THUG 2 Remix
Hands-on with portable Tony and Bam.
Published: March 7, 2005
The PSP is more or less a PS2 gone portable, right? So it's really not all that surprising to see some of the bigger franchises making the leap to handheld format, especially when they've been doing it for years. The distinction here, of course, is that this is the first Tony Hawk game to make the small screen in more or less unblemished 3D.
THUG 2 Remix is THUG2 slimmed down the PSP. Yes, seriously, that's it. Oh, wait, scratch that, the controls have been tweaked a bit to make up for the lack of a second set of shoulder buttons. Oh, and four new levels have been added that haven't been seen anywhere else, and that in some respects are larger than any level ever seen in a console version of THUG or THPS. Oh, and it has full wireless multiplayer with all of the online multiplayer modes from the console version.
Well crap, I guess there are some differences.
Let's start with the basics, and what we gleaned from our short play time with the game at Activision's offices in Santa Monica last week (yes, it's only going up now, we're lazy). For the most part, this is the same game you have been playing for years. The move to portability has obviously been done before, but not in such a pixel-perfect way.
Some of the levels were tweaked slightly to get them to fit a bit and keep the PSP from sucking down all of its battery juice in half an hour, but the locations we tried really did look and feel exactly like the console versions. The sharpest learning curve will come from just rewiring your brain enough to remember that the shoulder buttons are now in charge of spine transfers and riding switch (as well as the revert, of course) or hopping off your board to do a little exploring. A flick of the analog nub now starts the focus mode, where the time slows to a crawl so more complex lines can be pulled off (since this and every TH game should be played with the d-pad, of course).
Impressively, PSP version developer Shaba Games (who actually got tapped by Sony to create an embarrassingly blatant Tony Hawk clone for the original PlayStation with Grind Session) managed to whip up four all new levels that are absolutely massive, and actually take Neversoft's concept of elevation in addition to width in level design to an eyebrow-raising new high. Activision reckons the new PSP levels are the biggest the series has ever seen, trouncing even Neversoft's in-house efforts.
THUG 2 Remix is THUG2 slimmed down the PSP. Yes, seriously, that's it. Oh, wait, scratch that, the controls have been tweaked a bit to make up for the lack of a second set of shoulder buttons. Oh, and four new levels have been added that haven't been seen anywhere else, and that in some respects are larger than any level ever seen in a console version of THUG or THPS. Oh, and it has full wireless multiplayer with all of the online multiplayer modes from the console version.
Well crap, I guess there are some differences.
Let's start with the basics, and what we gleaned from our short play time with the game at Activision's offices in Santa Monica last week (yes, it's only going up now, we're lazy). For the most part, this is the same game you have been playing for years. The move to portability has obviously been done before, but not in such a pixel-perfect way.
Some of the levels were tweaked slightly to get them to fit a bit and keep the PSP from sucking down all of its battery juice in half an hour, but the locations we tried really did look and feel exactly like the console versions. The sharpest learning curve will come from just rewiring your brain enough to remember that the shoulder buttons are now in charge of spine transfers and riding switch (as well as the revert, of course) or hopping off your board to do a little exploring. A flick of the analog nub now starts the focus mode, where the time slows to a crawl so more complex lines can be pulled off (since this and every TH game should be played with the d-pad, of course).
Impressively, PSP version developer Shaba Games (who actually got tapped by Sony to create an embarrassingly blatant Tony Hawk clone for the original PlayStation with Grind Session) managed to whip up four all new levels that are absolutely massive, and actually take Neversoft's concept of elevation in addition to width in level design to an eyebrow-raising new high. Activision reckons the new PSP levels are the biggest the series has ever seen, trouncing even Neversoft's in-house efforts.
