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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
PAL region cover art
Developer(s)	Neversoft, Vicarious Visions, Babaroga, Aspyr Media
Publisher(s)	Activision
Engine	RenderWare
Platform(s)	Xbox, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Game Boy Advance, Tapwave Zodiac, Mobile phone
Release date(s)	October 23, 2002 GameCube NA October 23, 2002 PAL November 15, 2002 PlayStation NA October 23, 2002 PAL November 15, 2002 Xbox NA October 23, 2002 PAL November 15, 2002 PlayStation 2 NA October 23, 2002 PAL November 22, 2002 Game Boy Advance NA October 28, 2002 PAL November 22, 2002 Mobile August 1, 2003 Macintosh NA August 20, 2003 Windows NA August 27, 2003 Zodiac NA 2004
Genre(s)	Sports
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ELSPA: 15+ ESRB: T / EPSX OFLC: M15+ PEGI: 12+
Media	CD, DVD, Nintendo optical disc, Game cartridge

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, often abbreviated to THPS4, is the fourth game in Tony Hawk's series. It was developed by Neversoft and was published in 2002 by Activision for the GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. In 2003 it was published for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Tapwave Zodiac.

[edit] Gameplay

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 is a departure from the previous three games' Career mode, in which the player had a set amount of time in order to find and complete goals. THPS4 instead featured a Career mode more similar to Free-skate mode, in which there was no time limit to explore the level, the goals are usually offered to the player to attempt by characters found in the level. This Career mode would be later seen as the Story modes of Tony Hawk's Underground series, American Wasteland, Project 8 and Proving Ground.

The game builds on the success of the gameplay in the previous games in the series. All of the combos from the previous game make an appearance, as well as some new tricks that can be performed to better navigate parks and areas. It saw the introduction of the spine transfer and car skitching.

The "hidden combos" for turning some tricks into slight variations in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 turned into a standard feature, albeit not as advanced as the system would turn out in the next game in the series, where it was finalized. Also included was the ability to do grind and lip extensions by tapping a direction and grind while grinding or lipping, which can also grant the player bigger combos as they can do a grind extension into a special move, for example. As with trick extensions, this would be standard in the next game in the series where it was much simpler to do. The game is also the only one in the series where the player does not not have to buy tricks. Instead, the basic trick-set the player gets is allocated depending on what type of move set the player defines for their character.

[edit] Online play

To go online with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, one would have needed a PlayStation 2, a network adapter, and an Internet connection. With broadband, a room of up to eight people can be hosted. With dial-up, a room up to three people can be hosted. Players with either connection can join any room.

[edit] Modes

• Trick Attack: The goal is to get as many points as possible. Whoever has the most points at the end wins.
• Graffiti: If one player does a trick on an object, that object changes color to the player's color. If another player does a bigger trick on it that is worth more points, they steal that object from other players. The one with the most tags wins.
• Combo Mambo: Almost the same as Trick Attack, except the highest amount of points done in one combo.
• King of the Hill: A capture the flag type of game where in the player must hold a crown for as long as possible.
• Slap: The goal of the game is to hit each other. The faster skater will knock down the other.

[edit] Reception

The Playstation 2 version of the game received a 9.3/10 score from IGN.^[1]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 website on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine
• Official Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 web page on Activision.com