Despite its critical panning and commercial failure (selling barely a hundred and thousand units in the US in its debut month, despite massive promotion), Hawk says a sequel is now all but a certainty. “We have already started that process,” he told GameSpot UK back in November. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s all systems go with trying to make at least a sequel for this because I feel like we’ve only just really tapped what’s possible with this technology.” Given the sales, one could be forgiven for thinking that optimism might have fallen, but just yesterday Hawk reported via his Twitter account that all systems were still go for the next installment. “Just met with @robomodo about our next project and it’s already much better than expected,” he tweeted, saying only that more information would be available “soon”.

The online gaming community has reacted with predictable disdain for the news, the comments section on computerandvideogames.com flooded with disparaging remarks about the proposal. “Why? Just why?” asked user , Thefatness16 , while Cwagmire21 summed up the general consensus with “I don’t get it. The last good TH game was in 2002. Why do they keep making them?”

With critics savaging the game left, right and centre – GameSpot.com called it “an overpriced asco”, while Eurogamer.net declared “Don’t buy “RIDE” unless you want to be taken for one” – Hawk has cut out swinging, both on his Twitter feed and in an interview with The Sudbury Star. On Twitter, Hawk wrote “Most snarky critics had their minds set before ever seeing/playing the game. I’m proud of what we created; it’s innovative, responsible and fun.” Hawk elaborated even further in the newspaper interview with Steve Tilley, saying, “They (the critics) 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 that they’re just not giving it a fair shake. And I think a lot of them came into it with an attitude that it’s going to suck.” Hawk concluded his outburst with a defiant, “I know that “RIDE” is super fun, and 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… I’ve been playing it every step of the way and I am very proud of it.”

Judging by the comments on computerandvideogames.com, however, the majority of gamers appear to agree with the critics’ reviews, one gamer noting, “The game is turd, and a very pricey turd at that.”

“We have already started that process,” Hawk confirmed, while adding “but who knows what the future holds? I’ve never had a master plan, especially with our old series, of how many we could do, or how far we could take it. It really was all about the fans and the console technology… As far as I’m concerned, it’s all systems go trying to make at least a sequel for this, because I feel like we’ve only just really tapped what’s possible with this technology.” As for the kinds of things he would like to see in the sequel, Hawks hinted, “I think there are certain ways to play the game that we could definitely improve on in the sequel. Especially the way that you transition from the vert mode to the street mode. I’m sure there’s more of a seamless way to do that, but we had to separate it for this one, just because we wanted to get it finished and get it tight.”

The Tony Hawk Ride doesn’t come cheap, however, retailing at a hundred pounds in the UK and a hundred and twenty dollars in the US.