Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

"This game was just as bad then as it is now."

Introduction
This is a very long overdue review. I have had a strong hatred for it since I bought it many years ago for fifteen dollars. Someday I hope to avenge my younger self for buying this game, it was one of the largest mistakes I ever made.

I had been a huge fan of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater on my Nintendo 64 for a long time. The game kept me busy for hours on end when I was young. I was in Gamestop one day and saw this in the used Gameboy Color game section. I thought to myself how much I loved the N64 version playing one on the road would be even better! I was so mistaken, poor me.

Graphics - 3/10
What the heck. I am not even sure what to say about the graphics. There are over 10 playable skaters with different stats but they share the same model. Why? They all look the same even the female character aside from a different color theme for each one, it was one of the worst things I had seen in a long time. The three however is for the backgrounds of the half-pipe levels. Those are basically just a painted backdrop that look like they came from the 3D versions of the game, each with little details in them that actually look quite good, the racing type levels unlike the character graphics look pretty decent, tapes look like video tapes, ramps look like ramps and so on. Even the environment is decently functional as to what it should be doing. If you run into a ramp you won't keep going you will stop and just hold still. Nice they added this but the graphics overall are just plain bad.

Sound - 1/10
I played with the sound off. Yes, really I did. After listening to the music in the game a bit the only word that could come into my mind is failure. I hummed that to myself then turned it off to listen to a CD. (didn't have fancy iTunes then).

Gameplay - 2/10
Your joking, right? Part of this game is fun, I will grant it that. But that fun only stays with you for a few minutes then you get bored and want to stop playing and type about how bad a game it is. The game is split up into 3 sections. Half-pipe mode, racing mode, and tournament mode (which is just racing mode really).

Racing mode is horrible, and I am not sure what its purpose is. You pick one character to play as (though Tony Hawk is basically the best choice...) and race against others to the end of the level. I am not sure how to go faster in the level without hitting a speed boost pad thing and lose basically every race. The really annoying part however is when doing tricks on the various ramps in the level. You hit these ramps and do a button combination then the game freezes for a second. You see a still frame of your character doing a trick with a point score beside it and then the game continues. Thank god you could skip those or I would of freaked out and smashed the game with a hammer.

Half-pipe mode is the half fun part of the game. It is exactly as you picture it in your head. You pick a character and race backwards and forwards on a half-pipe as you do tricks. There is no score recorder or missions to do so I am not sure what the purpose in any of this is. It is downright bad.

Conclusion
Hammer time! Take a hammer, or something to it if you owned this thing such as myself and destroy it into tiny bits. I lost my faith in handheld Tony Hawk games right there and never bought another even though I hear the later Gameboy Advance ones are half decent.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 07/30/07