Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 gets a visual overhaul

Cel shading goes a long way to polishing the newest skating game.

Back in July we got to see the first real trailer for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5. While the franchise has thankfully gotten away from the clunky peripheral gimmick, there was some concern over the graphics and whether they were up to next gen par. 

However, at this week’s Gamecom, Robomodo brought a Pro Skater with a whole new cel shaded look and graphics direction, lending the franchise a visual personality that fits well with what it is. 

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In an interview with GameInformer, Robomodo CEO Josh Tsui explained the change in their visual approach and how it came to be, “Our priority from the start has been to make sure Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 feels good to play. That means hitting 60 fps at 1080p, even when you're shredding with 20 people in the same session online. Once we knew we could maintain framerate with the new look – and that took a while – we fully implemented it.”

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Continuing, Tsui stated, “We've definitely played with the lighting and pumped up the game's colors to add more detail to the experience. The game moves pretty fast, so we wanted to make sure effects like motion blur, depth of field, and outlining were at a place to help players focus on the most important elements onscreen at any given time.”