Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (PS2)

The inevitable has happened. I’ve decided to review one of my favourite game-series of all time....though this instalment only concerns itself with the fourth part of what feels like 325965, though in reality is only about 10. Currently, I’m one game short of having all of the Tony Hawk skating games, and the only reason for that is that the vast majority of my money gets spent on beer, or cider, or my car, or other stuff besides computer games. I really should rectify that.....however, back to the game.

Before we get into the game, we must, as per usual, give a little background to it. Tony Hawk himself is one of the most famous and biggest names in the extreme sports domain and, thanks in large part to his games, in numerous other areas as well. When I was slightly younger, we had the “goth” and “punk” phase of teenage rebellion. Of course this wasn’t the same punk phase as the 60s and 70s but still, the point stands. One of the staple parts of being a punk included a skateboard. Whether you actually had the skills to ride a half-pipe or even pull an Ollie, if you had a skateboard, you were considered “cool”. Around this time, Tony Hawk was gaining recognition within the skateboard world for being the first guy to land a 900 degree spin in competition. Doesn’t seem much but I’m sure to a skateboarder, it makes more logic. Also around this time, we had the arrival of “Tony Hawk’s Skateboarding” on the PlayStation. A game with blocky graphics and simple controls that made skateboarding accessible to the masses. I’m sure sales of boards went through the roof when this game came out. Luckily, I was never one of those that bought one.
After the release of the first one, came the second and third instalments, each adding more features and advanced gameplay to the mix, before we arrive at the fourth offering, and the subject of this review. For anyone that’s played the games in order, they’ll understand the features that have been added, but I can’t be bothered to explain them so go play it for yourself anyway. I'll give you a couple hours to work it all out.

You done? Good. Read on.....

The gameplay as a whole is fairly simple, you press X to Ollie, the square and directional button to do a flip trick, circle and directional for a grab trick and triangle and directional for a grind. Of course, while grinding, you have to maintain your balance so as not to fall off and lose your combo, made easier by the balance bar in the middle of the screen – easier to use than the older versions, which were a straight line, compared with 4’s, which is a nice curve. I like it. The basis of the game is pick a pro skater from one of the pre-selected choices and use them to complete various challenges in various parts of the world, including London town, a carnival, Kona skatepark (I believe this is in America and rather well known.....even though I’d never heard of it) and Alcatraz prison. Yes you read that correctly.

The aim of the game is to complete challenges, including collecting letters, completing races, doing tricks over certain objects in a certain way, and some random ones thrown in that pertain to the environment. In the zoo level, you have to hold onto an elephant’s tail whilst it sprays you with dung (!), whilst in the first level (the name escapes me and I’m lazy) you have to collect a line of pink elephants for a drunk and hallucinating hobo. Once you complete the amateur level goals, you unlock the pro goals, which are basically the same except much harder. Then of course, there are the hardcore goals, which only the most seasoned of veterans or those with many, many hours of time on their hands will bother to complete. Of course, completing the goals is not just for kicks, you get money for doing so, which can then be spent on unlocking more levels, cheats, characters and various items of clothing to be used in the create-a-skater mode.

The create-a-skater mode is much improved from the older versions, with much more stuff as standard, and the character actually looking half-human. Of course, the addition of being able to create a female character is welcomed from the previous versions (though the one in THPS3 wasn’t exactly feminine, hence my point) as it means that girls that play this game can play as a female character (yes, it has been known). Whether that’s political correctness, gender equality or just the general inclusion of women, I don’t know but it works, so......yeah I don’t know where I’m going with this.

Overall, I don’t really have any criticisms to make of this game, except the fact that it’s incredibly time-consuming. I can quite easily replicate what I do with Diablo, but more so. I was playing it earlier and didn’t realise that 5 hours had gone by. Yes, my life really is that empty. I’m going to go write some poetry and cry now so toddle on.