What do you do with a tired old franchise that had its day a long time ago, along with the man it represents? Well, if you’re Activision you introduce yet another game – Tony Hawk: Ride – into the franchise and throw in a peripheral that looks like a skateboard.

Pictured above (in case you didn’t notice) the new controller is a ‘motion sensing balance board’, which sounds eerily familiar, that Activision are touting as a “massive step forward for the franchise and the gaming industry as a whole” (Source). At first you may just think it’s a third party attempt to rip-off the Wii Balance Board, but when you take in the details you realise that it’s actually a lot more advanced than the controller that obviously inspired it.

For example, the skateboard actually acts like a real skateboard. Tilting the skateboard in either direction will make the skater on your TV screen do likewise. Infrared sensors in the board also allow the game to figure out where your hands are and carry out appropriate actions based on their positions. So if your skater was up in the air placing your hands to the front of the board would make the skater on the screen grab the front of their board. It’s easier to show you then describe how it works any further, so simply go here to see the board and game in action.

It sounds and looks like a really good idea, and may just make a tired old franchise worth playing yet again. I loved the first two Tony Hawk games, but from then on I just felt that it when downhill – especially introducing all the silly vehicles and characters in the Underground installments – and was easily surpassed by EA’s Skate franchise. However, I do have some reservations about the controller itself as it is yet another bulky peripheral that’s going to clutter up our homes. The Wii Balance Board may now look a little primitive, but at least it encompasses a wide range of games and not just a single one. Of course, the Wii Balance Board was intended as a general peripheral while the new Tony Hawk one is in a niche of its own, but it still means that people have to find somewhere to store it along with all the other contraptions on the market today. To adress this problem the developers promise that there will be other uses for the board;

“We started out with skateboarding because it’s easy to understand,” he said. “But there are a lot of games we realize could be used on the board. We were surprised at some of the ideas we listed out .”

Now the team has a “huge list” of potential future games for the board.

And that will be key to Ride’s success, said Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter.

“I think the problem with all peripherals is that you have to make them reusable,” he said. “They must be acceptable to be used with more than the original game.” – Kotaku
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see when it comes to other uses. As for the game there will be more details at this year’s E3.