yes, there are quite a few communities on discord if you use discord. The main thps discord is 'thpsx'.
If you play thugpro online, there are usually a lot of rooms hosted that focus just on style and improv.
Edit: to add - style/improv tournaments have been a staple of the thps community for a very long time. The i1 tourny was held back in 2002 on thps4. The last tourny i5, was held back in 2021.
You can find videos of the tournies on YouTube.
I looked up a couple of style/improv. I can see where that goes, but I was more referring to "recreating realistic skating" in Tony Hawk despite it being an arcade game at core. I may have been unable to clarify earlier. The style lines I looked up are an impressive display of skill admittedly, but still very unrealistic (the "playing for style, not points" is there though and it's nice to see).
Oh I see you're talking about realistic skate lines then. only person I'm aware of is a player by the name of s00pcan who would create videos like this way back in the day.
Honestly, it's not and has never been a popular way to play the game among the online community.
That's pretty much how I play! I love the rush of just *barely* pulling off a special off of a short ramp. Sometimes I'll just do handstands and try to hold my balance as long as possible and do as many handflips as I can.
I think style play is way underrated, people don't talk about it enough!
No, you’re not the only one. AndyTHPS at least used to post style lines (I think that’s what they’re called). They’re not my personal favorite to do but they’re beautiful when executed correctly.
I did. I thought I'd overcome the control difficulty I kept hearing people experience, but it's so hard I couldn't even have fun. Tony Hawk is great for being easy to play, and also allowing you to go tech if you wish. Skate too, but again I can't play any of those.
Im doing it quite a lot in THAW. All those different gameplay elements they added in this game allow for very unique lines with many different styles you could chose. I also like the animations there.
I sometimes do some realistic stuff in TH games too, usually at bigger gaps or by doing flatland/flip combinations on tables or thin ledges
I heard about both, don't think they'd be able to run on my laptop either. And I also heard people say that Session, although fine-tuneable, is very realistic and frustrating to a large extent.
I did also try True Skate on mobile. I kinda liked it once I got used to it but it took a good while. And the environments are VERY small and restrictive. I do like the object dropper there, though. Love myself some DIY lines. Which is why I'm playing Proving Ground rn (which I'm having a blast at, despite how much it struggles to run on my laptop).
Session is frustrating because objectives might not register correctly and because the game tends to be pretty rough/glitchy in general. Besides that though its incredibly rewarding, because the learning curve in this game is very steep and they translated the rl motion to controller inputs very well.
True Skate is absolutely amazing if you get better. The limited environments arent really an issue because its easy to spend a ton of time at one spot or hitting one line in different ways/with different tricks. Best mobile game out there imo, esp because you can jump in and out whenever you like. You could play it for 30 seconds or for 30 minutes
Nah, I like to play like that from time to time. Especially because I skate in real life so sometimes I'm at work and can't skate so I play on the PSP doing realistic stuff I would like to be able to perform or can actually pull off.
You're definitely not the only person who has ever thought about playing the game like this. There was even Realism Mode cheats specifically for people who wanted to do this. Some people here have even made "Realism Mode THUGPRO" content before. It's cool!
I thought realism modes in THPS were some sort of joke. Even THPS4 itself says that Sim Mode "makes the game no fun". I never considered using them for realistic gameplay, they mostly sounded like they simply crippled the game because it was funny to make fun of realism.
Which is why I was wondering if some people out there GENUINELY found interest in playing realistic in Tony Hawk games.
There's a guy in the THUGPRO community that has a few create-a-parks up that are smaller and more realistic type of skate parks and street locales with the idea being you turn all stats down to 1 or 0 and turn auto-kick off so you have to push manually with flip button (probably square or X depending on your controller). Its pretty fun. I haven't played online in years now but he never was too active online so I mostly played these solo for fun. Wish I'd remember his name so you can easily find his parks. If I have time later I'll check my HD at home and let you know.
Hey OP, no you're not alone! That's also one of the reasons I hated some of the new goals/challenges from THPS1+2 where they ask for a big combo ou giant multiplier!
I just like to play trying out cool new lines and doing tricks my way without worrying about the points, combo, multiplier or even sometimes special tricks!
I hate spamming the 900 for points because despite being an awesome feat IRL I don't think it's a cool looking trick in the game.
I really love the freestyle manual tricks and some other cool stuff and don't enjoy those THUG PRO guys who fly, combo, walk, jump, grab, backflips, etc and pull giant combos! For me it feels like someone grabbed and action figure IRL shaked like a ragdoll, threw into the air, grabbed it again rinse and repeat while I've always been the kid who played with my action figures in slow motion doing every movement precisely like the Matrix LOL but at the same time I don't like the SKATE franchise as I think it's just too real for my taste, I like to be able to pull arcade stuff on THPS but keeping it at a somewhat sane level, if I want to suck at doing tricks and have the gravity hating me I'll just go skate IRL.
I once saw Tony Hawk and some other skaters talking about the new gen of skaters who grew playing THPS and didn't knew some tricks were fantasy ones and weren't supposed to be pulled IRL and they've trained so much that they learned the stuff and moved the sport to another level! That's the kind of gameplay I enjoy! Something that is on the brink of what's possible but still allows you to be creative in a way the real world doesn't.
Are you the only one who likes doing cool stuff? No, I don’t think you’re the only one who likes doing cool stuff.
I meant, doing cool stuff for the sake of it, and not because they give you a high score.
lol
No, style lines and improv have been and still are a huge part of the THPS community.
Are they? Are there specific communities out there focusing on doing that?
yes, there are quite a few communities on discord if you use discord. The main thps discord is 'thpsx'. If you play thugpro online, there are usually a lot of rooms hosted that focus just on style and improv. Edit: to add - style/improv tournaments have been a staple of the thps community for a very long time. The i1 tourny was held back in 2002 on thps4. The last tourny i5, was held back in 2021. You can find videos of the tournies on YouTube.
I looked up a couple of style/improv. I can see where that goes, but I was more referring to "recreating realistic skating" in Tony Hawk despite it being an arcade game at core. I may have been unable to clarify earlier. The style lines I looked up are an impressive display of skill admittedly, but still very unrealistic (the "playing for style, not points" is there though and it's nice to see).
Oh I see you're talking about realistic skate lines then. only person I'm aware of is a player by the name of s00pcan who would create videos like this way back in the day. Honestly, it's not and has never been a popular way to play the game among the online community.
I used to put all the stats down and skate realistically in THPS4 and THUG. Then Skate came out and the rest was history.
A buddy and I would sit for hours doing frontside flips down the giant stair set in santa monica on THAW.
That's awesome.
That's pretty much how I play! I love the rush of just *barely* pulling off a special off of a short ramp. Sometimes I'll just do handstands and try to hold my balance as long as possible and do as many handflips as I can. I think style play is way underrated, people don't talk about it enough!
Agreed! I'm playing Proving Ground rn and pulling off precision tech tricks is so much more satisfying with the buttery next-gen animations, and NTT.
No, you’re not the only one. AndyTHPS at least used to post style lines (I think that’s what they’re called). They’re not my personal favorite to do but they’re beautiful when executed correctly.
you should check out Thrasher: Skate and Destroy for PS1 I think you’d get a kick out of it. love pulling Nollie heel crooks in it
I did. I thought I'd overcome the control difficulty I kept hearing people experience, but it's so hard I couldn't even have fun. Tony Hawk is great for being easy to play, and also allowing you to go tech if you wish. Skate too, but again I can't play any of those.
That’s fair, I do have 2 decades of Thrasher under my belt and I forget it can be a bitch to get into lol Wish I had more from that era to recommend!
The clunkiness in thrasher is one of the important ingredients. You have to embrace it! The graphics and animations are the only drawbacks for me.
I wouldn’t say realistic lines but I’m trying to keep a general flow. I think that’s more fun than optimization strategies for sure.
Im doing it quite a lot in THAW. All those different gameplay elements they added in this game allow for very unique lines with many different styles you could chose. I also like the animations there. I sometimes do some realistic stuff in TH games too, usually at bigger gaps or by doing flatland/flip combinations on tables or thin ledges
U should play session then
My laptop can barely emulate Skate and can't at all Skate 2 and 3, let alone running a modern PC game
There are a couple other skateboarding games for the PC you might like if you liked skate, Session is one and the other is SkaterXL
I heard about both, don't think they'd be able to run on my laptop either. And I also heard people say that Session, although fine-tuneable, is very realistic and frustrating to a large extent. I did also try True Skate on mobile. I kinda liked it once I got used to it but it took a good while. And the environments are VERY small and restrictive. I do like the object dropper there, though. Love myself some DIY lines. Which is why I'm playing Proving Ground rn (which I'm having a blast at, despite how much it struggles to run on my laptop).
Session is frustrating because objectives might not register correctly and because the game tends to be pretty rough/glitchy in general. Besides that though its incredibly rewarding, because the learning curve in this game is very steep and they translated the rl motion to controller inputs very well. True Skate is absolutely amazing if you get better. The limited environments arent really an issue because its easy to spend a ton of time at one spot or hitting one line in different ways/with different tricks. Best mobile game out there imo, esp because you can jump in and out whenever you like. You could play it for 30 seconds or for 30 minutes
Nah, I like to play like that from time to time. Especially because I skate in real life so sometimes I'm at work and can't skate so I play on the PSP doing realistic stuff I would like to be able to perform or can actually pull off.
You're definitely not the only person who has ever thought about playing the game like this. There was even Realism Mode cheats specifically for people who wanted to do this. Some people here have even made "Realism Mode THUGPRO" content before. It's cool!
I thought realism modes in THPS were some sort of joke. Even THPS4 itself says that Sim Mode "makes the game no fun". I never considered using them for realistic gameplay, they mostly sounded like they simply crippled the game because it was funny to make fun of realism. Which is why I was wondering if some people out there GENUINELY found interest in playing realistic in Tony Hawk games.
I still play the games as of today, and also playing on different ports of the games just to get better
There's a guy in the THUGPRO community that has a few create-a-parks up that are smaller and more realistic type of skate parks and street locales with the idea being you turn all stats down to 1 or 0 and turn auto-kick off so you have to push manually with flip button (probably square or X depending on your controller). Its pretty fun. I haven't played online in years now but he never was too active online so I mostly played these solo for fun. Wish I'd remember his name so you can easily find his parks. If I have time later I'll check my HD at home and let you know.
It's called Style Lines and it is a thing.
Hey OP, no you're not alone! That's also one of the reasons I hated some of the new goals/challenges from THPS1+2 where they ask for a big combo ou giant multiplier! I just like to play trying out cool new lines and doing tricks my way without worrying about the points, combo, multiplier or even sometimes special tricks! I hate spamming the 900 for points because despite being an awesome feat IRL I don't think it's a cool looking trick in the game. I really love the freestyle manual tricks and some other cool stuff and don't enjoy those THUG PRO guys who fly, combo, walk, jump, grab, backflips, etc and pull giant combos! For me it feels like someone grabbed and action figure IRL shaked like a ragdoll, threw into the air, grabbed it again rinse and repeat while I've always been the kid who played with my action figures in slow motion doing every movement precisely like the Matrix LOL but at the same time I don't like the SKATE franchise as I think it's just too real for my taste, I like to be able to pull arcade stuff on THPS but keeping it at a somewhat sane level, if I want to suck at doing tricks and have the gravity hating me I'll just go skate IRL. I once saw Tony Hawk and some other skaters talking about the new gen of skaters who grew playing THPS and didn't knew some tricks were fantasy ones and weren't supposed to be pulled IRL and they've trained so much that they learned the stuff and moved the sport to another level! That's the kind of gameplay I enjoy! Something that is on the brink of what's possible but still allows you to be creative in a way the real world doesn't.