14 DAY TRIAL // Tony Hawk RIDE was not well received by reviewers when it was released and it seems that it is not doing very well in the sales department either. The skating title ships with a hardware peripheral used for tricks, has a pretty high price tag and received some damning reviews but it appears that the best known skater in the world still likes it.
Tony Hawk lashed out at critics of RIDE in an interview with The Sudbury Star saying that they “were ready to discredit it before they even tried it, and if it didn't play exactly how they imagined it... then they passed it off. I don't agree with people who say the board's not responsive. I think they're just not giving it a fair shake. I think a lot of them came into it with an attitude that it's going to suck.”
Most reviewers have said that the hardware peripheral the game ships with and that is set to enhance the experience actually makes it harder to pull tricks than using a controller or a keyboard.
The skater is also keen on stating that he is not just a name on the box of the game and that he is actively working with Activision in order to make the franchise better, “I think there's a misconception that I just stick my name on a game. I brought this idea to Activision, and I saw it through, and I've been playing it every step of the way and I am very proud of it.”
With RIDE, Activision continued its strategy of creating titles packed with hardware peripherals and are therefore pricier than normal releases. With DJ Hero not performing too well and with RIDE also set to be a disappointment, the publisher might be ready to abandon the peripheral strategy in 2010.