10 Ridiculous Excuses For Failed Video Games
5. Tony Hawk: Ride: It Was The Controller’s Fault It Was Bad
The Tony Hawk’s titles are truly iconic. For many fans, they’re the very last word in sports titles, and it’s tough to dispute that. Whether you’re a dedicated fan of skateboarding or not, it’s just so darn fun to shred around the series’ large, open arenas and pull off absurd tricks that would probably send you off to the emergency room in forty different pieces if you attempted them in real life.
Having said that, not all the games were winners. 2009’s Tony Hawk: Ride was a bold attempt at taking the franchise in a new direction, and… well, it doesn’t often go well when you attempt to take successful franchises in new directions. Especially not when there’s a huge, ridiculous novelty skateboard controller involved.
As you’ve probably surmised, there was some impressive tech in the controller and it was a neat idea, but it just wasn’t responsive enough. Critics and players weren’t kind to the game, but the team stuck with the peripheral (revised somewhat) for the sequel, Tony Hawk: Shred.
Even so, Mike Griffith, Activision’s CEO, made it clear that it was the controller’s fault the game was bad. “Game ratings for Tony Hawk Ride weren't as high as we would have hoped last year,” he said in 2010. “In hindsight, it took longer to optimize the hardware leaving less time to develop the software.”
Generally, of course, it’s probably a better idea to ‘optimise’ both before actually releasing your game, but who has time for that nonsense?