The word ‘originality’ seems to have been erased from Tony Hawk’s dictionary in what is now the ninth game in the franchise. While this is only the third Tony Hawk game to appear on the DS, the series has not changed too much since the addition of the manual and revert over five years ago. Developers Vicarious Visions have pulled off a couple of new tricks in Proving Ground. 

You start off in typical ‘Tony Hawk’ fashion by creating your skater completing tasks in order to build up cash to build up your skate park. Where Proving Ground aims to be different is in its skating classes. You can now choose to be a career skater and make it big with sponsorship and awards. Or you can focus to be a hardcore skater, pulling off massive combos and challenging tricks. While the choice of how to play the game is welcomed, it does little to change the structure from past games.

Where the game does strike big in the changes department is in its presentation. Gone are the 'toon shaded characters from previous handheld games, and instead DS gamers are treated to a style similar to its console counterparts. Although character models now stand out and are quite ugly from up close. Along with the new look, the game features short skate video snippets from the regular crew of pro skaters. While it is impressive to see this in a DS game, videos are not very long with each barely lasting a minute.

Gameplay wise, the game is quite similar to the first DS title American Sk8land, almost all the tricks return with the exception of the bert slide. The new addition in its place is the agro kick. It’s taken 9 years of trying, but you can finally kick to build up speed whenever you want, just like a real skater. Also, some challenges require stylus scribble on the touch screen, but these are thankfully kept to a minimum.

While tricks and basic gameplay remain unchanged, the difficulty has been rammed up considerably since the last game. Tasks are broken down into 3 different scoring levels, Amateur, Pro and Sick. While you can get by with Amateur ratings, you will miss out on funds to buy gear for your skater and pieces for your skate park.

Online gameplay returns in Proving Ground with support for up to 4 players via Nintendo Wifi, although the only people playing these days are the dedicated fans who have mastered every aspect of the game. Outside of online, the game has decent replay value going back for high scores and customizing your skater and park.

Without question this is the strongest portable Tony Hawk game yet, but the series is in serious need of a reboot to attract new players. Hardcore fans have every reason to pick this game up, as it improves on the DS predecessors in every way, but if you grew bored of the series long ago nothing here will bring you back.

Version reviewed: Nintendo DS

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