“Go big, Hawk style!”
—Game slogan
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (called Tony Hawk's Skateboarding in Europe and commonly abbreviated as THPS) is a skateboarding video game, originally developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the first of the Tony Hawk video game series.
It was originally released for the PlayStation on September 29, 1999 and was later ported to the Nintendo 64 on February 29, 2000 and the Dreamcast on May 22, 2000. An adaptation for the N-Gage and Game Boy Color was also released.
The game received a slew of sequels and spin-offs, succeeding with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. The aformentioned games, and its sequel to an extent, has also received several remakes, as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2X, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2.
Gameplay[]
The goal of the game is to successfully perform and combine aerials, flips, and grinds, with successful executions adding to the player's score. The point value of the trick is based on time maintained, degrees rotated, number of tricks performed in sequence, and the amount of times the tricks have been used (the more often a trick is used, the less it's worth). Successful tricks also add to the player's special meter, which, once full, allows for the execution of signature moves better known as special tricks which are worth a great deal more than normal tricks. Bails (falling off the skateboard due to poor landing) cause for no points to be awarded for the attempted trick and resets the special bar to empty.
Career Mode[]
In Career Mode, the player has five tapes (i.e. objectives) to obtain in six of the nine levels. The player has only two minutes in which to obtain a tape after which their run ends. It is not necessary to get every given tape in a level in one run though, as individual objectives are marked off once completed.
In each level, two of the tapes are acquired by reaching set scores (with the second score being two to three times the amount require for the first), one is obtained by collecting the five letters to spell "SKATE", and one is a hidden tape which the player must find by looking in secluded areas, and the last tape's requirement varies from level to level, but always involves doing something to five objects (e.g. "grind five tables"). The other three levels are competitions, where the goal is to receive a gold, silver, or bronze medal by ranking higher than the other skaters. In these levels, the basis for ranking is not the player's score, but the mean number of points given on a scale of one to ten by three computer judges after three sets.
The player can also play levels they have unlocked in Career Mode in Single Session, where the object is to simply to get as high of a score as possible in two minutes, or Free Skate, where there is no time limit.
There are also three multiplayer modes playable between two people: Graffiti, Trick Attack, and Horse.
Key features[]
- Motion captured skateboarding tricks
- Ability to perform flip, grab and grind tricks
- Signature moves known later as special tricks
- BTT - "blue text transfers" known later as gaps
- Career mode
- Vehicles
- Deck graphics customization
- Wheel color customization
- Run highlights
- Cheat Codes
Available Characters[]
- Tony Hawk
- Bob Burnquist
- Kareem Campbell
- Rune Glifberg
- Bucky Lasek
- Chad Muska
- Andrew Reynolds
- Geoff Rowley
- Elissa Steamer
- Jamie Thomas
Secret skaters
- Officer Dick (unlockable)
- Private Carrera (only unlockable using a cheat code)
Levels[]
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater has a total of nine levels in the console versions, where the Game Boy Color version has only six. All of the known locations are in various places across the United States.
| Level | Image | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Warehouse* | Woodland Hills, CA | |
| School* | Miami, FL | |
| Mall* | New York City, NY | |
| Skate Park | Chicago, IL | |
| Downtown | Minneapolis, MN | |
| Downhill Jam | Phoenix, AZ | |
| Burnside | Portland, OR | |
| Streets | San Francisco, CA | |
| Roswell* | Roswell, NM | |
| Harbor* | Unknown |
Ports[]
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater originally came out on the PlayStation, which was ported to the Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast. Versions for the Game Boy Color, N-GAGE and Mobile were also released, sporting different gameplay.
Nintendo 64[]
The Nintendo 64 version is a more-or-less direct port of the original game, except with several changes to fit the cartridge space due to hardware limitations and to comply with Nintendo of America's policies at the time.
The intro is completely different, showing gameplay footage of the skaters than live-action recordings, while the unlockable videos are not available at all. Most of the soundtrack is not present, where the songs are shortened, removed or replaced with instrumental versions. The sound is also at a much lower bitrate compared to other platforms, and the unique sounds for each Skater were also removed.
Semi-notoriously, some changes were made to fit an E for Everyone rating, compared to T on other platforms. Some of the Tricks and Gaps were renamed, and the blood was completely removed. Private Carrera's biography was altered, and most of her Boards were renamed to tone down the suggestiveness, despite her appearance not receiving any changes.
Dreamcast[]
The Dreamcast version was the first Pro Skater port developed by Treyarch, and the only to be playable on a sixth-generation console without backwards compatibility on other platforms.
This version includes retextured levels, higher-detailed models, interpolated trick animations, higher-quality audio and various improved visual effects. Notably, some of the Levels were visually altered to include the Treyarch logo.
Game Boy Color[]
The Game Boy Color version, being not a port of the original game but an adaptation of its elements, has different and more limited gameplay from the other versions. Only nine tricks are possible, with all of the grinds removed and the ability to rotate only for Ollie. This is down from an average of twenty-five tricks per skater in the main games.
There are three gameplay modes. In "Half Pipe Mode", the goal is to get as many points as possible in one minute by performing tricks on one of three half pipes. In "Tournament Mode", the player races against three computer skaters through five stages, attempting to rank the highest in each race. "Versus Mode" is the same as "Tournament Mode", players get to charge people by paying them money; except the player only races against one other skater (human or computer) and only through one stage.
N-Gage[]
The N-Gage version was developed by Ideaworks3D and released on October 13, 2003, a week following the launch of the N-Gage. While it lacked full motion video (and even the character roster like in the N64 release which replaced the FMV intro due to storage limitations), the port–which is based on the original PlayStation release retains most of the characters, levels, control scheme and original music.
Three of the ten songs were removed presumably either due to storage or licensing issues: "Here and Now", "New Girl" and "Superman". The game also includes four bonus levels ported from Pro Skater 2 such as Hangar, NYC, Philadelphia and Venice Beach, and updates the skaters' listed ages to account for the port's release date. The game's multiplayer functions via the N-Gage's Bluetooth feature.
Mobile[]
In 2005, the game was also ported to BREW-capable mobile phones by Ideaworks3D as Pro Skater 3D and released on Verizon's VCAST service. Little is otherwise known about this version apart from being a port of the N-Gage version.[1]
Remakes[]
- Main article: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2X
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2X is a remaster of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, which contains all of the levels from this game, as well as the complete career mode.
- Main article: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD is a remake of the first game by Robomodo in Unreal Engine 3, featuring a selection of Levels from the game and other entries. Notable for adding new goals in the career mode to match up with 10 goals of the THPS2.
- Main article: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 is another remake, this time featuring all of the levels from this game and its sequel.
Soundtrack[]
- Main article: [[Tony Hawk's Pro Skater/Soundtrack]]
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater contains 10 licensed songs that play through the Levels in the game, comprised of underground punk rock and ska genres. The soundtrack can vary depending on the version of the game.
Development[]
In 1999, Activision signed professional skateboarder Tony Hawk to star in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Mitch Lasky, senior vice president of Activision, stated in an interview with GameSpot that the character was meant "to reflect Tony's signature style – an intense mix of acrobatics and hard-core technical skating".
Hawk himself was involved in the development of the game and his in-game persona, remarking that "[he had] always wanted to help create a video game that represented the reality and excitement of professional skateboarding". Hawk, along with other skaters featured in the game, was motion captured for the game, and voiced his character.
Reception[]
The game was generally well-received by most critics, scoring a 92 on Metacritic based on 18 reviews for the PlayStation version. IGN gave the PlayStation an outstanding rating (9.4 out of 10) again praising the gameplay and the graphics stating it is "simple but amazing in terms of animations, physics, and size of levels".
IGN gave the Nintendo 64 version of the game an outstanding 9.1 out of 10, slightly lower than the PlayStation version's score, praising the gameplay for "genius control, combo system and design" despite little criticism with sound stating "the punk tracks are dumbed down and looped".
External links[]
- THPS at Neversoft.com (archived)
- THPS Flash site (archived)
- The earliest THPS gameplay trailer
- THPS E3 1999 gameplay extended trailer
- THPS N64 TV Spot #1
- THPS N64 TV Spot #2
- THPS N64 Promo
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
Videos[]
| Tony Hawk's Pro Skater levels |
|---|
| Warehouse • School • Mall • Chicago • Downtown • Downhill Jam • Burnside • Streets • Roswell |
| Tony Hawk's Game Series | |
|---|---|
| Pro Skater series | Tony Hawk's Pro Skater • Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 • Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 • Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 • Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 |
| Story-based games | Tony Hawk's Underground • Tony Hawk's Underground 2 • Tony Hawk's American Wasteland • Tony Hawk's Project 8 • Tony Hawk's Proving Ground |
| Remasters and Remakes | Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2X • Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix • Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD • Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 • Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 |
| Spin-offs | Tony Hawk's American Sk8land • Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam • Tony Hawk's Motion • Tony Hawk: Ride • Tony Hawk's Shred Session |