Tony Hawk, the father, skateboarder and videogame character, announced his next game last night, though not everyone was pleased.

The Birdman used his favorite social space to deliver the news, Tweeting last night that the game is called “Tony Hawk: Shred” and his PR people will hate him for letting go the news.

“Tony Hawk: Shred. There, I said it. Actually, I named it. Somewhere a PR team is reeling.”

That PR team is indeed reeling, as the Tweet has since been removed, which, in and of itself, likely confirms the game’s name and existence.

Tony’s previous effort “Ride,” with its plastic skateboard peripheral, didn’t sell too well and was poorly reviewed, but developer Robomodo is willing to try again. When official news comes, we’ll have it here.

What do you think about the Tony Hawk franchise? Time to shoot the horse? Or what?

Here’s something for your viewing pleasure — five things that are technically possible in real-life, but that a normal person can never do.

1. Throw a Major League fastball.
2. Take a cruise on the Titanic
3. Do ridiculous skateboarding tricks without ever dying.
4. Reunite the Beatles or just become a rock star.
5. Fly an F-14 Tomcat like in “Top Gun.”

What do you think? Leave comments.

Tony Hawk, the legendary skateboarder, is extending his gaming reach to the iPhone and iPod Touch, according to his Twitter feed.

A Tweet (which has since been deleted), read “In the PR world, this is considered ‘going rogue,’ but I’m too excited to contain it. This is real & dropping soon.”

He then uploaded the below picture of himself playing it, which looks to be very real.

Tony Hawk for the iPhone

The screenshot looks like Pro Skater 2, but feel free to correct me. Also, the Tony Hawk games require lots of quick-fingered movements and combos. Can the iPhone’s basic controls do it?

Source: GamesRadar

Anyone who knows anything about skateboarding knows failure is part of the sport.

Following that thought-process, Activision today revealed that it has plans for another Tony Hawk skateboarding game for 2010, and it’ll use the motion-based plastic skateboard peripheral.

“Game ratings for Tony Hawk: Ride weren’t as high as we would have hoped last year, and in hindsight it took longer to optimize the hardware, leaving less time to develop the software we launched in 2009,” said Mike Griffith, President and CEO of Activision Publishing. “Still, play-testing and consumer feedback have been very encouraging.”

You’ve got to wonder. If this sequel performs as poorly as 2009′s Tony Hawk: RIDE, will Activision axe the series entirely? Man, that’d be a HUGE blow to Mr. Hawk’s manliness, don’t you think?

You may have heard a thing or two about Tony Hawk: RIDE, the latest title starring the legendary skater, but poor reviews and meager sales have not deterred Tony Hawk and developer Robomodo from moving forward and creating an entirely new title.

The Birdman himself Tweeted this last night, seemingly confirming a new and exciting project:

“Just met with @robomodo about our next project, and it’s already much better than I expected”.

Now, personally, I refuse to ever offer insight or commentary about a game I haven’t played, but what I’ve gathered from reviews is that the title had a wonderful concept, but simply did not execute.

Like this, but better!

That said, I’ve always admired Hawk as a father, skater and video game character, and I strongly believe he’ll insist the developer make the necessary game tweaks (he’s always directly involved with the game-making process) to make the follow-up a much more beloved project.

Details on the game, beyond the above Tweet, are non-existent at the moment, but we’ll be following this story like a hawk with two Lasik-adjusted eyes!

Activision attempted to breathe new life into the tested, tried, and tired Tony Hawk franchise with the motion-controlled and altogether ambitious “RIDE” offering, but, that attempt has clearly failed.

What’s that mean for The Birdman and his video game notoriety? Well, it might just be over. The glory days of the Pro Skater and Underground series’ are over, and quite possibly, the end might be in sight.

Here’s a graph imaging the declining Tony Hawk value over the span of many years and many games. Sums it up quite nicely don’t you think?

As seen on Kotaku

Yesterday brought about news of Mii integration in Tony Hawk’s latest video game, but today we get to see them in action, in all their caricatured glory.

Not only can you play as the Mii you have saved on your Wii, but also as the Miis of several professional skateboarders.

This “Mii Trailer” wraps it all up nicely and has me truly contemplating a Wii purchase instead of the better looking PS3/360 version.‚  Decisions, decisions!

Tony Hawk games have long been synonymous with upbeat flowing tunes that complement the game’s fast-paced and invigorating action. Who could forget Goldfinger’s “Superman” in the original Tony Hawk Pro Skater?

Well, today Activision named every song in the latest Tony Hawk entry, RIDE. The list is 50 songs deep and hit on just about every genre, something Tony Hawk soundtracks have always done.

The soundtrack includes selections from Green Day, Chevelle, MGMT, Modest Mouse, NOFX and many more. But you can read, check out the full list below.

Tony Hawk: RIDE hits November 17 for $119, and that’s with the skateboard peripheral.

• Adam Tensta “" “My Cool”
• Band of Skulls “" “Patterns”
• Beatsteaks “" “Run Run”
• Beck “" “Gamma Ray”
• Bill Withers “" “Lovely Day”
• The Black Keys “" “I Got Mine”
• The Bronx “" “Minutes in Night”
• Chevelle “" “Jars”
• Children Collide “" “Social Currency”
• Coconut Records “" “West Coast”
• The Commodores “" “Machine Gun”
• Darker My Love “" “Two Ways Out”
• Dead End Road “" “Sin City”
• Disbelievers “" “Bad Storm”
• The Duke Spirit “" “Into The Fold”
• The Faint “" “The Geeks Were Right”
• The Fold “" “Neverender”
• Gray Matter “" “Fill A Void”
• Green Day “" “Murder City”
• Half Astro “" “Cellular”
• Helen Earth Band “" “Shake N Cut”
• Kenny Rogers & First Edition “" “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)”
• Kram “" “Blitzkreig Bop”
• KRS-One w/ Buckshot “" “Robot “
• Living With Lions “" “She’s A Hack”
• The Meters “" “Cissy Strut”
• MGMT “" “Electric Feel”
• Modey Lemon “" “Become A Monk”
• Modest Mouse‚  “" “Satellite Skin”
• Morning After Girls “" “Death Processions”
• Murs feat. will.i.am “" “Lookin’ Fly”
• Nico Vega “" “Burn Burn”
• Nitzer Ebb “" “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”
• NOFX “" “Just the Flu”
• Norma Jean “" “Robots 3 Humans 0″
• Patchwork “" “Ping Pong”
• The Pinkertones “" “Electrobumbao”
• Queens of Stone Age “" “The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret”
• The Raconteurs‚  “" “Consoler of the Lonely”
• The Replacements “"”Takin’ A Ride”
• Revolution Mother “" “Night Ride”
• Rose Hill Drive “" “Showdown”
• Russian Circles “" “Death Rides A Horse”
• Santigold “" “L.E.S. Artistes”
• Shiny Toy Guns “" “Ricochet”
• Spinnerette “" “All Babes Are Wolves”
• The Stooges “" “I Got A Right”
• Superchunk “" “Punch Me Harder”
• The Temper Trap “" “Hearts”
• This Drama “" “She Had A Knife”
• TSOL‚  “" “Dance With Me”
• Turbotito “" “Losing Their Head”
• TV On The Radio “" “Dancing Choose”
• We Are Scientists “" “After Hours”
• Willowz “" “Ulcer Soul”
• Wolfmother “" “Joker & The Thief”
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs “" “Zero”

Tony Hawk: RIDE details continue to trickle out of the closed mouth of Activision today by way of USA today and their exclusive look at the exciting new game.

The Tony Hawk franchise, which began in 1999 with Tony Hawk Pro Skater, has since grown to a $1.1 billion dollar series with the latest installment, RIDE, due out in the fall complete with a groundbreaking plastic skateboard peripheral for full body involvement in the action sport.

According to Jesse Divinich with Electronic Design and Research “RIDE will be priced at $80 or $90 and be a tremendous success.”

I believe that price assertion seems logical, as another board-based title, Wii Fit, bears the same price tag, while offering what looks to be significantly less than a new Tony Hawk experience.

Josh Tsui from developer Robmodo also spoke of the expected success of title, saying:‚  “(Tony)Hawk has long wanted to do a video game with a skateboard controller.‚  He loves those gigantic (skateboarding) arcade machines, from back in the day that you would stand on, over the years, technology has gotten a lot less expensive and a lot more accessible, and there has been a huge acceptance of alternative controllers.”

Mike Snider of USA today got an exclusive feet-on look at the title at the Santa Monica HQ of Activision, and with that came the first solid look at game-play and the artistic approach to the game.‚  Check out the video below for a truly informative preview of Tony Hawk: RIDE.

Read the full story at USA TODAY.

You may be wondering just where the hell Tony Hawk, aka Mr. 900 has been in the past few years?‚  Fear not, for we share the same conundrum.‚  Everyone recalls the heyday of Tony Hawk-it was years, hairdos, and generations of consoles ago, but the man, the myth, the legend will rise again May 15.

The Hawk, mere hours ago, tweeted the date for the unveiling of the latest skateboarding game bearing his famous name.

The date? May 15 via GameTrailers TV.‚  The name of the game? Who knows! Could be the elusive “adrenaline” title.‚  With a new studio handling the development duties, and a promised “refresher,” this game has some serious potential.

Mr. Hawk’s tweet was as such:

“May 15 all will be revealed about our new game (dropping this year). I have been harboring the secret long enough.”

There you have it, wait four days and we’ll know a heck of a lot more.‚  Until then check out this video of Tony Hawk Pro Skater N64 footage.‚  Ahh good times.

Tony Hawk’s Twitter account

Electronic Arts announced Monday that the newest version of their Tony Hawk competitor Skate It, will be released for the Wii and DS later this year and utilize the Wii Balance Board, looking to give a more realistic skateboarding experience.
 
“We knew it would be an exciting challenge to bring the soul and feel of skateboarding to the Wii and Nintendo DS,” said Scott Blackwood, executive producer of the Skate franchise. “With fresh new designs and gameplay components built from scratch, we’ve been able to, once again, capture the true experience of skateboarding in a completely innovative way.” 
 
“The Wii remote becomes a skateboard and reacts to gestures that mirror actual skate flips and moves,” EA said in a statement Monday. ”Players can also deepen this experience by planting their feet on the Wii Balance Board. Skate It brings the hit Skate franchise to a new level of creative ingenuity and gameplay excellence.”
 
Skate It has not been rated yet and will ship some time later this year. 
 
EA is also developing Skate 2 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Proving Ground is the deepest “X-sport” video game ever developed, and that means something considering the Tony Hawk franchise singularly created the alternative sport video game genre.

That said, Neversoft should have done a hell of a lot more testing.

Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground brings new features like “nail the grab” and the speedy aggro kick to the table, but two main negatives prevent the game from being truly great.

First of all, there are several graphical glitches like getting stuck behind objects that slow things down. This leads to the second problem — not made any better by the graphical glitches. The goals are often ridiculously hard to get passed on the lowest, “amateur” mode. The other two levels of difficulty are “pro” and “sick.” Indeed it would be absolutely sick to accomplish some of the goals on “sick” mode.

Proving Ground breaks the game up into three distinct player paths, which involve career aspirations, rigging and tough street skating. You’ll find yourself going after all three to keep things interesting and to learn new skills.

The “separate but equal” game mode model is a sidestep from previous Hawk games that usually bind random skate life aspects into a linear game. Now you have the freedom to focus on what interests you. I liked going after the career mode, making videos and competing against other skaters, and then I would fall back on my “roots” and do some street goals like taking back the local skate park from hoodlums and skate checking people across the road.

The story is fun, and like I said it’s really deep involving a ton of professional skaters like Jeff King, Mike Vallely and Dustin Dollin. The game just doesn’t go far enough. You’ll spend several hours battling a whiny little runt with a tricked out car who’s supposed to be a great skater. You complete against him in two big competitions, but the game doesn’t cut away — you never see him compete or land and big tricks. It’s just assumed. The game has a million videos showcasing every goal and pro you’ll encounter, but the videos are just highlights that don’t have any bearing on the game. There aren’t any real epic story cutaways.

The competitions are a joke. They’re like every other goal — you get timed and have to rack up points, or you fail. I wanted to see some X-Games, live on ESPN style scenes. Tons of pros lend their voices, so have some of them do commentary … just make the scenes more interesting.

Still, rigging is the weakest point and makes everything else look gold. The editing mode is really buggy, and the things you build never work quite as intended. This made the “Jeff’s Demo” goal really hard to get past.

Throughout the game, you’ll find yourself trying to time tricks just right for magazine photo shoots and videos. This is a fun element that adds a lot to the standard gameplay. The standard gameplay is fun in and of itself. Proving Ground recreates an interesting map of Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington D.C. As expected, every jersey barrier, curb, fountain, electrical wire, train track and federal government monument is usable for air, grinding and all kinds of tricks.

Once I created my character and put him in Globe gear, I had plenty of fun trying to master a backside indy 720, but in the end, this became a game that I picked up to let of 10 minutes of steam, get really frustrated, throw the Sixaxis and try again and again until I barely scrape by the slash grinding the pool or rigging some god-awful contraption.

Proving Ground is fun, and most of the graphics look beautiful. But you’re gonna throw the Sixaxis. Poor bastard of a controller never gets a break.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Activision
Developer: Neversoft Entertainment
Platform: PlayStation 3 (reviewed), Xbox 360, Wii, Playstation 2, Nintendo DS,
Genre: Sports
Players: 1-2 (Online 2-8)
Launch Date: September 12, 2007

Playability: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 2 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3 out of 5 stars