Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4

"Mr Hawk's fourth romp, with new ideas."

The Birdman returns, this time with no time limits, and lots of people who need help.
How many more games do we have to go through?

Gameplay
Controls: People say that the easiest configuration has always been the Playstation’s. Even I’m use to that, and I don’t own the console. So when I started on this game, I had to look in the instructions book for a while. I got the controls, and sat down to it. And I actually found in fairly easy to get used to. The A button is ollie (jump to none skating people), and the rest revolves around the Y, X and B buttons, and R for revert and all that stuff. And that’s it. You can use the D pad or analogue sticks to move, and the C stick to fiddle with the camera. Overall OK, and the best layout for the controller. But switching between PS and GC takes a while to get used to.
Amusement: So it’s a skating game. What fun is there in that, apart from watching your skater mess up a grind on a telegraph pole, and fall down, sending blood everywhere? Well, for one thing, this game has unusual characters in it. Such as everyone’s “favourite” Ollie the magic bum, who makes a return. And is drunk, unsurprisingly. Every time you talk to him, he make some strange comment, which brings some mild amusement. That and some of the mini games in it, such as playing tennis with your skateboard. But not masses to entertain in the humour department. But then pulling off a huge combo may entertain others, so it depends what kind of person you are.
Difficulty: No difficulty levels, just straight into the game from the start. And with a skater that has fairly low starts, you’ll find it hard to pull off some tricks, and it’ll be hard from the start. The learning curve for this game is steep, and after constant play for two days, you’ll improve greatly. Some of the goals are still hard, so you’ll become irritated after the fifty-second attempt at it, and still getting nowhere near completion.
Score: 7/10

Sounds
A nice thumping mixture of rock, and some rap in there, with AC/DC headlining the list, but also The Sex Pistols, The Offspring, Goldfinger, Run DMC and others also featured, it makes a good soundtrack to listen to. There are also the usual skateboard sounds, and noises from things in the level (e.g. animals, people). The only let down is on the London level. The accents of the inhabitants there is nowhere near English. Well, modern day English.
Score: 9/10

Graphics
Same as they were in Pro Skater 3 really. Look smooth, but not the top. The Cube can easily handle better graphics than this, its not being pushed to the limit.
They could have at least included larger levels if the graphics were going to be so low.
Score: 7/10

Replayability
Lots to complete here, and there is a small two-player option. You have the usual skatepark creator, and a couple of bonus levels thrown in. There are 190 goals altogether, and that takes ages. You’ll be at this for a while afterwards. Unless you’re a pro, of course.
Score: 9/10

Value for money
US Price: Around $50
UK Price: Around £35
Verdict: Buy
Hard this. It’s up to the path you want really. You won’t complete it in the rental time, but providing you’re good enough, you can get quite a bit of fun out of it in that time. Buy it, and you’ll come back to it later on. I’d rent it first if you own any of the previous incarnations though,
Score: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/03, Updated 01/02/03