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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

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This article is about the original 1999 game. For the 2012 remake, see Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD. For the series, see Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (series).
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
North American PlayStation cover art
Developer(s)Neversoft[a] developed the N-Gage version.
Publisher(s)Activision[b]
Designer(s)Aaron Cammarata (PlayStation)
Chris Rausch (PlayStation)
Manabu Hatata (Game Boy Color)
Adrian Sack (N-Gage)
SeriesTony Hawk's
Platform(s)PlayStation
Nintendo 64
Game Boy Color
Dreamcast
N-Gage
Xbox
ReleasePlayStation
Nintendo 64
Game Boy Color
Dreamcast
Xbox (Pro Skater 2x)
N-Gage
Genre(s)Extreme sports
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, released as Tony Hawk's Skateboarding in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Europe, is a skateboarding video game developed by Neversoft. Published by Activision in 1999, it is the first entry in the Tony Hawk's series of video games. Development began after Tony Hawk's debut stint at the 1998 X-Games.

Pro Skater was originally released for the PlayStation on August 31, 1999, and was later ported to the Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, and N-Gage. It also received a Game Boy Color adaptation, and was released for Xbox in 2001 as part of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x collection. The game was met with critical acclaim from critics, who praised it for its innovative gameplay, level designs and control scheme. It was also commercially successful, selling rapidly upon its opening month. The game resulted in a successful franchise that has continued to be active, with the tenth installment and latest release, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 released in October 2015.

Gameplay

The player, as Tony Hawk, has just completed the Collect "SKATE" Goal. Screenshot was from the Dreamcast console.

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 number 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" 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.

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 required 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 AI 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".

Game Boy Color version

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater on 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. It consists of 2 gameplay types: an overhead "race" mode (which wasn't present in the console versions) and a high score half pipe mode (more similar to the console version) Only a few tricks are possible (in race mode they are just static images of tricks, while in half pipe mode they are animated sprites), with most of the grinds removed in race modes (but all are removed in halfpipe mode) and the ability to rotate only for ollies is removed in race mode, but present in half pipe mode. This is down from an average of twenty-five tricks per skater in the main games.

There are four 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 from a 2D side perspective. In "Tournament Mode", the player races against three computer skaters in an overhead view through five stages, attempting to rank the highest in each race. "Versus Mode" and "Rival Mode" are same as "Tournament Mode", except the player only races against one other skater (human in versus mode or computer in rival mode) and only through one stage.

Development

Tony Hawk, the game's namesake, in 2006

In 1999, Activision signed real life 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".[1] Hawk, along with other skaters featured in the game, was animated for the game[2] and voiced his character.[3] As of 2015, numerous betas of this game have surfaced.

Reception

The game was critically acclaimed. IGN gave the N64 version of the game a 9.1 out of 10 praising the gameplay for "genius control, combo system and design" despite little criticism with sound stating "the punk tracks are dumbed down and looped".[10] It also gave the PlayStation version 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".[11]

Soundtrack

The following is the complete soundtrack listing from the original American PlayStation version.[12][13][14] Other versions may vary. The soundtrack has been noted as an influence on millennials.[15][16]

No.TitleArtistLength
1."Police Truck"Dead Kennedys 
2."Here and Now"The Ernies 
3."Vilified"Even Rude 
4."Superman"Goldfinger 
5."Jerry Was a Race Car Driver"Primus 
6."Screamer / Nothing to Me"Speedealer 
7."Cyco Vision"Suicidal Tendencies 
8."New Girl"The Suicide Machines 
9."Committed"Unsane 
10."Euro-Barge"The Vandals 
Songs included on the European release[citation needed]
No.TitleArtistLength
11."Ain't Got Time to Waste[citation needed]"Aim featuring YZ 
12."Le Hot[citation needed]"Grand Unified 
13."Blue Thunder[citation needed]"Aquasky 

Notes

  1. ^ Edge of Reality developed the Nintendo 64 version, Natsume developed the Game Boy Color version, Treyarch developed the Dreamcast and Xbox version, and IdeaWorks3D
  2. ^ Crave Entertainment published the Dreamcast version and Nokia published the N-Gage version.

References

  1. ^ Mullen, Michael (January 14, 1999). "Tony Hawk Takes Air". GameSpot. Retrieved April 17, 2010.
  2. ^ Fielder, Lauren (August 26, 1999). "Female Skater Joins Tony Hawk". GameSpot. Retrieved April 17, 2010.
  3. ^ "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater — Credits — allgame". Allgame. Retrieved April 18, 2010.
  4. ^ Melville, Bryan. "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater - Review". Allgame. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
  5. ^ McCall, Scott. "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater - Review". Allgame. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
  6. ^ Zeigler, Adam. "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater - Review". Allgame. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
  7. ^ Gertsmann, Jeff. "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Review". GameSpot. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
  8. ^ Zeigler, Adam. "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater - Review". GameSpot. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
  9. ^ Gertsmann, Jeff. "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Review". GameSpot. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
  10. ^ IGN Reviews Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (N64 version)
  11. ^ IGN Reviews Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (PS1 version)
  12. ^ "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Preview". PSX Extreme. September 1, 1999. Archived from the original on 2004-06-22. Retrieved December 11, 2011.
  13. ^ "THPS Soundtrack Info". Planet Tony Hawk. IGN. Retrieved December 11, 2011.
  14. ^ "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater". IGN. September 1, 1999. Retrieved December 11, 2011.
  15. ^ Welsh, April Clare (1 October 2015). "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater – 10 Timeless Pop-Punk And Rock Songs From Its Soundtracks". NME. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  16. ^ Barnes, Tom (December 16, 2014). "The 'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater' Soundtrack Had an Unexpected Effect on How We Listen to Music". Mic. Retrieved January 30, 2016.
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