10 Video Games That Caused Physical Injuries
4. Tony Hawk Ride
Skateboarding is a dangerous sport. There's a reason it fits under the umbrella term of "extreme sports". That term doesn't just exist to describe activities that are exciting for teenagers who listen to punk rock, there's an actual potential of risk.
It's all about balance and equilibrium, and some players in 2009 found out they lack those qualities even when the board itself didn't have wheels.
To try and reinvent the Tony Hawk video game brand, Activision looked at the success of selling plastic instruments for Guitar Hero and combined the two. Thus, Tony Hawk: Ride was born. The game was intended to be used with a plastic skateboard that lay flat on the ground and detected a player shifting their weight on it, much as one would a real board.
Naturally, cue flailing arms and people stumbling off the board. The game was kind of merciless and perfectionist so it took time to get anywhere with it, with review outlets saying that they found themselves physically tired after just a few hours.
Then again, the game itself wasn't all that good and that was when players could even get it's finnicky calibration to work to allow them to play. Gluing wheels to the controller and using it as an actual skateboard would probably be more enjoyable, at least then injuries would sound cooler than "I fell off a video game controller".