Hardware and Software: The “Tony Hawk’s Motion” Bundle (2008)
If you have seen the previous edition of this feature, you’ll know I covered a multiplatform game from 2010 known as Tony Hawk: Ride which is notable for having a special controller that is the backbone of the game, without which it simply would not work. Tony Hawk’s Motion is not unlike that in a sense as it too relies on a special hardware item to function and that item is the Motion Pack, which you plug into your Nintendo DS’s (or DS Lite) GBA cartridge slot. This game was an exclusive title for the DS and DS Lite systems and also came with the aforementioned Motion Pack (as well as a bonus game titled Hue Pixel Painter). Not given the highest of gaming scores from some review outlets, it had limited sales success. Pocket Gamer UK labelled Tony Hawk’s Motion as having “poor visuals”, said the controls were “dreadful”, and “had a complete lack of engaging content.” Many other reviewers also appeared unimpressed. Were they right?
Looking at Tony Hawk’s Motion gameplay footage you can see where some of the criticism came from. That said, I reckon there are some positives to be found here with the overall package. The Rumble Pack cartridge may have not been compatible with any other games apart from Tony Hawk’s Motion and Hue Pixel Painter so the game choice was limited but the idea here was at least quite distinctive and attempted to do something never done previously on the Nintendo DS and DS Lite platforms. Not only that, but the price these days second-hand for the Tony Hawk Motion bundle are as cheap as chips if certain sites are anything to go by and having two games rather than one in the pack could be considered a nice bonus. Granted, those sales probably ruled out any further additions to that particular venture but at least it’s interesting.
Words by James Gillespie
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