October 29, 2002 - For the first time in the Game Boy Advance's life, the system has caught up with the rest of the consoles when it comes to the release Activision's Tony Hawk series. The previous incarnations on the GBA shipped a few months after the hype of the console editions ran down, but for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, the handheld finally gets its version along with the rest of the gaming crowd. For the sequel, Activision again went with developer Vicarious Visions to mimic the gaming experience of the newest version of the extreme sports series...and again, this is a game that can't be missed on the Game Boy Advance. The design isn't revolutionary by any means, and folks who have already played one or both of the previous games on the handheld system will probably take the impressive technical merits for granted. But the evolution of the console series migrates to the version on the GBA, and the additional gameplay elements, moves, and improved level structure opens up the Tony Hawk series further than it's ever gone.

Features

• Six skate parks
• 14 professionals
• Create a skater
• Link cable support for four players (multiple cartridge)
• Cartridge Save
• Only for Game Boy Advance

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 more enhances the established design than rewrites the book. Like in the previous versions of the franchise, the challenge is to get through the games different skateparks by collecting items and performing set tasks within the set amount of time. When the quota of tasks and items has been met, you can move onto the next challenging area.

The Game Boy Advance version of Tony Hawk 4 builds as much upon the previous version of the series on the GBA about as much as the console versions do to those editions. Just as the console versions remove the limiting level structure, so does the GBA game...instead of running through the park, trying to complete as many tasks in two minutes, Tony Hawk 4 removes the clock from standard play. Now players can skate around freely as long as they want, exploring every nook and cranny of the parks before they decide to start knocking down the levels' quotas. The challenges are spread out all throughout the parks, and players begin each task by skating up to wandering pedestrians and hitting L...and only that will start the clock ticking. Most of the game's pedestrians have about three or four different tasks for players to complete, so the checklist in each level is pretty extensive.

Tony Hawk 4 also adds a couple of handy moves to the list: Spine Transfers will let players move between vert ramps that are built against each other, and Grind Transfers give players the ability to change up their grind during a grind. Players can also perform a handy bail move if they find themselves flying off a vert ramp at a bad angle, letting them tip themselves so that their sturdy wheels will hit the ground instead of their fragile bodies. This is a move that should have been in the series since the first game...but we're certainly grateful that we can recover off a badly positioned vertical jump.

Most of the quotas in Tony Hawk 4 are the same ideas from previous versions of the Tony Hawk series: grab the letters in the word "skate," perform a specific move on a specific object, pick up random tokens scattered throughout the area, or simply reach a high score within a set amount of time. But there are new ideas, some of which are deviously challenging: players must collect letters in the word "combo," but only by collecting them while pulling off a string of moves. There's also a nifty challenge where players will have to perform specific moves as the names of the moves stack up in the corner of the screen...if they stay on-screen too long, they'll disappear without giving the credit needed to complete the task. After completing enough of the tasks on each park's checklist, they'll be able to "buy" access to the next available area in the game.

The Game Boy Advance version of the game also has hidden packages to collect in each level, as well as dollar bills to grab in each area. These packages and money icons will give players the ability to unlock extras in the game, from additional skaters to outfits to boards to a hidden park, even letting players buy specific cheats that will help them accomplish 100% of all tasks list. Everything players have accomplished will be recorded to the cartridge's backup save...it even has a blanked-out list of all the secrets of the game that reveal the items as players uncover them.

This version features renditions of a majority of the console levels: Skate College, Alcatraz, Kona, Shipyard, Zoo, and London. Tony Hawk 4's level design have been cleaned up considerably from the last year's somewhat cluttered layouts, so the odd M.C. Escher effects from the game's isometric perspective is kept to a minimum. But it's not eliminated, as parks will still go behind massive foreground structures. Some levels, namely Alcatraz, have really awkward "teleport" areas that will take players to a hidden location by scrolling the map to the extra location.

The Tutorial Mode of the previous games has been replaced with Skate College, and many of the tasks in Skate College are made to teach players the basics of the game. And as clever as this mode is, there are a couple of issues...namely, how some challenges require you to pull off specific moves, without telling players how to pull off these moves. The "pivot" during a manual, for example, is a new element to the Tony Hawk design, yet when players are asked to pull off a Manual with a Pivot, they're never told what command actually pulls off this pivot move (answer: the R button).

Closing Comments
When all is said and done, Tony Hawk 4 isn't a huge step visually from the last version in the franchise...but the enhancements to the game design make this sequel a much more enjoyable extreme sports title. The additional challenges and the way they're presented really enhance an already excellent game series. The GBA version still has its quirks, and the "ooh neat" factor of getting the Tony Hawk experience on a handheld has definitely faded away, but Tony Hawk 4 is thorough design with a lot more challenging tasks than the previous games.

Rating	Description
out of 10	click here for ratings guide
9.0	Presentation As much as you can possibly sandwich the Tony Hawk 4 design in a cartridge, Vicarious Vision has done it. There are some quirks here and there in the mission objectives, but nothing overly annoying.
9.0	Graphics The Tony Hawk 3 engine gets a slight upgrade, but not much is visibly noticable. The levels are less cluttered this time around, which makes it a little easier to withstand the "Escher" effect.
7.0	Sound Okay, as good as the audio's quality is, the music's a little too hard-driving this year. Something more subtle is definitely in order if the game continues to number 5.
9.0	Gameplay The tried-and-true Tony Hawk gameplay is enhanced with a better way in handling mission objectives. The game feels more free since you can skate around without worrying about a ticking clock.
9.0	Lasting Appeal The game is much bigger and longer than Tony Hawk 3...there are tons more objectives in these huge levels, and four player link is back.
9.2 Outstanding	OVERALL (out of 10 / not an average)