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Tony Hawk's not broken but Activision's going to fix him anyhow

Third DS exclusive due before the end of the year

Tony Hawk's not broken but Activision's going to fix him anyhow

When it comes to DS versions of the big game franchises, it's fair to say there have been some pretty lacklustre attempts. Dare we cast our minds back to Superman Returns: The Videogame, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer or Justice League Heroes?

In contrast, there have been very few DS versions of big game franchises that have worked. And the best of those have been Tony Hawk's American Sk8land, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Tony Hawk's Proving Ground. Do you see a trend?

But what's this we hear from Activision CEO Mike Griffith?

'We're inventing Tony from the ground up,' he's quoted as saying in a recent investors conference call. (New shoes for Tony maybe.)

Actually, we think the main thrust is Activision is getting worried that EA's Skate brand - which has yet to be released on DS - is taking sales away from Tony Hawk's games when it comes to console.

But, Griffith did confirm an exclusive DS Tony Hawk game would be released in 2008, with the assumption being that the fine folks over at the Activision-owned Vicarious Visions studio would be in charge of development.

He also promised it would employ new technology that had not yet been seen on the handheld. Maybe Smell-O-Vision is coming? More likely, we'd suggest, is some sort of Wiimote/accelerometer within the game cartridge so you could control your skater by rotating your DS, or perhaps a wireless finger skateboard controller tie-in (actually we're just making stuff up now).

But whatever technical surprises are in store, we're just happy that another Hawkster game is on the way. We're just too old to hang around the bus station, occasionally falling off as we attempt to ollie, you know.

Jon Jordan
Jon Jordan
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon can turn his hand to anything except hand turning. He is editor-at-large at PG.biz which means he can arrive anywhere in the world, acting like a slightly confused uncle looking for the way out. He likes letters, cameras, imaginary numbers and legumes.