Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4

aka: THPS4, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2003
Moby ID: 7580
PlayStation Specs
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Description official descriptions

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 is the fourth game in Activision's skateboarding franchise.

The main feature of this game is it's redesigned career mode. When beginning a level, you have all the time in the world to skate around, perform tricks, get a feel for the level, without the hassel of any goals or time limits. When you're ready to attempt a goal, simply find a pro skater, talk to him, then receive the goal, similar to Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX. Goals are similar to the previous games, such as collect SKATE, get a certain amount of points, transfer over this and grind that. There are new goals, however, such as collecting the word COMBO while doing one big combo. Miss a trick, and goal fails. Once all regular goals are accomplished, you can attempt the Pro Goal, which is specific to each skater, and is extremely hard.

All the major skaters are here, including Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist, Steve Caballero, Kareem Campbell, Rune Gilfberg, Eric Koston, Bucky Lasek, Bam Margera, Rodney Mullen, Chad Muska, Andrew Reynolds, Geoff Rowley, Elissa Steamer and Jamie Thomas.

The levels are been expanded and are huge. Some of the levels include a college campus, a shipyard, and the infamous prison complex Alcatraz.

For multiplayer, all the favorite modes are back, from Graffiti and Trick Attack to Horse and King Of The Hill. New modes include Capture The Flag and Combo Mambo. THPS4 also supports System Link play, but not XBox Live.

The PlayStation 2 version offers everything from the XBox version, but also has online play, utilizing either your own network adaptor or the official one. The PS2 version also features a one level demo of Shaun Murray's Pro Wakeboarder, which is not featured on any other version of the game.

Spellings

  • トニー・ホクスプロスケーター2003 - Japanese spelling
  • 托尼霍克职业滑板4 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (PlayStation version)

269 People (149 developers, 120 thanks) · View all

CEO / Chief Creative Officer
VP Product Development
Project Manager
Lead Desginer
Lead Programmer
Lead Artist
Art Director
Artists
Gappin' Monkey
Mockery and Support
Additional Design Support
Special Thanks
Associate Producer
Producer
Executive Producer
Music Supervision
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 87% (based on 73 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 97 ratings with 3 reviews)

Still a great game, but not as accessible as previous outings.

The Good
There's a lot to like about the Birdman's fourth game. First, of all the time limits for each level have dissappeared. Instead, you can take as long as you like to wander around in the huge levels, and you don't have to re-load the whole level every time you want to try to complete a single goal. Second, the variety and creativity of the different goals is fantastic. They're not all just about collecting junk or getting crazy high scores. In fact, some of them don't even involve skating. Like all of the Tony Hawk games, there is a seriously huge amout of game play here. It would take a really long time to complete every goal and unlock everything.

The soundtrack is great too. Activision did their homework in the band selection. The tracks aren't just pulled from Top 40 radio stations. Instead, they simply sound like good skating music.

Basically, everything that was good about the previous games is still good here. The basic skating gameplay is still as good as it gets for a skating game.

The Bad
While you would think that removing the time limits would make the game easier, Neversoft has, in my opinion, overcompensated for this by making some of the goals nearly impossible. It took me many, many tries to complete some of the goals. It's fun for a while, but it gets old pretty quick when you're trying to pull the same stunt over and over again. I suppose if you're a hard core fan of the series, you expect a serious challenge from this 3rd sequel. But, the increased difficulty makes the game less accessible to the gamer who's only casually interested in the sport.

Graphically, Tony Hawk 4 has fallen a little behind the standard set by the previous games. Sure, the environments are bigger and somewhat more detailed, but they still look blank and sterile. I think better lighting would go a long way towards making the game look more realistic. The GameCube version seems to suffer from some frame rate problems when there are a lot of complex objects on the screen. I don't know if the other platforms have this issue, but it indicates a lack of polish on this version of the game. THPS 1 looked amazing for it's time, THPS4 looks merely average.

The Bottom Line
Activision and Neversoft have done an admirable job of providing something new and worthwhile for Tony Hawk fans year after year. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 is a good game for most players, and a great game for fans of the series.

GameCube · by quizzley7 (21493) · 2003

Best THPS yet!

The Good
The graphics were crisp and clear made a great from the start. The different selection of music and the sound was on target. But, probably the best thing is the ability to grind cars!

The Bad
The only thing I could find wrong is the challenges were too hard.

The Bottom Line
Tony Hawk is the man and so are his games so get out there and buy it.

GameCube · by Exodia85 (2145) · 2003

Is it good?.......Yes it is.

The Good
Here it is, freshly cracked out of the box. THPS4. Im holding it in my hands right now as I type this. I've played it a few times so far, and that is enough for my review.

The graphics are amazing. It's so smooth, there's no curvy lines that ruin most of my XBOX ventures. I loved the falling animations, and all the characters look so cool. The area's are so great, and they look so detailed and texture-rich. It's an overload of awesome graphics. GFX-5 / 5

Gameplay was great, as pulling off stunts and all that is easy, but not too ease. All the popular grinds and tricks are back, as well as some new tricks and stunts. GMPLY-5 / 5

The Bad
The sound is okay, but not the greatest. I didn't focus on the music, because I hate all THPS music, but it is still good to hear. I turned off the sound because of the annoying music, but the sound was okay. SND-2 / 5

The Bottom Line
Overall, the game is great, but the sound brings it down to my rating of (((( 4 / 5 ))))

Xbox · by ThE oNe (180) · 2002

Trivia

BMX rider

The BMX rider featured in the Steve Caballero movie, is pro Bmx'er Rick Thorne, who is also featured in the Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX series.

Gags

For a bit of a laugh, go to the Carnival level and find the basketball booth in front of the clown and sneak round the back to see a carnie in a compromising situation with a goat!

References

Much like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, in which the well known Star Wars character Darth Maul made an appearance, Jango Fett makes a secret guest appearance for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, with a range of moves that use his jetpack and blasters.

Soundtrack

The full song list: * AC/DC - "TNT" * Aesop Rock - "Labor" * Agent Orange - "Bloodstains" * Avail - "Simple Song" * Bouncing Souls - "Manthem" * Delinquent Habits - "House of the Rising Drum" * De La Soul - "Oodles of O's" * Eyedea & Abilities - "Big Shots" * Flogging Molly - "Drunken Lullabies" * Gangstarr - "Mass Appeal" * Goldfinger - "Spokesman" * Haiku D'Etat - "Non Compos Mentis" * Hot Water Music - "Freightliner" * Iron Maiden - "The Number of the Beast" * Jai Plus - "Bad Dreams" * JFA - "Beach Blanket Bongout" * Less Than Jake - "All My Best Friends Are Metalheads" * Lootpack - "Whenimondamic" * Muskabeatz - "Bodyrock" (featuring Biz Markie) * Muskabeatz - "I'm a Star" (featuring Grandmaster Melle Mel) * Muskabeatz - "Versus of Doom" (featuring Jeru the Damaja) * Nebula - "Giant" * N.W.A. - "Express Yourself" * Public Enemy - "By the Time I Get to Arizona" * Rocket from the Crypt - "Savoir Faire" * Run-DMC - "My Adidas" * Sex Pistols - "Anarchy in the UK" * System of a Down - "Shimmy" * The Cult - "Bad Fun" * The Distillers - "Seneca Falls" * The Faction - "Skate and Destroy" * The Offspring - "Blackball" * Toy Dolls - "Dig That Groove Baby" * US Bombs - "Yer Country" * Zeke - "Death Alley"

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2002– Best GameCube Sports Game of the Year
    • 2002 – Best GameCube Sports Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
    • 2002 – Best Xbox Sports Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
    • 2002 – #4 Best Xbox Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
    • 2002 – #5 Best GameCube Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
    • 2002 – #8 Best PS2 Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
  • GameSpy
    • 2002 – PS2 Game of the Year
    • 2002 – Best PS2 Sports Game of the Year
    • 2002 – Best Xbox Sports Game of the Year
    • 2002 – Best GameCube Sports Game of the Year

Information also contributed by Black Jack, Rupert Breheny and STU2

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  • MobyGames ID: 7580
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by JPaterson.

GameCube, PlayStation, Macintosh, Windows added by Corn Popper.

Additional contributors: Kartanym, Unicorn Lynx, Corn Popper, tarmo888, Zeppin, DreinIX, Zaibatsu, Patrick Bregger, Infernos.

Game added October 24, 2002. Last modified March 11, 2024.