Interviews// Tony 'Birdman' Hawk

SPOnG: Do you think videogames can help people to get some exercise? To inspire them to take up a sport or pastime? Or to just get up and move around!

Tony Hawk: Well to be honest that was more of a nice spin-off aspect of having this skateboard controller, the fact that you do get some exercise. You have to understand that we didn’t approach it with that in mind. We approached it with the intention of helping you to become even more immersed in the experience. Of having greater control of your action on the screen and feeling far more like you have actually accomplished what your character just did on the screen. As opposed to just pushing buttons.

But you know what? When you start playing it you can definitely get a workout on it.
Yeah! I was knackered after about half an hour of playing it.

[Laughs] Yeah, but that is incidental to the skating! And not that we planned it, but this could well be a transitional thing to help people learn to skate for real. If someone is intimidated by skating initially and then they get on Tony Hawk: Ride they might realise that they do have a little more balance than they anticipated.


SPOnG: What about Microsoft’s new Project Natal? And other new motion control technologies?

Tony Hawk: Yeah, I saw Natal at E3 this year. We’ve been heads down developing our own technology for this game. And to be honest my gut feeling is that, while it was interesting, if you want to emulate a skateboarding game it is best to emulate it by skating on a board. Not by the motions of just your hands and feet. Though that being said, perhaps there is a way to incorporate that sort of technology into our future games including this board… Also, we want to create a game that is perfect for all systems, not just exclusive to Project Natal or whatever.


SPOnG: So I can finally pretend to do a ‘McTwist’ on a skateboard in this game?

Tony Hawk: You can, yes.


SPOnG: You don’t compete professionally any more? How’s that scene changed?

Tony Hawk: No, I haven’t competed now in over ten years. Which has really allowed me to choose a whole different range of new opportunities. I kinda had to let that go into the past.

In terms of how skate competitions have changed, well, the stakes are much higher! The playing field is bigger than ever. There are more and more skaters vying for position every year. And the kind of tricks that people are pulling off in competitions now as a matter of course are the kind of things that you used to be happy to even land once. Just to be able to say that you had done it.

I mean, the skill levels now are way beyond anything which I could have even imagined twenty-two years ago when we were shooting The Search For Animal Chin…


SPOnG: And finally, other than the new skateboard controller, what are the other big new features of your new game?

Tony Hawk: Well you basically don’t have to be a street skater to be able to play or to appreciate the game, because we have made it more accessible than ever. There are early levels in which the steering – which is the steepest learning curve in the game – is done for you, so all you have to do is ollie at the right spots and grind the right obstacles as you do down the course. Then once you get into it, then you really start to feel how intuitive the motion-sensing control on the board is.
I really feel like we are starting over with this game. I hesitate to call it my ‘tenth’ game or whatever, because this really is a whole new concept.

And all I ask is that those hardcore fans that might dismiss this as a gimmick or whatever just give it a try, because we have put waaaaaay more into this than just making a plastic controller in order to sell more games!


SPOnG: Thanks for your time.