Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4

"How repetitive can this game get?"

Now most of Tony Hawk's fan must think I'm crazy with the title and score I gave this game (which is well deserved), but please, before saying I'm crazy, read this fact and you'll see why I rated this game 5/10

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
When I started to play this game I said: WOW!! This is fantastic. It has everything, you can still create your on skater, do even bigger parks, etc. Sure this game seems charming the first time you try it, but believe me, it's only on the surface that it's charming. When you start scratching off the ''surface'', you'll realize that the core of this game is really, truly boring and not worth 50 bucks. The more you play, the more you will realize how pointless this game is. But to be honest, it is not only bad. There is good in this game, like trying to beat your own score or playing in your favorite world. But once you tried to beat your highest combo score and played in your favorite level for hours, you will begin to get bored and will stop playing, and that time comes quickly, perhaps too quickly.

STORY 3/10
Mm.. A story uh? Well let's see.. You are a skater going around places not even on the same continent doing some crazy stunts to get the most points possible to unlock other worlds or other bonus stuff, getting some tasks by business men who probably don't know one thing about skating at all but seem like pros when they talk to you. Basically the ''story'' is like all previous Tony Hawks.. Do some ''missions'' to amass points to unlock new levels. Pretty boring and lack of originality.

GRAPHICS 7/10
1 good point about this game (probably the only reason I gave this a 5 instead of a 3 or 4). The graphics are real nice, beautiful texture, nice details, stuff seems real, objects look real and used, except for some minors things. The only flaw in the graphics are the characters (big flaw). I mean, is this a Nintendo 64 game or a Gamecube game? The characters have nothing real about them, their faces are flat, no real shadows, hands are big square and they almost look like the characters from Tony Hawk 2 on Nintendo 64.

SOUND 4/10
In the first Tony Hawk, the sound was great, enjoyable, good, well chosen for the game type. Then the second and third game came. They still had some appropriate music, but a lot of rap and rock. Tony Hawk 4 is almost ONLY Rap and Rock. Quite disappointing

GAMEPLAY 9/10
The controls are, like usual, perfect. Each buttons has its use and are easy to use. Nothing bad to say about that section

REPLAYABILITY 5/10
Most people would think that this game has one of the greatest replayability, but they are so wrong. Sure this game is real fun at start and you might think that you can play on forever and ever, but believe me, after a week of same old routine, you just feel like burning this game.

BUY or RENT?
I know that its hard to influence the choice of someone by a mere review, but here is what I have to say: If you want to waste 50 bucks, then go buy this game. If you don't want to risk wasting 50 bucks, then rent it first and if your 100% sure that you like it, then maybe you should consider buying this game. All I know is that I can't tell you what to do, only give you good helpful advice.

Score

STORY = 3/10
GRAPHICS = 7/10
SOUND = 4/10
GAMEPLAY = 9/10
REPLAYABILITY = 5/10
BUY or RENT? = Rent

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/08/04