Pros: its tony hawk!, great tricks, graphic maps!
Cons: the learning curve is a little steep
The bottom line: I assure you, if you want entertainment along with a dash of difficulty and near limitless customization, get THPS4. You won't be disappointed.
I just can't get enough of Tony Hawk. This latest installment of the ground-breaking Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise just keeps on churning out satisfaction. There's no real way to go wrong by buying this title. But what's right about this title, you ask? I'm here to give you the straight up facts about THPS4 as to why it's THE game to buy on the market right now.

The first thing you'll notice when you pop the game in is, of course, the graphics. Yep, they're better than before. Each character model is more details, and the people who give you goals actually move their mouths! Provided, they don't move at the same time they're talking, but it's an improvement. If there weren't such outrageous special moves, I would actually believe that this was the real thing. And there are fewer glitches than before. Way back when in the days of THPS1 and 2, there were glitches galore. Now, the programmers have fixed all but a few of the graphical glitches. For example, at the Zoo level, I was skating up a quarter pipe on the snack bar, and I just floated along the side of the snack bar before crashing. Hey, nothing's perfect. What else to say about the graphics than...SWEET!

Hmmm...what next...how about the sound! There are your basic sounds, both ambient and not-so-ambient. There's a huge music list this time, probably at least twice the length of any previous THPS game. Although...most of the songs are rap/hip-hop. Blech. That's what I love about being able to turn off selected tracks from the playlist. Heh heh...anyway...there's the custom soundtrack feature as well, which is nice. But after a while, I just get tired of hearing the same songs over and over again, so I usually turn it off.

Control, same as before. If you don't know it, check out my review of THPS3 for XBox. I'll get to the new stuff in a minute, bear with me.

Okay, it's been a minute. Now, on to the good stuff...EVERYTHING ELSE! You've got your skaters that you choose from before you skate. Welcome back, Bob Burnquist! There are 13 or 14 skaters at your disposal, not including the nearly limitless Create-a-Skater options and the four hidden skaters. Each has their own specialty, but once you beef up their stats, everyone is a god in their own rights.

Lemme see...what now...new moves, I guess. Besides your basic ollie, grind, manual, revert, etc., there is one new move you must learn to get anywhere in THPS4: the Spine Transfer. By hitting both shoulder buttons at the same time while flying out of a quarter pipe and into another, you will do a cool move called a spine transfer. It's like a revert, except you go from one quarter pipe to another, and you get points for it so you can continue your massive scoring combos.

Now, on to gameplay. Like the last installment of the THPS franchise, this one has you running around completing goals for cash. But unlike the last ones, you can go around and pick which goal you want to accomplish. Then, you have time limits in which you must finish these goals. But at least there isn't the pressure to finish each goal within 2 minutes, mainly because the stages are HUGE!

I didn't mention the stages yet. There are...let me count...College, San Francisco, Alcatraz, Kona, Shipyard, London, Zoo, Carnival, and Chicago...9 stages. Each is unlocked by finishing a certain amount of goals, except for the last two, which you have to buy.

Back to the game. There are tons of goals to finish (about 190 or so in total), so this game will take you a LONG time. I've had it for a month or so and I've only finished about 120 of them. There are your basic scoring goals (score this much in this amount of time), collect letters like SKATE and COMBO (you have to collect COMBO in a combo, not as easy as it sounds), street and vert competitions, stage specific goals, and much more. Once you complete 100 or these goals, you unlock the Pro Challenges. These are difficult goals that give you a lot of time to complete, mainly because they are so tough. For example, Tony Hawk's Pro Challenge has him soaring between two vert ramps that are separated...and on top of a three story building. You must hit tricks in the gap between the two ramps. Sounds easy, until the ramps start moving apart! It's tough, but very fun.

Once you finish one Pro Challenge, you unlock the really tough level goals, like scoring 1,500,000 points in 2 minutes and such. Very, VERY difficult.

You may be scared of this game because I've said it's so difficult, but don't be. This is one of the most entertaining games I've ever purchased. It's replay value is off the charts, so even if you're frustrated, you'll come crawling back for more, because you want to finish that last goal and see what happens.