Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

"This is just an amazing game!"

Look at the trend that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater has started. It is the second skateboarding game on the Playstation (am I right?), and now there are seven skateboarding games set for release in 2000. Amazing. That fact right there shows you that THPS is a great game. But just how great is it? Read on in this review to find out.

GRAPHICS 9/10

Everything in THPS looks great. Everything. The skaters look cool, and the tricks all look great. The levels are very detailed, and all of the things you can skate on look great. Sure, the graphics don’t look like the Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo 64 versions, but they are still great for the Playstation. Overall, the graphics are very smooth & neat looking, with not too many glitches.

GAMEPLAY 10/10

What really makes Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater a great game is the gameplay and controls. THPS features a very cool and unique trick system. It is not hard to learn, nor is it too easy to pull off big tricks. It gets much harder when you try and link several tricks together. You can pull tricks off of anything, and you can grind anything that has an edge on it. It’s amazing.

THPS’s controls work like this: You push a directional button + square to do a kick trick, push a directional button + circle to do a grab trick, or push a directional button + triangle to do a grind. There are lots of tricks and grinds to do, plus if you include the specials, then you have quite a few things to mess around with. You can combine the tricks & grinds to get bigger scores. Combining tricks & grinds does make it much tougher to land properly and not crash.

THPS has three one player modes, and three two player modes. The one player modes are career, single session, and free skate. In career mode, you go through each level trying to collect videotapes by reaching certain goals. The tapes will unlock levels & equipment to use in the other modes. In single session, you pick a level and skate for two minutes to try and get high scores. In free skate, you pick a level and do whatever you want for as long as you like. The two player modes are graffiti, trick attack, and horse. In graffiti, you try and tag the most objects by doing tricks off of them. In trick attack, you try and get more points than you friend. In horse, you do a trick, and your friend has to try and do better than you. It plays out just like a basketball game of horse. My favorites are career mode, and the two player graffiti mode.

THPS has nine levels to skate in. The levels are the warehouse in Woodland Hills, the school in Miami, the mall in New York, the skate park in Chicago, downtown in Minneapolis, a downhill jam in Phoenix, the Burnside in Portland, the streets of San Francisco, and a special mystery course. The mall in New York, and the downhill jam in Phoenix are pretty much arcade courses, but the rest are all real. The skate park in Chicago, the Burnside in Portland, and the special mystery course are all contests in the career mode. Each level is jam packed full of rails, pools, quarter pipes, and all of the other essentials for skating.

THPS features a total of ten pro skaters, plus two secretly hidden fictional “PIG” characters. The ten pro skaters are Tony Hawk (duh), Bob Burnquist, Kareem Campbell, Rune Glifberg, Bucky Lasek, Chad Muska, Andrew Reynolds, Geoff Rowley, Elissa Steamer, and Jamie Thomas. I won’t spoil the hidden characters for any of you people out there that haven’t played this game yet (what’s wrong with you?). Each skater has their own set of special tricks that you can only do when your special meter is full. Cool.

SOUND 10/10

THPS features a killer soundtrack. There is music there by the Dead Kennedys, the Ernies, Even Rude, Goldfinger, Primus, Speedealer, Suicidal Tendencies, the Suicide Machines, Unsane, and the Vandals. To tell the truth, I had never heard of any of these bands before I played the game, except for Primus, but I am glad that I know of the bands now. In my opinion, this is the best music to skate to in a video game. My favorite out of all of the 10 songs is “Police Truck” by the Dead Kennedys. It is great stuff.

Anyways, the rest of the sounds used in THPS are great. Ollies, grinds, picking your board & wheels, moving up & down on the menu.. They all sound great. Even the skating sounds cool. I love it.

FUN FACTOR 10/10

You will have lots of fun playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. That’s pretty much a guarantee. You will have fun trying to beat the career mode, or just skating around in free skate mode. The two player modes are also a blast to play. I guess that THPS is just an all around fun game.

REPLAY VALUE 10/10

I got this game at Christmas time, and I am still playing it now. Yes, it is that good of a game. I did take a break from playing it thanks to homework, but now that it is the summer again, I can finish the career mode. The main reason you’ll be playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater for a long time is to try and top your previous high scores, or your friend’s high scores. It’s kind of like playing in an arcade, in a way. Cool.

CHALLENGE 10/10

THPS is a very challenging game. Two things make this game especially challenging, though. Reason number one - the career mode. It will take quite some time to fully complete the career mode. Your main goal for career mode is to get all 30 tapes for each skater, plus getting gold in each competition. When you do that for a skater, it unlocks a special tape of the skater. The skater’s tape is only about 20 seconds long, though, so it’s kind of a disappointment. Other tapes you can unlock are a tape of Neversoft (they have the coolest opening credit at the beginning of the game) trying to skate, and a “bails” video that shows some very sick bails. Anyways, career mode is very challenging. Reason number two - the trick system. You will keep coming back to the game to try and get a higher score than your last time playing. My highest score is somewhere around 35,000 (I know, it is not that much) and I did 7 tricks in one grind/jump. I still try to top that to this day.

RENT OR BUY?

Well, if you want a game with great gameplay, then buy Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater immediately. If you aren’t sure of anything, then you might want to rent this game first, but you will be hooked after playing it. You will probably be thinking, “I guess Shady was right after all. This game is totally sick. I need to buy this now!”. My recommendation is to buy this game, pronto.

WHAT’S HOT?

- Killer soundtrack
- Awesome career mode
- The gameplay & trick system
- Lots of replay value
- Big challenge
- Lots of fun
- Cool replays

WHAT’S NOT?

- The videos you unlock after winning career mode are too short
- There is really nothing else wrong with this superb game

FINAL ANALYSIS:

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater is an incredible game that every Playstation owner should have. It is easily one of the best games on the system, if not the best game on the Playstation. It’s a must buy. So I guess, all in all, I am giving you my strongest recommendation to get this game. You will love it. Overall, THPS gets a 10 out of 10 from me, Shady. Booyah.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/00, Updated 07/06/00