font face="comic sans ms"> Activision and Neversoft have found a cash cow in the Tony Hawks series of games, ever since skateboarding was deemed to be hip and cool once more. This success has enabled the expansion into several other "extreme" sports genres with licensed names such as Matt Hoffman and Kelly Slater. With the release of the fourth game in the potentially never-ending series, have Neversoft come up with something different and exciting, or are they merely milking the cow this time around? The good news to begin with is that this game is both similar and different to its predecessors. Confused? Pop the disc in and witness the same slick presentation as before, with an all-new set of tricks being ripped up on the intro movie. The menu system is very similar in layout, with the options to load/save a career; spend the money collected on boards, cheats, new levels and hidden characters; go practice in the half pipe; alter sound options and track listings; and design your own skate parks. One note here is that unlike THPS3, the game no longer autosaves for you, it has to be done manually, and there is no option to turn it on either. Definitely a potential source of cursing should it be forgotten before switching the power off after play!
font face="comic sans ms"> The control method created for the Gamecube version of THPS3 has been completely retained in THPS4. For the most part, the thumb will be hovering or depressed on the A button for an ollie (jump). From there it can venture in any direction to perform a grab trick (X), flip trick (B) or grind (Y) in conjunction with any of the 8 directions on the control stick. Quickly pressing up/down or down/up will start a manual, a common occurrence after performing a revert (L or R) off a ramp or slope. Said feature was introduced in the last game and is still very much a required skill to help complete score and combo challenges. The C stick acts as a look around camera to help spot potential trick objects, cash and other items to collect.
font face="comic sans ms"> Two new aspects to the control system have been created for this game. Firstly pressing L and R together can do one of two things: if you are going up a ramp and there is a ramp directly on the opposite side, your skater will perform a spine transfer from one side to the other. As to be expected, this skill is necessary to complete a few of the challenges present. Or alternatively if it looks like bailout time, your skater will try to correct his stance and land cat-like on all 4 wheels of the board. Secondly, double tapping a trick button will perform a new move, instead of before where it would initiate the same basic trick twice. Essentially this has allowed the programmers to double up on the number of tricks being offered from the start. Also a new move called "skitching" has been included which means grabbing hold of a moving object and being towed behind it.
font face="comic sans ms"> But the most dynamic change to the way the game is played happens when the first level is loaded up. Gone is the 2 minute time limit to try and complete whatever challenges that can be done. Instead it is similar to freeskate mode, where the whole of each (huge) level can be explored, noted and assessed. There is no pressure, and there is a lot of fun to be had just randomly boarding around, trying out tricks and racking up combo scores. And accumulate money. There is plenty of it around each level and it is necessary to unlock most of the special features of the game. The only debate here is what to actually spend it on! New boards perhaps? Maybe one of the 2 hidden levels (Carnival and Chicago)? One of the 4 secret characters? Or some videos? Or new clothes? There are a lot of choices and it is really up to the player what to decide. When you do feel ready to actually do something constructive, skate up to one of the people dotted around with an arrow above their head and press X to talk to them. This is when the game really gets started.
font face="comic sans ms"> Each of the seven main levels (College, San Francisco, Alcatraz, Koma, Shipyard, London and Zoo) have a number of unique challenges associated with their design and theme, together with the ubiquitous score, SKATE and COMBO tasks. Most of them have a time limit involved ranging from just a few seconds up to 2 minutes. For example, College has you knocking down 5 jocks (sports guys) in one combo, spine transferring over a float and skitching the professor's car. Whereas London involves racing the police around Trafalgar Square, nicking police helmets and tricking over the fountains. The range of tasks awaiting you is more varied, and the difficulty a lot higher than before. Players will not whizz through this like they did with THPS3.
font face="comic sans ms"> Complete 90 challenges in total and then things really start to ramp up. A Pro Challenge is unlocked for each skater (including the Custom slot) on a particular level. Complete this task and 5 new super challenges appear on each level. Some of these are insanely difficult, taxing and require the full range of skating tricks to even be able to come anywhere near completing. Others are remarkably easier to achieve than some of the normal ones. It will be a very long time until all 190 in total are in the bag. Unlike previous games however, it does not matter which skater you use to complete a task. You do not go through career mode for each skater. Each task is accumulated into a central "pool" regardless of who completed it. Consequently stat points acquired affect all the skaters that are available to use, not just your current one.
font face="comic sans ms"> Graphically it is fairly easy to tell that this is just a port of the PS2 version. Whilst the frame rate is set high and never noticeably drops, the textures, lighting and polygon count are all indicative that the game wasn't developed on the console in question. They are, however, better in general than THPS3, and the skaters in particular are well animated and fleshed out. The bitmapped faces on the famous skaters could have been done better though, looking almost "Goldeneye" quality in places. Texture wise the colours are rather bland in places, uniform or just merely perfunctory. They do their job but that is about all. This is not a game that shows off the graphical power of the Gamecube, merely that it can handle a game such as this without slowing down. It is also worthwhile to note that the game supports widescreen though (without no great surprise here) not progressive scan mode.
font face="comic sans ms"> The audio in the game, especially the soundtrack, is something that usually gets high marks, and things are no different this time around. The soundtrack must be at least twice the size of any other previously in the series, and whilst fairly American rock/rap dominated, there are one or two notable surprises, and the odd British group thrown in for good measure. Really, there is not going to be anyone who can't find something to their taste to listen to. And even then, there is still the option to turn the music volume to zero and put on your own CD instead. For the most part, the sound FX seem as if they have been brought from THPS3, not much different in the sound of skating, crashing and the production of pain. Voices are the expected wacky standards throughout, especially when Canadians are trying to do British accents for the London level - "Care to try a high score, bloke?". Priceless!
font face="comic sans ms"> Even though there are only 7 normal levels (plus the 2 secret ones), each one is huge, much larger than anything seen before in the series to date. This allows for a more expansive challenge design and layout, taking the time to scope the places where the trick points are to be made, as well as practising the new skills required. For the most part, the Gamecube controller is responsive and up to the task; if you bail out then it is almost certainly your fault. Occasionally, the odd quirk manifests itself, such as grind/manual balance scooting off to the extremes in the blink of an eye. Plus some graphical glitches appear caused by random bails or trying to interact with certain parts of the scenery. However, these are minor points in the scheme of things. The Tony Hawk series needed to evolve and mutate, as another game in the vein of the previous 3 would have definitely been perceived as stale. Number 4 in the series has some bright ideas and concepts and hopefully will lead the way in evolving the games until however long the license lasts for!
