First Impressions: Tony Hawk Shred

HMV is currently selling "Tony Hawk: Shred" for a measly £17.99 on the PS3 and 360 so I just had to pick it up and give it a go. I originally bought it about a week ago and unpacked the board, receiver and game then. Placing the board next to my GH Guitar and the game on the shelf with my PS3 games ready for when I wanted to test the game out.

There was just one problem though, I kinda forgot all about the receiver while giving the game a try. This saw me swearing at the PS3 for not connecting to the board (much to the amusement of my missus) as I turned the system on and off about 3 times trying to get it to connect before grabbing the instructions and spotting the receiver unit just sat there secretly laughing at me.

Once the board was connected I had to go through the boring calibration which again seemed to take forever (about 5-10 minutes real time) once this was all sorted out I hopped on to "Quick Play" accidentally choosing to go through the training mode at the same time. (20 minutes and much boredom later) I was on my way, basically "Shred" is an on rails type of game kinda like SSX Tricky but simpler due to having to use the motion board.

The experience is a bit tricky at first and sometimes you can end up doing tricks by accident and taking a different path to the one your originally selected. (This should pass with time though as you get more used to the controller) I have to admit though that I did enjoy the experience and think the game could turn out to be something of a great game to play when you have a few friends round and the beer is flowing. I know the game got some poor reviews and a lot of people have avoided it, but you really should give the game a try if only for the experience. I can see Tony Hawk: Shred joining the likes of Buzz, Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Sing Star, Wii Sports and a few other games as a drunken party essential.