I’ll preface this review with one statement: I expected absolutely nothing from this game, I honestly thought that they would give us another balance board knock off with unresponsive controls and no fun.  I stand corrected.

The guys at Robomodo put up a quality board, and Neversoft did their best to give you a quality skating game. I enjoyed the trick system quite immensely. It really did feel natural to do the tricks I was doing. As someone who attempted skate boarding throughout his teenage years it felt natural to lift the front to Ollie, lean left while lifting the front to kick-flip. The trick portion of the game felt pretty natural, as long as they drove for you. Once you get into steering the board yourself it turns into a completely different animal.
The board controls like a deck with the tightest trucks I can imagine. With minimal sensitivity settings. If you don’t lean hard enough to the left you barely turn, on the other hand you can overshoot it by a millimeter and your guy will turn completely around. Steering on the thing was so difficult, that I finally just let the game do it for me. When they’re steering I became the all mighty leader of pro skating. But if the computer isn’t driving I was doomed.

Above: The board itself, not too shabby looking.

The soundtrack fell perfectly in line with the other Tony Hawk titles, they licensed a large amount of Indie, Hardcore, Hip-Hop, Dance rock, pretty much any genre that skater’s listen to. And the story itself unfolds naturally, you’re a new pro skater trying to impress Tony with your wild feats, and tricks. It’s sad to say that some things never change, but I suppose with a skating game you can’t really write much more story than that.
Visually I can appreciate the bright colors they use and the hip art-style applied to the genre. It ‘s fun to cruise around brightly colored cities with neon signs and lights, all perfectly ramped up for skating. I wouldn’t hand this game the animation award, but it looks good enough for the goal it accomplishes, and I enjoy playing it.
As a whole I feel Ride was a great idea, it just fell short in the full delivery. With new Tech and some improvements on the boards sensitivity there is a strong chance that they can deliver us a beautiful skating experience. Much like Assassin’s Creed 1 was a test in open world gaming, I hope that this is only a test in open world skating with a sick peripheral. Read more at my My Examiner Page

Loved:

• Innovative board, with easy motion, and solid construction.
• Great sound track that kept the game fun during skating sessions
• The Overall idea

Hated:

• 20 minute calibration session to start the game, with Tony joking around with you…
• Controls were too tight when guiding the board, you had to lean EXACTLY the right amount to make the turn happen, they felt broken for much of the game.
• being called bro by everyone

Score:

• Audio – 8
• Graphics – 8
• Controls -4
• Replay – 7.5
• Overall – 6