Bruce Von Stiers

Not quite nine months ago I wrote a review on the third Tony Hawk skateboarder game. Now it’s time once again for Activision’s O2 division to release the new version of the game. And it is great. They have revamped several things in the game. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 is better than ever. I just got the PS2 version of the game yesterday. I could hardly get my son off of the game so I could check it out to write this review. So I asked him what the new things were that I might miss. Josh gave me a whole list of things that have changed from the previous version.

According to Josh, here is some of the major change in Tony Hawk 4. The levels are a lot bigger than in earlier versions of the game. There are also several new locations to choose from. The game now has a “two-tap” system where you hit the square or circle button twice to customize a trick. You can now do 24 grabs using this instead of just 12. And moving to a Flatland from a Manual is “now Huge” according to Josh.

The resident expert at age 14, Josh told me about a couple of other things that were improved with this new version of the game. There is a linking system where you can transfer from one grind to another by double tapping a button. You will also have to go around talking to people to find out what the current goals are. The money system is back and is used to unlock new clothing items, secret levels, videos and secret skaters.

All of the skaters from version 3 are back. Bob Burnquist even reappears, after having bowed out of version 3. Each skater has their own special set of tricks that can be performed to earn money.

What kind of surprised me was when I looked at the credits and found a couple of names in the Voice Over Actors listing that I didn’t expect to find. There was Sean Lesure, a veteran actor and commercial voice over artist. Then there was Larry Cedar, another actor, having been in such show as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. And Tara Strong, the voice of many an animated character supplied her voice.

For those of you who are going to be picking up a network adapter for your PS2 really soon, the network play options will be nice to have. It is setup with GameSpy and both host and join in a hosted game. Up to eight players can play at one time in a hosted game.

The levels are longer, the tricks are truly awesome and the intensity is even greater than the first three versions of the game. If you’re decent at playing the game like Josh is, then an Elissa Steamer trick will be easy to master. But if you’re like me, the more basic the trick the better.

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 is just now hitting the store shelves. Look for it at your favorite retailer. If you aren’t able to find a copy of the game, it can be ordered online from Activision. Their web site is www.activision.com.