THPS-taken a turn for the realistic worse.

Author's Rating:

Pros: Big levels, nice side quests love the music

Cons: add just a little bit of realism, please, for petes sake, just do it

The Bottom Line: 
It might be fun, but i was to angry with other things in the game to notice... play it and see-you might like it

Author's Review
On December 25, 2003 I received this game for my newly acquired Xbox. Knowing that the brand name TONY HAWK was synonymous with skateboarding, my parents thought I would love it. Being a skater, so did I. I’m afraid I was highly mistaken.

I usually love the skater genre of movies/games ex. grind, Dog town and the Z-boys, and I loved the Tony Hawk series up until my PS1 was outdated after the first one came out. Maybe that was because I thought cheats made the game fun and I liked watching my player skate around bowls for hours on end. As I opened my copy, my head was swirling with magical thoughts...will there be online play, am I going to see my favorite skaters- Mike Carroll, Chet Thomas, Brandon Biebel, And would there be customizable features you could purchase for your deck-better grip tape, bearings, new and different brands of trucks/wheels and the like. Starting to play I was pleased to see I could customize my character, give him the shoes I own, or even make your character a scantily clad chic. Then after I see the skate demo which is oddly enough held in a parking lot of suburban Philly. That’s about as realistic as it gets, folks. Chad Muska tosses my character a deck after "ripping it up". Whoa. That happens quite often. Especially with the new brand obsessed skate culture emerging after everybody wants to get SPONSORED instead of just skating. A pro could afford to give you a deck, but he wouldn’t do it. Most pros wouldn’t give you an autograph, let alone a perfectly good board.

Sweet Sweet goodness
The game isn’t so bad in a sense that there a bunch of expansive levels where you can skate, skate, skate the revolution. Level design is pretty good along with detail on the NPCs faces and clothes. Nothing Halo-esque but you know average. One of the things I enjoyed most was being able to get of your deck and run around. And I loved the music. Mix of rock, hip-hop and punk make it more fun than, let’s say jazz would. Not that...jazz is bad... Your characters reactions to pain are pretty good, although I cant remember getting right back up after i snapped my deck. I think that if you want a realistic skating experience, you need to have some kind of damage threshold. Kinda like with racing games. You drive around and if you mess your car up too much it doesn't drive as good. In this case it would be, you thrash yourself to much you wouldnt be able to skate. realism. Listening activision?

Sour Sour badness.
I’m not asking much of Activision here. Add just a tiny bit of customization. Like if you start the game with, say independent stage 9 trucks (average trucks), rotten egg wheels (average wheels), movement bearings (average bearings) and a blank wood deck. As you progressed in the game you could buy Bones super Swiss ceramic bearings (best bearings on the market), ricta wheels (best wheels money can buy), grind king trucks (lightest trucks out there), and a fiberlight deck (skateboard with fiberglass in it). Then you could tweak it. Tighter trucks, higher risers, etc. With all the things people do in video games, mixed responses from 100s of characters, AI, huge levels, graphics as close to real life as you can get, that would not have been so hard. And the other thing, is why is everywhere and everything skate able? Yeah its fun for people who have never tried skating on grass or through a fountain or down the side of a sky-scraper. But dudes??? that’s not realistic at all? Good shooters are games with top notch AI, realism, and graphics. you expect realism from a military shooter. Shot 2 or 3 times your dead, bloody spots from bullet hits all that. But you can fall till your hearts content and not see a single bloody spot on your character. I just want a realistic skate game for Pete’s sake. I don’t care about falling on your head and getting right back up because you need that for the game to be fun. If you ask me when you go in water with your deck out you should have to get new bearings. And you really can’t skate on sand. But, for you people up for skating escalators and mctwisting over buildings, and I know your there, you can have this. Maybe Transworld skate mag can make a good game.