SK8IN"S GR8 (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (Xbox))

Member Name: Rocawear

Product:	Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (Xbox)
Date:	06/03/03 (645 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Awesome levels, new tricks, better graphics

Disadvantages: Some annoyin goals

Finally!!!! The creators at Neversoft and Activision have created a sequel to Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 on the PS1, while THPS (Tony Hawks Pro Skater) 3 was fun to play, the levels were hardly demanding, being easily completed within at most 2 days, even if you were only playing for a few hours each day. THPS4 has brought back the fun days we all enjoyed in THPS2.

With a refreshing 7 new levels and 2 bonus levels there is plenty of room for you to play. Also new for THPS4 is the ‘No Time Limit’ on level introduction, which you get to roll around your levels, checking them out and taking your time to collect all the gaps and cash floating around each level.

Instead of the goals being shown to you at the beginning of each level you cruise around the levels talking to some of the people within the levels, when u talk to someone, they create a challenge for you, and thus you are on your way, and the catch???? Once you finish talking, and accept the challenge, the ‘No Time Limit’ ruling goes out of the window, and you are given an allotted amount of time to complete the accepted challenge.
Once you complete a challenge you are awarded some $250 and a stat point, which you apply to your stats immediately after completing the challenge. Each level has around 10 ‘open’ challenges, which means you can access them through talking to the people who set the challenges, noticeable by the big circle floating above their heads!! There are also around 4/5 hidden challenges, which open up as you complete various mandatory challenges. Some challenges will create skate parks, carnival floats and all manor of other obstacles and equipment in order for you to complete your challenge, once you do complete the challenge, all the stuff disappears!!!

Within the levels there are a number of people walking around, playing tennis, and basically just filling the screen, these people include various other skaters from the game, mo
st of whom willalways have a challenge for you to complete.

Levels:
COLLEGE; set around, surprisingly, a university campus the first level introduces you to the new ways of the game, having no time limit is a big aid in this level, it gives you time to explore, so what the level consists of, see where cash is, and generally just get a feel for the new format of the game. Within the first level we are also introduced to 2 new tricks, first the spineflip, which is basically the ability to do moves over the center of a double backed halfpipe, and land them!!!! The second new trick is skitchin, where you chase after a car and hold onto the bumper, but it is the same as a manual, grind or lip trick, you have to be careful of your balance, otherwise its goodnight!!!!
SAN FRANSISCO; set on SF’s dockside you are once again open to study the level for as long as you would like before entering in any of the challenges, SF is a big step up from the relative ease of the College level, some of the goals are harder to work out, in terms of completing them (especially feed the sea lions), but with this difficulty comes a greater talent for pulling off long grinds with multiple moves within them, the art of skitchin and improving your manual skills, basically this level hones your balancing abilities.
ALCATRAZ; set on Alcatraz, the most challenging goal, and most likely to piss you after several hundred attempts, is part 2 of ‘help the inmate escape’, yes definitely a difficult, and time deficient goal, but the satisfaction gained in completion is worth every single time you sat and screamed at the TV for failing once more. But the level does give you one of the more fun challenges, actually more than one, the first is to ‘dunk 30 people into the sea’ which is highly amusing, and the second is to go off a big ramp and try to rack up X number of points by landing on a target out at sea, and don’t make the mistake I did, I s
pent the whole time I was in the air doing tricks, thinking that this would help me reach the X number of points, and no that doesn’t work!!!
KONA; a skate park somewhere in the USA, where everyone’s favorite bum is back to play, OLLIE THE BUM makes a welcome reappearance on this level, and he brings some more of his homeless crew along to the skate park to give you more goals to complete. Another 2 part on this level, first medal in a street comp, and then medal in part 2, the Vert comp, but be warned, as the comp’s are set within the whole level and not separate, you’re restricted to the area in which your points count, points gained outside of these areas are not counted.
SHIPYARD; shipyard steps up yet another gear in the difficulty stakes, with a few of the challenges leaving you bemused, and wondering how the hell you are ever going to complete the level, but as with the hard one on Alcatraz, all it takes is time and patience, and soon enough you will work out how to complete these challenges. Word of warning for this level??? Watch out for the dogs!!!!
LONDON; for those of you have been to London, and more specifically the “EYE”, this level pretty much looks like that place!!!! Set on the banks of the Thames, and around a small mid city roundabout. This level really isn’t very big in terms of places to go, and most of your goals are set around the roundabout, which makes them easier to remember, but gives the level a feeling of cramp!!! But you do get work for the environment, by destroying traps set to capture…. Also on this level is the pimp!!! Go talk to him, see what he has to say, u might make a few quid.
ZOO; the final level, and quite obviously set in a zoo, nearly all the goals are based on pissin off animals and helping guide them back their cages, a fun level though, especially if you talk to the trainers. This is one of the larger levels and takes some time to find your around, es
pecially when some
of the goals require you to know exactly where you are. The best goal on this level?? It’s got to be skitchin on the tail of an elephant, while its only defense is to crap all over you!!!!
BONUS LEVELS; ill let you discover them for yourself.

As for characters, the usual line up is here, Hawk (Duh!!!), Margera, Caballero and Campbell all making a reappearance.

So in conclusion, this game rocks, it is one of the best games I have bought in a long time, and hopefully, if they make a THPS5 they will build on a winning model – THPS 4

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