I got to see the Wii version in action at Activision's press event this past Tuesday complete with a 7-year old named Gabe totally jamming out on the board peripheral. I'd have hopped on that board myself for a hands-on, but a bit of ankle pain (from a fall while changing the battery in a smoke alarm a few days earlier) kept me on the sidelines. This was actually a good thing, as seeing how well Gabe was pulling off spins, flips, grinds and other tricks made it clear that although this version of SHRED is geared to the younger set, it will also have appeal across an even wider age group.
The more arcade-like action I saw plus the general level of glee Gabe was expressing as he whipped out cooler and cooler tricks brought me back to my arcade days when games were just plain fun to play. SHRED really seems like one of those great party games that will have fit family members waiting their turn to play or anyone wanting to shed a size having a go thanks to each event's ability to assist in working up a good sweat. Oh, alright... I could stand to lose about five pounds myself as these days - my love handles have handles (ba dum bum!). No wonder that stepladder tried to do me in!
I stuck around and watched a few adults try the game and most got a good workout. As for the rest, all I'll say is that some of my fellow games journalists are a wee bit too out of shape and they know it. That's not to say that the game is hard, mind you - SHRED works so much better this time out that players will get a super workout from all the twisting, turning and body shifting that translates so well into what's on screen. Some of us writer types get our heaviest lifting done when there are a few beverages handy and that's about it.
Both skateboarding as well as snowboarding are well represented here with amazingly smooth visuals and a solid sense of speed. The stages I saw were very nicely detailed and packed with shortcuts, huge drops, rails to grind on and other point-scoring spots. Tony Hawk and other skate/snow pros (Travis Rice, Chaz Ortiz and Lyn-Z Adams among many others), pop up after a round to comment on your skills and it's actually nice to see the real-life riders here. Players will get to see these pros as playable Miis and of course, you'll also be able to use your own Miis in the game as riders. 360 owners can drop their Avatars into their version of Shred, however, unless there's some sort of exclusive Home content for the PS3, gamers with that console will have to settle for jealous eyeballing of their 360 and Wii-owning friends, I suppose.
As great as the Wii version looked, I wished that the PS3 or 360 builds were at the event. I'm even more excited about seeing how SHRED looks and plays on those systems than I was when I walked into the event and that's generally not the case when looking at the Wii version of a game first. We'll just have to see how those versions turn out, but I'd definitely have to say based on the Wii version, that across all platforms this year's Tony Hawk should be far superior to last year's by a few miles. We'll be back with more on Tony Hawk: SHRED shortly - stay tuned...
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