Number 43: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, Neversoft 2002 (PS2)
Intro:
Rock and roll over clips of the cast's real-life selves doing tricks, reminiscent of a typical skateboarder video crammed into a long, long intro movie. It does establish, just in case a player can't read the title, that the game is all about skateboarding.
Getting Going:
The game is pretty cruel to new players, as the objectives demand a lot of careful timing and create a pretty steep learning curve. Many of the missions do, however, tell you how to do the tricks necessary to complete them, though the hazy physics add to the difficulty (to the novice's expense, but the experienced player's benefit).
Fun:
Once the controls are together, completing tasks and racking up points for tricks is sorta fun. The tasks given by the computer are all timed chores the player must complete in order to unlock new areas, get money, and get points to add to the cast's various skills, but they are either highly demanding for skilled players or painfully menial for newer ones. Getting to bash around with familiar faces is a good time, though the unrealistic tricks, demanding time commitment, and iffy physics don't make me want to skateboard (like Winning Eleven makes me want to play soccer). Creating a new skater (inevitably some representation of the player's self) is neat, though the customization options seem a bit thin. The real fun comes out of memorizing the best routes and spots and busting out insane tricks and combinations, but this only comes to players patient enough to really learn the game inside and out.
Visuals:
The surroundings are very simply lit and the textures are repetitive to the point where I won't be able to recognize which end of the level I'm on because they look almost exactly the same. Characters aren't about to win a beauty pagaent, but motion is well captured and the real skaters are recognizable. The tried-and-true HUD is still kicking around, and menus are simple lists whose options are highlighted with scribbly, jittery lines.
Intelligence:
There is no AI: anything that happens is scripted.
Immersion:
The unrealistic and slightly bland environments don't help much, nor do the repeditive tasks. The soundtrack is alright, though, and what keeps a player interested is their personal developement: players quickly learn the basics, and improvement is just a matter of playing more, and more, and more. Secrets and unlockables also keep the player in the ring, though all of this demands a certain degree of dedication.
Cameras:
The third-person camera is alright, though I wish it was panned back a little more so I could take a better look at what was around me. Also, certain situations cause the camera to pull away while everything happened in slow motion, which jeopardizes any plans to execute a complex trick in the mean time.
Controls:
The controls haven't changed throughout the series, but the action buttons themselves have no fault. The control issue in this game is the physics and collion detection, as well as the occasionally mystifying rail-balance meter. Much of the time, I found myself falling over at odd times and continuing to ride when I was certain I was to become a hamburger.
Ideas:
The missions confered within the level are a nice touch over the old time-limits, which allow players to experiment freely before conquering the chores characters dole out. Allowing players to scream through these highly unrealistic locations and scenarios is all in good fun, but little has really been changed in this installment, making it seem more like a highly refined facelift.
Memory:
While this title lives up to it predecessors and gives the player a lot more freedom, this isn't a terribly impressive game when compared to its counterparts. Players who already love the series will sing, while casual players will cry "why, oh why, oh where is the hype coming from?". The good soundtrack does stand out, though, over the samey gameplay and par graphics.
Rock and roll over clips of the cast's real-life selves doing tricks, reminiscent of a typical skateboarder video crammed into a long, long intro movie. It does establish, just in case a player can't read the title, that the game is all about skateboarding.
Getting Going:
The game is pretty cruel to new players, as the objectives demand a lot of careful timing and create a pretty steep learning curve. Many of the missions do, however, tell you how to do the tricks necessary to complete them, though the hazy physics add to the difficulty (to the novice's expense, but the experienced player's benefit).
Fun:
Once the controls are together, completing tasks and racking up points for tricks is sorta fun. The tasks given by the computer are all timed chores the player must complete in order to unlock new areas, get money, and get points to add to the cast's various skills, but they are either highly demanding for skilled players or painfully menial for newer ones. Getting to bash around with familiar faces is a good time, though the unrealistic tricks, demanding time commitment, and iffy physics don't make me want to skateboard (like Winning Eleven makes me want to play soccer). Creating a new skater (inevitably some representation of the player's self) is neat, though the customization options seem a bit thin. The real fun comes out of memorizing the best routes and spots and busting out insane tricks and combinations, but this only comes to players patient enough to really learn the game inside and out.
Visuals:
The surroundings are very simply lit and the textures are repetitive to the point where I won't be able to recognize which end of the level I'm on because they look almost exactly the same. Characters aren't about to win a beauty pagaent, but motion is well captured and the real skaters are recognizable. The tried-and-true HUD is still kicking around, and menus are simple lists whose options are highlighted with scribbly, jittery lines.
Intelligence:
There is no AI: anything that happens is scripted.
Immersion:
The unrealistic and slightly bland environments don't help much, nor do the repeditive tasks. The soundtrack is alright, though, and what keeps a player interested is their personal developement: players quickly learn the basics, and improvement is just a matter of playing more, and more, and more. Secrets and unlockables also keep the player in the ring, though all of this demands a certain degree of dedication.
Cameras:
The third-person camera is alright, though I wish it was panned back a little more so I could take a better look at what was around me. Also, certain situations cause the camera to pull away while everything happened in slow motion, which jeopardizes any plans to execute a complex trick in the mean time.
Controls:
The controls haven't changed throughout the series, but the action buttons themselves have no fault. The control issue in this game is the physics and collion detection, as well as the occasionally mystifying rail-balance meter. Much of the time, I found myself falling over at odd times and continuing to ride when I was certain I was to become a hamburger.
Ideas:
The missions confered within the level are a nice touch over the old time-limits, which allow players to experiment freely before conquering the chores characters dole out. Allowing players to scream through these highly unrealistic locations and scenarios is all in good fun, but little has really been changed in this installment, making it seem more like a highly refined facelift.
Memory:
While this title lives up to it predecessors and gives the player a lot more freedom, this isn't a terribly impressive game when compared to its counterparts. Players who already love the series will sing, while casual players will cry "why, oh why, oh where is the hype coming from?". The good soundtrack does stand out, though, over the samey gameplay and par graphics.