There are certain game series that no matter how much you love or loathe their respective genres, you’re sure to have played one of their instalments. Much like most people will have played a Quake game or have taken the time to learn at least one of the countless variants and revisions of Street Fighter, we’ll hazard a guess that the majority of you will, at some point in your lives, have played a game featuring Tony Hawk.

That said, anyone who played the decisively last-gen American Wasteland 12 months ago could probably be forgiven for considering giving Project 8 a miss, but fortunately, Tony’s ‘proper’ next-gen debut has gone according to plan… more or less anyway.

On the plus side, the gameplay ticks all the right boxes required to deliver a fundamentally sound experience. With total control key to the series, we’re pleased to say that the added power lavished on the physics engine was well invested; the weighting is practically flawless, as is the sense of momentum. This, coupled with the control system – which still isn’t quite perfect on the 360 pad, but works well enough – gives Project 8 a fantastic degree of fluidity, allowing you to judge how your skater will respond to jumps and ramps and allowing you to instinctively decide whether a move will come off or not.

The visuals are also impressive. While the graphics aren’t quite up to the standard of more recent efforts – especially in these post Gears Of War times – the character animation is particularly worth noting, with the more detailed animations giving you a better idea as to what your character is doing and allowing for more accuracy when judging such things as landings. This does contrast with the slightly disappointing lack of detail found in the levels, though.

Project 8’s multi-regional city – comprising a wide variety of areas ranging from the town centre to theme parks and suburban residential areas – is huge, although in time-honoured fashion you’ll have to progress through the career mode to unlock it all. Each portion of the city has been decked out in oversized ramps and jumps to keep things interesting, yet every section retains its own feel and challenges based on its geography.

There are also the standard free skate and career options that you’d expect from the Tony Hawk’s series. The former allows you to skate around the available areas of the city to practise your moves with real-world professional skateboarders, and the latter, sees you start out by creating a rookie skateboarder with the ambition to rise up through the ranks to be top dog. You do this by performing missions as stipulated by the local residents, who conveniently allow you to showcase your skills, film videos and perform stunts for photographers in order to boost your profile. Each challenge boasts three difficulties, with ultimate success leading to wider areas of the city being unlocked.

There are downsides to Project 8 too, though. These are rather minor and probably won’t ruin your enjoyment, but they do take a little of the gloss away nevertheless. For example, the character creation mode is not exactly the most in-depth we have ever seen, yet somehow it manages to come with its own array of bizarre and baffling faults (for example, being able to wear a hat beneath a giant afro on your character).

Likewise, the physics can also be a tad suspect at times. These range from iffy collision detection and the odd part-of-body-stuck-in-wall/floor/ object stuff right through to rag doll physics, which can often see your skater bouncing off walls and objects in a manner more akin to a rubber ball than a skin bag containing flesh and rapidly shattering bones. However, coupled with the rather unconvincing blood splatters that result when your skater’s body does eventually come to rest in a suitably undignified slump, it does add an element of comedy to proceedings.

While these failings are rather noticeable, luckily they are nothing that can ultimately prevent Project 8 from providing the simple satisfaction of kicking back and practising the kinds of routines that the series has become famous for. Admittedly, this does mean that there is nothing in Project 8 that will persuade sceptics to change their opinion on the series, but then again, if you’ve never liked a Tony Hawk game before in your life, chances are that you’ve probably turned the page by now anyway.

Mark Podd