is when Ride came out and it was clear they were done
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
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
You sounded sarcastic when you said you didn't know Tony invented the Hurricane, so who did invent it?
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 soundtracks from all the Tony hawk games got me into the music I listen to nowadays...im 26.
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.
2:30 genuine question, I grew up using the analog sticks to turn in air, I never thought anyone actually used the triggers. Does anyone else use them? Or is this dude just different
The Xbox 360 version is amazing. Looks great.
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.
There is one thing you forgot to mention about Classic Mode. You can play Co-Op via split screen.
Think you could throw my piece up there?
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 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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".
Thanks for subtitles, bro. I'm Russian and I love your vids
*OH BOI I WAS WAITING FOR THIS ONE*
I have fond memories from this game from my childhood. Used to play it online a lot
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.
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.
really, you can't fathom why you would use the stall? I used to play online on PS2 and host a lobby called "realistic skate". We'd seriously take turns skating mini ramps as realistically as possible-- those Stalls allowed for some really proper lip tricks. I also thought the bert slides were great, especially since this was released in the wake of Lords of Dogtown. I watched all your reviews for these games and mostly enjoyed it. The critique was just a little too intensive for me but that's how I feel about most video game reviews honestly. I like your channel.
It had some of the best music in the entire series though
That tune at the beginning reminds me of the Seiklus soundtrack!
This was always my favorite tony hawk game of all time and heavily influenced my taste in music
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
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.
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!
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.
It was my favorite because of the story and missions
you press the white buitton to nollie before ollieing so bert sliding isn't harder. thaw is so fun because of all the different shit you can do once you get good at it
The hurricane grind wasn’t invented by Tony Hawk. It was made by Tom Groholski(New Jersey vert skater) I can’t think of the year off the top of my head.
the ground tricks were fun for me because it matched my own style more.
360 Version had 720p, it was the exact same game but with online (other versions of the game had online but it got discontinued sometime in 2010.) btw i have that same exact version on original Xbox.
The bmx is like matt hoffman because tony hawk actually asked him to be a part if it and in the game
THAW is the one I replay the most. I'm to the point where if I play any of the Gamecube-Gen Tony Hawk games that aren't American Wasteland, I end up throwing myself off because I'm expecting to be able to do certain things (such as rail stalls) and not be able to.
Will Friedle (He plays Eric Matthews on boy meets world, if you didn't know) does the voice of your character which is pretty awesome.
THAW was my childhood. Had the best soundtrack too.
8:35 THAW came out before Project 8 so the LA Ruins couldn't have come from Project 8. Unless I am missing something. They both just happened to have the same level.
EDIT: Oh you mention something about it right after. Odd way to segway into saying the opposite XD
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!
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 :)
I like 3 4 aw project 8 & thug one only
I'd love to see you give american sk8land and downhill jam on the ds a go. They're pretty terrible in my eyes but I haven't really played anything else in the extremely limited catalog of ds skateboarding games.