Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 – XB – Review

The Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
series has come a long way since its early beginnings and gamers have seen a
radical change when the third installment introduced a more massive playing
environment with much emphasis on interaction with a living and breathing
world.  Thankfully the good people at Activision O2 know a good thing when they
see it and have released Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 with all the goodness gamers
loved about the third game . . . only this time they added more goodies to the
pot.  Oh, it just keeps getting better and better.

First off, the game takes
skate fans through nine massive playing environments complete with people,
vehicles and challenges. To get to each environment, you must complete the
majority of the challenges and earn enough money to purchase your entry to the
next location.  This is done in the game’s main mode–Career Mode.  There are
four modes in total: Career Mode, Single Session, Free Skate and Multiplayer
mode.  Single Session is a two-minute session where you try to earn as much
points as possible.  Free Skate give gamers a chance to practice before going
through the main mode and Multiplayer mode offers a System Link option or just
fun for two players.

Career mode puts gamers in
an immense environment filled with plenty of ramps and objects to grind on.
Scattered throughout the areas are people that will offer various kinds of
challenges (you’ll know who they are since they have big arrows pointed at them
and they call out to you).  Each challenge is unique in its own way too.  One
pedestrian might ask you smash beer kegs from a group of rowdy frat boys or keep
a campus cop from grabbing unsuspecting skaters.  You’ll also find that
completing each mission earn you money–money you can use to purchase new
boards, cheats, secret skaters and unlock new levels–and Pro Points to improve
your skater’s skills.  There are dozens of challenges found in each location
that include challenges offered by pros like Bob Burnquist, Bam Margera or even
Tony Hawk himself.

New to the series are
mini-challenges that don’t have much to do with the main challenges found in
each level in Career Mode but are there as added mini-games.  For example, in
the college campus, there is a tennis court where you’ll be offered to play a
match using your skateboard as a tennis racquet.  You can now skitch a ride
behind a moving vehicle in the same way it was done in Acclaim’s Aggressive
Inline. The Create-A-Skater option features plenty of little added details such
as different shirts, pants, shoes and even accessories. You can also create your
own park using the Park Editor.

Again, the controls are
heaven when it comes to executing tricks such as double tap flips and grabs or
crooked grinds.  The much more difficult tricks to pull off are not impossible
challenges but do require gamers to practice them repeatedly.  There will be
times when certain challenges call for the more extreme tricks, forcing gamers
to frustratingly try them over and over until they accidentally execute the
move.

The multiplayer option
doesn’t offer Xbox Live support but that doesn’t mean there’s no fun to be had
in the multiplayer modes.  Many of the classics are back such as Trick Attack
and Horse.  There are eight multiplayer modes two gamers can challenge one
another in and two games eight players using the System Link can play.  New to
the multiplayer games are Combo Mambo (the player who busts the biggest combo
wins) and Score Challenge (like Time Attack only there is no timer).  With so
many multiplayer modes, I hardly think gamers will be complaining about no
online access.

The skating environments
are not only just massive but also really great to look at since the graphics
have been slightly enhanced this time around.  The level of detail found in each
environment, especially the zoo and the San Francisco levels, will impress
gamers.  The skater models are also more detailed so that when you encounter
Tony Hawk or any of the other well-known skaters in the game somewhere in a
level; you’ll instantly recognize them before they even open their mouths to
talk.  Still, some pedestrians aren’t rendered as well as others; in fact, some
of them look really plain.

The game’s sound is also
top-notch with great sound effects and an excellent sound track.  Each specific
area in the many locations has its own atmospheric sounds and the voice acting
isn’t entirely all that bad.  The game’s soundtrack is composed is thirty-five
tunes from a wide variety of artists such as AC/DC, Public Enemy, Iron Maiden or
System of a Down.  You can arrange them any way you want in the sound options
menu or even add any songs you might have stored in your Xbox’s hard drive.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4
is an extreme skateboarding masterpiece that does not fail to bring out the
inner thrasher in all of us.  With enough tricks, massive interactive
environments and more challenges to choose from, this is a game worth of any
gamers’ growing library.  Consider this one a Must-Have.

#Reviewer’s Scoring Details

Gameplay: 9.8
Once again the controls are a dream
to handle with enough tricks and combos that take a bit of practice to master
correctly.  Gamers can just as easily pull off various flip tricks, ollies and
manuals with ease while the more complex tricks require a lot of practice.
You’ll find that you can pull off the more advanced tricks through
trail-and-error but be prepared to take more than a couple of nasty (and bloody)
tumbles.  The new moves, such as skitching, are nice additions.

Gamers will also find it
quite a joy exploring all six immense levels that range from a college campus,
San Francisco, Alcatraz, Kona, a shipyard, Chicago, a carnival, London and the
zoo.  There are plenty of people to offer challenges–such as collecting words
to spell out words like COMBO or SKATE or skating on moving parade floats–and
mini-games.  

Graphics: 9.5
While it doesn’t showcase the Xbox’s
true graphics power, the visuals really stand out with high details in the
environments and the skaters as well as the gorgeous textures found in buildings
and objects.  You’ll find each area nicely detailed with building with banners
that flap with the wind, mobile cranes in the shipyards and elephants in the zoo
lazily flapping their ears.  The skater models are even gorgeous, with fluid
movements captured to perfection as well as gruesome damage to exposed elbows or
knee caps (see, kids, this is why it’s important to wear knee and elbow pads).

Sound: 9.7
Aside from the fact that you can
incorporate your own tunes to the filled-to-the-brim Playlist, there is some
great music to be found in Tony Hawk 4.  There is a healthy dose of different
musical genres presented here from classic rock and punk such as AC/DC and The
Sex Pistols to old school rap such as Run DMC and N.W.A.  There are just so many
tunes and if you don’t like a particular song, you can edit out the track and
just add the ones you like.  This game was meant to be played with a great sound
system hooked up to your console.

Then there’s the voice
acting, which is decent in many places and not so good in others.  Many of the
characters you find will have their own personality voice-wise while the pro
skaters sound as if they’re mechanically reading from the script (with the
exception of Tony Hawk and a few of the other pros).  This isn’t a really big
deal since the sound effects throughout the game are just too good.

Difficulty: Hard
The game’s difficulty comes from the
more advanced challenges found in the game which, like the third game, can be
kind of frustrating to complete after having tried it a few times.  It’s not
necessary to complete every challenge found in a level (read nearly impossible)
but half the fun is in the attempt.  Secondly, the more advanced tricks can be
hard to pull off, especially when the particular trick is called for in a
challenge.

Concept: 9.8
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 changed
extreme sports titles in that they can now interact with their surrounding and
this fourth installment carries on the tradition.  There is a sense of freedom
that comes from taking any challenge in any order you want without being forced
to do them all at once.  Creating your own skater and your own skate park are
also major pluses.  The added bonuses in the game are also very welcome . . .
who didn’t want to skitch a car in Tony Hawk’s 3?

Multiplayer: 9.7
Despite the sad fact that the game
doesn’t include Xbox Live support, the multiplayer option is still a joy.  Two
players can play through eight multiplayer games: Trick Attack, Score Challenge,
Combo Mambo, Slap, King of the Hill, Graffiti, Horse and Free Skate.  And, in
addition to these modes, you can set up a System Link game with up to eight
players and play two extra modes called Goal Attack and Capture the Flag.  Many
of the multiplayer games have been seen before (and are still well loved) with
the exception of Combo Mambo, Score Challenge and the two System Link games.

Overall: 9.3
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 does it
again and brings extreme skateboarding to even more satisfying heights with its
various challenges and added extras.  This is the most fun you’ll have on a
board without actually being on one.  Go ahead and buy it, you can thank me
later.