It’s appallingly rife with glitches, hiccups, and collision disasters, which are particularly noticeable in a game that’s primarily about how the human body interacts with the world when traveling at high speeds. Frustrating moments pulled me out of my groove far too often.īut the most glaring thing that consistently thwarted my attempts to enjoy Pro Skater 5 were the rampant performance issues. I can’t count the number of times I intended on continuing a combo with a grind, only to accidentally slam down to the ground and end the chain. The problem here is that slam is mapped to the same button as grind, and it can’t be changed. For example, the one major addition to your arsenal is a physically impossible slam move that sends your skater rocketing down to the ground at the press of a button. I had moments of zen that balanced the combination of learning the maps, memorizing your move set, and the risk-reward of when to pull out of a chain.īut any of that nostalgia was quickly erased by Pro Skater 5's frustrating interface, bland levels, and jagged edges. At times, I found myself getting back into that familiar rhythm that made me fall in love with the original games. Instead, Pro Skater 5 leaves you to test your ability to chain together tricks, manuals, and grinds, much like classic Hawk.
You won't be hopping off your board, exploring open worlds, or standing on a weird piece of plastic. Developer Robomodo started with a good idea: paring Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater back down to the basics of the series.