As the popularity of virtual reality grows, interest will be pulled in from larger names, companies, and brands. In addition to currently flourishing businesses looking toward the medium for innovation, some entities may look to it as a means for revival. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5, released in 2015, came 8 years after the previous game and was one of the worst reviewed in the franchise since its debut in 1999. Now, Tony Hawk himself is hoping the next skating game utilizes virtual reality.
During an interview with Yahoo Finance, Hawk expressed a great deal of interest in the virtual reality format seemingly based on his own experiences. “It feels like your stomach’s falling out of your chest when you’re free-falling and things like that,” he said. “That to me is really exciting, because I don’t feel like we’ve had that in any other video game realm.”
A VR skating game is an interesting premise that could work like existing games where you maneuver with motion controllers as if on a hoverboard, but that’s not truly reflective of skateboarding. The rapid jumping, grinding, and flipping that are crucial elements of the Tony Hawk games may even have to be toned down a bit so that users don’t have adverse reactions.
“VR is so immersive that it can be nauseating, so that is a challenge,” he expressed. “As long as you can hold your cookies down, maybe it’d be all right. I learned that lesson early on when we released Ride, with the skateboard peripheral. I thought it was super fun, but I learned the hard way that most gamers don’t want to get up and do the actual action that it takes.”
If Hawk thinks that gamers not getting up to be active is what made Ride fail, he may be barking up the wrong tree with virtual reality. Either that, or he may believe Ride just had poor timing and think that gamers are more willing to engage in that level of interaction now. Either way, a well done Tony Hawk skating game in VR may be just what the franchise needs at this point. Hopefully a developer will be up to the challenge.
