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Tony Hawk Pro Skater
SeaQuints' First Serious Article!
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. The most realistic and advanced extreme sport game ever. The demo version of this game, which was included on the Summer 1999 Jam Pack took the world by storm. Hundreds of skaters and non-skaters alike sat and stared in front of their screens for hours and hours... for days at a time! For the first time, someone had put out a skating game that was completely non-linear. You weren't going down hill. For the first time, you weren't racing. For the first time, somebody realized that "extreme" people do not skate/snowboard downhill and punch each other. That somebody was Neversoft and Tony Hawk.
The Demo had only one level, which closely resembled a skatepark. But even though it only had one level, you could go anywhere you wanted, and could do whatever you wanted. If you wanted to try jumping off the side of the half pipe and land a grind somewhere else, you could. If you wanted to try jumping OVER THE ENTIRE HALF PIPE, you could! That was the whole appeal of the game! Well, for the past week, SeaQuints Online somehow got its grubby little hands on an advanced copy of the final version of the game. Now, if you have played the demo, and want to save the full glory of this game for yourself, then be cautious as you read ahead, because I will be spilling a lot (and I mean a lot) of secrets!! There are many improvements over the demo. The first you will notice is that Neversoft has really stepped up the amount of detail in the game. In the movements of the skaters, in the courses, in the backgrounds, details are everywhere. Oh, that and Jerry Was A Racecar Driver is not the only song in the game. So first, I guess I will talk about the overall game. Overview of the GameBasically, you pick a skater. There are a lot more than Bob and Tony this time. But I don't remember all of them, but don't worry they are all cool. They have made it so that some of the skaters are more "street" oriented and some more "vert" oriented. What this means is that the street guys do a "sex change" instead of the varial, and some other minor changes. Also, each character (except for Tony) has 3 special moves that are more or less their own. If your character is a street character, these moves will tend to be big grinds, while if you are a vert character, they will tend to big airs. At first you can only skate in Woodland Hills. This level is like a warehouse. It is small and not that difficult. In order to progress to the next level, you need to collect "tapes". Each level has a total of five possible tapes. You gain tapes by jumping through hoops, so to speak. Two tapes will be awarded when you get a certain score (for example, you'll get one if you hit 15,000 points and another one if you hit 30,000). There are floating letters in the game, and if you can spell "SKATE" then you will get another tape. Every level has a "hidden tape" hidden somewhere, usually in a place where you have to hit an astronomically high air from an obscure platform in order to get. And finally, each level has it's own related task, for example, knocking down five "no skateboarding" signs. In addition to these "street" skating levels, there are three competitions. It is relatively easy to progress from one level to the next, as you do not need to collect all of the tapes to get to the next level. That way, you don't have to get bored or frustrated with being stuck on the next level. It is also more addicting this way, as you are constantly seeing new levels to go to. 
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