Gaming Target - Xbox: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4

Written by Gavin Wright on November 21, 2002

Full Review: Can you have too much of a good thing? Perhaps. Have we had too much Tony Hawk? Not quite yet.

In an interesting move, Tony Hawk recently announced that he has renewed his contract with Activision to extend his sponsorship of the Pro Skater series through the next twelve years. Can you even begin to imagine that? At the rate things are going nowadays, we may very well be seeing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 16 hitting store shelves sometime around the winter of 2015. While the motivations are obvious on Neversoft's behalf to continue the franchise (after all, it's raked in over half a billion dollars in revenues for the company), there's nothing wrong with carrying on the series as long as they can manage to keep things fresh and innovative in the eyes of gamers. That seems to be the whole philosophy behind Tony Hawk's 4 Ц Neversoft wanted to take the series in a somewhat different direction, which has forced them to make a few alterations to the familiar Pro Skater formula. In the end, the fourth edition in the renowned skateboarding series is far and away the best extreme sports title around, even if the franchise itself is wearing a bit thin.

Let's get one thing out of the way right now Ц Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 is still just about the same game that it's always been. There's still the same list of pro skaters, a nearly identical trick list and combo system, similar customization options, and the same twisted humor for which the series is known. But the few changes that have been made, which happen to be geared mostly towards the game's career mode, are all for the better. First and foremost you'll notice that they've abandoned the two-minute timer that has been with the series from the beginning, in favor of a more free-roaming system that allows you to play at your own pace. Instead of giving you a list of goals at the beginning of each stage, challenges are actually handed to you by individual characters that can be found standing around throughout the levels. The goals themselves are now more varied as well, although most of the old standards are still there in one form or another. The levels have also been expanded to accommodate the new freeform style of play, giving you all the time you could possibly want to check out the environments at your leisure. It makes the game a lot more enjoyable on the whole, and it takes away a great deal of the frustration that's typically associated with extreme sports games.

The entire career mode has been restructured for Hawk's latest go-around. You start out each level with a set of 16 goals open to you, and after reaching a certain point in the game your character is given a skater-specific СPro challenge'. Upon completing the task, you're given an additional set of nine goals per level. Although the game does permit you to jump into any level you want (provided you have completed enough of the goals), the progression in difficulty from level to level and even goal to goal is so smooth that you'd be ill-advised to disrupt it.

Pro challenges are one of the more welcomed additions to Tony Hawk's 4. After completing a set amount of goals, you're introduced to a bit of background on the skater you're using, which serves as a setup for the insane task that's about to be set before you. For instance, Bam Margera's challenge is a series of downhill races in a shopping cart (which serves as one of the game's many witty references to Bam's humble beginnings on CKY). In Tony Hawk's case, you must land three groups of tricks over a roof gap that actually expands as you complete each list of tricks. The Pro challenges are among the most difficult goals to be found in the game, but they can also be a whole lot of fun.

There are a total of nine levels in the game, including two secret levels which are unlocked only after you've plunked down the cash to pay for them (and this time around, even the secret levels contain goals of their own). The level design has been ramped up considerably, with a notable leap in both depth and complexity. The first thing you'll notice is that the levels have gotten a lot bigger, to the point that even the smallest courses dwarf those of Tony Hawk 3. One downside of the expanded size is that it makes the levels far too big for the player to get to know them intimately, which can take a lot of the fun away from discovering new areas and trick lines. A slightly disturbing trend in the game's level design is the questionable use of out-of-bounds areas to mark the outskirts of levels. It can be incredibly aggravating to be in the middle of a combo only to wander down the wrong street and have it all taken away from you as though you'd fallen into an invisible pool of water. It's a relatively small gripe, and one that's pretty easy to avoid as soon as you learn the ins and outs of the level, but it really isn't too much to ask for the levels to be entirely self-contained.

Although the core trick system established in Pro Skater 3 is still in place, a handful of new tricks have been thrown in as well for good measure. First up is the spine transfer, a trick that allows you to transfer over the rim of two quarterpipes that are placed back-to-back. Not only does it give you one more tool for extending your combos, it also makes it possible to reach ledges that could once only be lipped on. Veteran players will also find the spine transfer useful for righting yourself when you accidentally fly off the edge of a vert ramp. The game's flatland repertoire has been expanded as well, and the moves have also become somewhat easier to pull off. One slightly novel addition to the trick book is the ability to skitch vehicles, which allows you to grab onto the back of a car and hitch a ride. It's not exactly the most practical trick to try to tie into a combo, but it does provide a substantial boost in speed that can come in handy in certain situations. More subtle maneuvers such as the 180? turnaround have also been thrown in as a means of patching up control inconsistencies that have been with the series from the beginning. Clearly these are small additions, but at this point the game isn't really in need of any vast improvements in this area.

With a list of nearly 200 goals, Tony Hawk 4 offers up a much bigger challenge than earlier games in the series. There's a lot more variation in the goals this time around, so you're no longer stuck doing roughly the same things each and every level. Sure, the original High Score and S-K-A-T-E challenges are still there, but Neversoft has gotten a bit more creative with some of the other goals. In one goal you must hold onto the back of a stolen car until it runs out of gas. The game even shifts the camera to a GTA-esque top-down view as the car races through the city. In another goal you're called upon to assist an escaped prisoner trying to flee to safety by causing a distraction while he makes his getaway. Unfortunately, the secret tape challenges haven't made a return this time around, although I admit it would be a pain in the ass to find them considering the size of the levels. A great deal of the goals are genuinely difficult, and even longtime fans of the series are bound to find a serious challenge in many of them.

Once again it looks like Xbox owners have gotten the short end of the stick in terms of online play, as Activision has once again stubbornly refused to support Microsoft's online service. Sure, the Playstation 2 version supports online play, but the Xbox faithful are restricted to 2-player splitscreen and system link games. Nevertheless, Pro Skater 4 has expanded on the multiplayer modes found in Tony Hawk 3 with a handful of new game types. Combo mombo, which is actually the only new mode that's playable via splitscreen, is a competition to string together the largest combo in a set amount of time. Then there's goal attack, in which the players race against each other to complete a set of goals. Lastly, there's Capture the Flag, in which the player must grab the opposing team's flag and return it to their base without being knocked down by one of the enemies. However, the lack of Xbox Live support means that these new additions will most likely go unused by most people.

At first glance, you'll notice that the game's graphics haven't changed all that much from last year's offering. And that holds true, at least for the most part. The game's character models have seen the most significant graphical overhaul, although they still don't resemble the actual skaters as closely as they could. The skaters now show physical damage from repeated injuries, with ripped clothing and bloodied elbows. The effect is quite nice, though a bit too subtle. The draw distance has been improved on as well, as have the shadow effects cast by the environment. Obviously, the Xbox version is a step ahead of the Playstation 2 and Gamecube releases, even if the enhancements aren't all that drastic.

With a list of more than 30 tracks, you simply have to be impressed by the sheer amount of licensed music Neversoft has comprised for Tony Hawk 4. As has always been the case, the soundtrack offers a welcomed variety of Сlove-it-or-hate-it' songs spanning everything from hip-hop and punk to classic metal. The game includes tracks from AC/DC, N.W.A., Offspring, Iron Maiden, and even the Sex Pistols. Naturally, the game also supports the Xbox's custom soundtrack feature, and it even allows you to combine songs from the game with songs on your hard drive into your playlist.