Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

Still fun, but THPS2 holds up better.

My first Exposure to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was via a demo I played of it off of the Summer 1999 Playstation Underground Jampack. It was that very summer that I watched Tony Hawk do the 900 for the first time at the X-Games. It's not that I was that much of a skating fan, but it was the most interesting thing on TV at the time. I didn't even know who Tony Hawk was until that summer, but that didn't keep me from logging on quite a bit of time on that simple demo.

So this is the part where I ran out and got the game instantly right? Well no. Though I enjoyed the demo, I still didn't get the game until a few years later on the Dreamcast when it hit the Sega All Stars price ($20). It's not that I didn't want the game, I just had other gaming priorities at the time.

Tony Hawk brought the extreme sports genre into the mainstream. Where games like Street Sk8ter failed to bring the genre into the mainstream limelight, THPS was the right game at the right time. At the time that THPS hit, skateboarding was becoming massively popular (well popular again, it had apparently almost died out for a while). Like video games, skateboarding was hitting it big in the mainstream, and Tony Hawk, who had always been a big name in skateboarding, had just made a huge splash by landing the 900 at the X Games. It just seemed like this game hit at the right time for gaming and skateboarding alike.

THPS isn't a skating sim. It takes a more arcadey, more playable, approach to skating, but for a non skating noob like me, that was perfectly fine, and from the huge waves that this game spawned in gaming, I'd say I'm not alone in that view. The game might be an arcadey experience, but that just means that it's easy to pickup and play without even knowing a thing about real skating. Even people who hated skateboarding loved this game, and fans of skating would have an extra treat of having nine other pro skaters besides Tony Hawk to choose from including the likes of Rune Glifberg, Bucky Lasek, and Bob Burnquist.

The game was simple. Players had two minutes to collect tapes (as in VHS tapes if that doesn't date this game for ya) by completing mission objectives while busting sick moves in a multitude of levels. the more tapes you collected, the more levels you unlocked. Occasionally you'd be thrown into a competition where you'd get three runs to bust out with some sick tricks to impress virtual judges. Also, the more tricks you completed in game, the closer you came to filling up your trick meter. Once the meter was filled, you'd then be able to do your character's special. Sometimes the objectives were a little stupid, but the game was such a blast, that stupid objectives didn't really hurt the overall experience like it has in the series since due to the rampant sequeling.

If the game has any flaws, it's due to it's age, and the series progression over any playability issues. You see, despite being a still very playable game, the original THPS has one omission that make it tread into a play for nostalgia only territory, and that's the fact that THPS doesn't have the manuel. The manuel was introduced in THPS 2 (as well as the create a park mode which was "borrowed" from Street Sk8ter 2), and made it possible to link huge combos together for massive points. The original doesn't have the manual, and for that reason isn't as friendly for fans to go back and play. This means that only the nostalgic gamers will even bother with this game. Fans who have become accustomed to the series over the years however, won't be as pleased with it.

Bottom Line: Though it still plays perfectly well, it's lack of the manual maneuver really hurts THPS' replay value for anyone looking for more than nostalgia. THPS 2 is the better choice for those interested in going back in the series.