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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4

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“Drop in to the ultimate challenge.”
—Game slogan

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, (called Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2003 in Japan, and commonly abbreviated to THPS4) is a skateboarding video game, originally developed by Neversoft and published by Activision (Capcom in Japan). It is the fourth game in Tony Hawk's series, and the last Pro Skater entry until Pro Skater 5 in 2015.

It was released on the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube on October 23, 2002, and was later ported to Mac on August 20, 2003 and Windows on August 27, 2003. A version was released for the Game Boy Advance on October 28, 2002 and for Tapwave Zodiac phones on June 22, 2004. It is the last Tony Hawk game to be developed for fifth-generation consoles, in this case, the PlayStation.

This game and its predecessor are set to get remakes as part of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 due for release in July 2025.

Gameplay[]

The game 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, and the goals are given by characters found throughout the levels when the player talks to them. Most of them do have a set amount of time to be completed, but this time varies from goal to goal (plus, letting time run out does not end your run; the player just needs to talk to the NPC to try again). This Career mode would be later seen as the Story modes of Tony Hawk's Underground series, American Wasteland, Tony Hawk's Project 8 and Proving Ground.

Even though there is no plot in THPS4, levels are certainly placed in a specific order. The game begins in College, which is located in California. San Francisco is in California as well. Alcatraz is located in the San Francisco Bay. Next, we swing by the skatepark, Kona at The Sunshine State, which is Florida, ship over the Atlantic ocean, arrive at the Shipyard, move to London and visit the London Zoo. There is no evidence if this is intended or just a coincidence.

New mechanics and features[]

New career mode[]

THPS4 is a milestone in the series since Neversoft refused to reuse the classic "2 minute run" system. Now players were allowed to skate around freely and choose any goal they want to complete.

Money system[]

Money system has returned in THPS4. Cash icons are located all over the levels. Unlike THPS2, it is allowed to spend cash on clothes, cheats and videos, but stats and tricks are awarded by goals here.

Network play[]

THPS4 introduced new online game modes:

However, it got rid of Control Zone and Keep Away game modes from THPS3.

Pro Trick Objects[]

Unique in THPS4 - each map provides up to seven skate objects that can be toggled by player. Usually it's a kicker or a quarter-pipe, but some maps provide more complex constructions.

Animals[]

THPS4 was the first game in series to feature mammal animals. While most of them act as pedestrians, some of them may implement vehicle features. For example hippo will cause Hippo Plant, Lion will "eat" skater and Elephant can be skitched.

Double-tap flips/grabs[]

Known in THPS3 as hidden combos, it was refined and extended, adding double-tap variation for almost each trick in the game.

Skitching[]

The skater can grab onto the rear bumper of a vehicle (much like Marty McFly in Back to the Future), moving to either end of the bumper to avoid obstacles. Skitching is used for speed boost.

Level Out[]

This feature allows skaters to "level out" aka orient themself horizontally in the air to prevent bailing. If there is a quarter-pipe on the other side, then a Spine Transfer is performed.

Spine transfer[]

Allows the skater to move from a one-quarter pipe to another as long as they were back-to-back. This also applies to lip tricks: now skaters will land on the other side of quarter-pipe if balance went off the meter.

Manual/lip/grind extensions[]

While is was partially implemented in THPS3, it was refined in THPS4, adding more tricks and functionality.

Wallplant (later as Wallieplant)[]

This trick extends Wallie and was introduced by the analogy with No Comply - Boneless. Wallplant allows to reach higher areas jumping off the Wallride. THPS4 Wallplant was later renamed to Wallieplant and Wallplant name was given to another trick, which may be confusing.

Powerslide[]

This move allows skaters to invert his direction on flat very fast. It looks like a revert, no any special messages are shown. R2+L2+Down combination was chosen, but it was conflicting with switch stance move, so it was changed in THUG.

Dropdown[]

While grinding player was able to end the grind trick instantly by pressing R2 or L2. However this feature was only available on PS2. Other platforms will get dropdown only in THUG2.

Available Characters[]

Levels[]

The Carnival and Chicago levels are exclusive to the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox and Windows versions. The San Francisco level is absent from the Game Boy Advance version. The PlayStation 1 version does not feature the Zoo level, but features two extra levels:

Soundtrack[]

Main article: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4/Soundtrack

As in THPS3, players could remove any song from the list by using a special toggle menu. There are 37 songs on the complete list. The actual amount of songs in the game varies between platforms.

Reception[]

THPS4 received positive reviews gaining high scores. Currently the game is rated 8.2-8.4 by users and 85-94 by critics on Metacritic. Along with praising refined trick system and larger levels, critics only complained about same graphic levels, as they've seen in THPS3 (which is not completely true, as THPS4 introduced more advanced techniques, such as multipass rendering).

Trivia[]

  • Board and apparel brands previously missing in THPS3 (including Flip and Bootleg) make their return into the game.
  • If the player enters the cheat code watch_me_xplode all levels including the bonus levels can be unlocked without having to complete the game.
  • Jango Fett is the second Star Wars character to appear in the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series the first being Darth Maul who appears in THPS3.
  • It's the first game to feature a goat reference, appearing in the Carnival Level.
  • This is the first game in the series to feature Vans as an in-game sponsor.
  • There is an unused Fry Cook Bam character model found on the PlayStation 1 port of THPS4. It features 2 skins (red and blue pants) as well as a whole set of deck graphics. It is unknown why it was cut from the final release despite being featured in Game Boy Advance version.
    • Interestingly enough, there exists some specials that are not assigned to any character in the final game. These seem to be connected to Fry Cook, as the names seemingly involve food/cooking.
      • Food Poisoning (What happens if you prepare food incorrectly.)
      • Flip Yo Self (Possibly referencing how fry cooks flip food in their pans.)
      • Flapjack (A different way of saying pancakes.)

External links[]

Gallery[]


Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 levels
College • San Francisco • Alcatraz • Kona • Shipyard • London • Zoo • Carnival • Chicago • Sewers • Little Big World
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
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