Title: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 Developer: Neversoft Publisher: Activision System: Playstation 2 Release Date: 5/21/02 Review Date: 4/1/02
Review by: Transmetal
No... Please... Not another Tony Hawk game! Haven't they already brought this franchise to it's knee? Oh yea. I forgot. Unlike most liscenced games, this was the one that was good from the start. Also, unlike pretty much every other succcesful game ever created. It's sequels are good. Ooops! My bad. Ok, enough with the sarcasm already! Tony Hawk is back on his second original outing for PS2 (third in total). With each sequel, gamers and reviewers alike are greeted with infinitly improved gameplay, friendlier control schemes, and enhanced graphics. Neversoft has yet to not impress me with the innovation they can pack into a yearly released game. The difference between the first Tony Hawk and it's sequel was staggering. They introduced completely new gameplay mechanics without compromising the integrity of the product. And the level design? WOW! I couldn't have asked for more in a sequel. What's this? You say they have a third one?! Ok... Playing... Paying... Playing... Playing... Someone please help me, this is ungodly addicting! In the third sequel, they may not have changed the gameplay much, but the innovative level design was extremely user friendly. It allowed for the greatest variety of gameplay I had ever seen. With these three games, I don't need those Final Fantasy(s) or Halo(s). WHAT?! A FOURTH one you say?! NOOOOOOOO!!! I'll never have a chance to do my homework ever again!!!! WHY?!?!
First Glance:
Well, I was greeted with the usual Neversoft logo (They always crack me up, especially this one... The eye ball is zoomed in on, and it does a little parody of the Dreamcast "It's thinking" ad). Then the begining movie played. You know, I was expecting some more live action footage, but instead I was greeted with computer animated characters. My first thought went like "Oh no... This is going to be bad...". Instead, I was rather surprised in a pleseant way. The computer animation, which was extremely superb by the way, the only reason I knew it wasn't live footage was because of the lack of "compression induced blur". The movie went on, similar to the live action version from previous games, but with a Tony Hawk flavor. That is to say, that they were doing these really insane tricks, all strung together. Real life skaters tend to have a relaxed look, these guys looked like they had downed several liters of Mountain Dew (aka "Liquid Crack"). These guys were preforming combos like 900 to Jack Ass to Christ Air to Invert Kick before landing... THEN the character would go on and do some wierd manual thing for about a half mile before doing it again. Wow... Onto the menu system. It was a nicely revamped menu. I never cared for the in-store menu system used in Tony Hawk 2 and 3. It had shiny mettallic blobby button thingys, much like the Generator demo disk menus for Dreamcast. I skipped right into the first level, and to my relief, the load times were next to unnoticable. In fact, was there even a load time at all? I sure didn't see one. Jumping into the first level was interesting... Interesting indeed. It took place in front of a hotel somewhere in the carribean. I'm not kidding. There was the ocean to my right, hotel to the left, sun above, clouds nowhere to be seen. And the actually level design? Wow... I can't really explain it beyond that.... Wow... It's just... perfect... Brings a tear to my eye to see such gaming perfection. (sniff) But wait, you want to read the review now don't you? Ok, here goes.
Graphics:
Um... Yea... Remember the begining movie? Remember those graphics? Wow... Those were good. I'm surprised at how far pre-rendered footage has gone since the days of FFVII. But wait, here's the killer. They were the regular in-game graphics. That's right. Those awesome realistic graphics were the regular in-game graphics. Yea, it took me about 5 min to get my jaw off the floor too. They were insanely realistic, smooth, detailed, you name it, Tony Hawk 4 has it. Is this really a videogame? Ok, so to get into specifics. The character models have upwards of several million polygons. The fabric of the clothing is its own model, same goes for all of the pedestrians lying around. And EVERYTHING moves at a silky smooth 60 frames per second. Everything! I have yet to experience the slightest bit of slowdown. This comes as an especiall shock during one particular bonus level, in which you are competing with, literally, 50 other contestents for a futuristic skate boarding romp prize. In every way, the graphics are pretty impressive. Although, there is one distractor. Jaggies. Yep, those blasted jaggies are coming back for more. Thanks to Sony's lack of hardware anti-aliasing, we suffer from less than perfect graphics... DAMN YOU SONY!!!!!!
Rating: 9.8/10
Sound:
Well... Here is one of the areas I felt was detracting during the other 3 Tony Hawk games. It's that dratted pop music that gets to me. Actually, I really enjoyed the music in the first Tony Hawk. They went for punk only, but they had some classic punk rock from the 50s, 60s, etc... Not just current pop music. To be honest, pop music is crap. That's right. You heard me. And it has no place in a game of this high quality. Well... Hearing such protests, Neversoft took a very creative twist. As a matter of fact, if I didn't know better, I would call them loony. The music is still fast paced, and there is a better variety. BUT... In several situations, they play baroque music. To the un-informed, that is basically the equivelant of, say, classical music. WTF?! But its not that bad actually. In my opinion, those songs fit their respective levels (yes, this time around each level has a theme rather than random music tracks) better than any of the other songs. And then there is, of course, the sound effects. These sound effects are top notch. The excellent 5.1 dolby mix they chose to use works perfectly. It's immersive to the point of you actually believing you are there. Then, there is the voice acting. Being a a true critic of voice acting, I tend to pan pretty much ever game that uses VAs. But this time, Neversoft got some professional voice actors. Their chracters bust out hilarious quips and one-liners throughout the game. They were actually funny. No wait, scratch that, they here romaontflol type funny. Wow. Wait, did I just give this section a 10? Why yes! I did!
Rating: 10/10
Gameplay:
This section is already decided, now isn't it? We all know the real reason we play Tony Hawk is for the gameplay. It's innovative, fun, and user friendly. Best of all, it's deep. We're talking major depth here. An accomplished player will wipe the floor with a newbie. Button mashing gets you no where in this game. The greatest addition to the Tony Hawk arsenal of gameplay tricks is a matrix esque slow mow that can be activated anytime during gameplay. This may seem like a Max Payne rip off, but Neversoft took it one step further. When you are going in slow-mo, you can activate a camera that records your bullet-time moves for future reference. Yea, that's right Mr.Teacher. I'm looking up reference material on my PS2. heheheheh... Of course, this is in addition to excellent level designs which make for a super de duper fluid experience. Then there are the tricks themselfs. Wow... Each character has a library of 200+ tricks that can be utilized on the fly through button combinations. Then you can customize the button combos, and you can unlock tons of other tricks. All in all. This is want gameplay is all about. Pure, unadultrated, fun.
Rating: 10/10
Control:
This is just getting redundant. Once again, Neversoft shocks me with their level of innovation. The classic control map is back, and as perfect as ever. The control is vary intuitive, and fluid. Coolest part is, you can attach this funky finger board controller peripheral to your PS2 and use THAT for control. I'm not kidding. And it works well too, its not just window dressing. So why am I continuing this section? It's perfect. Why can't more developers be like Neversoft?
Rating: 10/10
Overview/Recap:
Tony Hawk 4 for PS2 exceeded my wildest expectations. It was a blast to play. Also, the four player mode and internet tournaments only increase the replay and fun values of this game. It's amazing. Remember the level of innovation that Tony Hawk 2 had over Tony Hawk 1? Same thing happens here from Tony Hawk 3 to Tony Hawk 4. This is why I play games, for the rare gem-like experiences, such as this. You have to buy this game, or I might have to hurt you.
Points of Interest/Point and laugh:
+ Tony Hawk!
+ Sweet ass gameplay
+ Controls like a dream
+ Sound effects are top notch
- Jaggies!!! GAH!!!
? What's with the futuristic bonus levels? Fun to play, but just wierd
? Why can't more companies be like Neversoft and put this much effort into their sequals?
Let Me Repeat that One More Time:
Graphics: 9.8/10
Lifelike, if it wasn't for those jaggies
Sound: 10/10
Mmmmm... Punk... Cla... CLASSIC?! heh.. cool...
Gameplay: 10/10
Too perfect for its own good
Control: 10/10
Controls like a dream