Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 Preview
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 is the follow-up to the smash hit produced by the folk at Neversoft, and published by Activision. While it may seem to many that Neversoft is simply trying to cash in on the success of their franchise, they have completely revamped the focus of the game. Their objective? More freedom.
Neversoft’s latest skateboarding entry will try to encapsulate the essence of skateboarding; to do what you want, when you want to. This is why they have decided to ditch the time factor in Career mode. Now you will have unprecented control over what you want to do. If you don’t want to accomplish a specific task, then you can try another one.
Which brings me to the tasks themselves. Neversoft seems to be going for more humour and fun, by adding mini-games to some of the level objectives. In one screenshot, Birdman was seen playing Tennis with his skateboard. In another, a group of skaters were lying back-down on their skateboards, similar to a toboggan, and racing on a road. Sound wack? You bet it is
Neversoft will also try to emphasize society’s attitude towards skaters. You’ll have to chase down people who are going to rat you out, for example. Police will also play a very big role, and no doubt you’ll be in pursuit from time to time. As well as emphasizing society’s view, Neversoft takes aim at friendship in skateboarding. In one objective, for example, you have to “beat up” people who apparently kicked your friend’s ass.
Perhaps the greatest issue I had about THPS3 was the obscure and small level design. Los Angeles was the only level which was less-confining and more open-ended. Thankfully, the levels shown in THPS4 are more of the same, and more open-ended. The levels seem large and expansive, with plenty of hidden areas and goals to find out. Heck, Neversoft even managed to add a bustling freeway into one of them!
Neversoft plans to build upon many of the elements in THPS3, so I can safely say that the Park Editor and Create-a-Skater will return with more depth. One of the issues gamers had with THPS3 was that the revert made it too easy to get extremely high scores, which made the game too easy. It is unknown whether Neversoft will increase the learning curve this time around, but they plan to make it easy for newcomers, as well as challenging for season THPS players.
What makes all the THPS games fun to play is the trick system. While it is unknown if Neversoft changed anything, I think you can still count on solid controls and gameplay that make the game so much fun. Some of the screenshots showed new moves being performed.
Graphics are, as always, an important factor. Birdman is featured as more clean-cut and sporty. Some of the characters have changed as well, and now sport more polygons. Some skaters will be pleased to know that Bob Burnquist has indeed returned after being replaced by Bam Margera in THPS3.
Neversoft has souped up online play by adding 8 skaters this time, and you’ll be able to access all the same multiplayer modes in online play as well, such as King of the Hill.
Overall, the outlook on THPS4 looks bright, and I can’t wait to see what new boundaries this game will push for its genre. Neversoft’s formula for success hasn’t failed yet, and if it still works, we may get a THPS5.
Tony Hawk 3 is shaping up quite nicely, and Neversoft is doing their best to make sure that eager fans won’t have to wait too long. In fact, they are actually ahead of schedule, but I say to expect some delay as they finish perfecting off what could be the best thing ever.
Final Score: 8.5