DC - Tony Hawk Pro Skater review

Tony Hawk Pro Skater (Greatest Hits Package)

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| GAME FEATURES |	Developer : Sonic Team
A.) First title to feature Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Amy, Mr. Robotnic in high resolution. Had stunning graphics at it's time. Won awards in 1999 congraduating Sega for good programming effort.	Publisher : Sega
B.) Good sound track.	Released on Sept 09, 1999
C.) Version 1.1 (greatest hits package) prevents game from freezing up at times. Some noticable improved loading times on levels. Prevention of Sonic getting stuck into walls. Control is alittle more responsive then original release.
D.) A	Type : Action Platform

I barely remember Tony Hawk Pro Skater for Sega Dreamcast. Tony Hawk Pro Skater made it to the Dreamcast about a year after its successful PSone campaign. Back in the day when Playstation graphics weren’t god dead awful in some games. Like its Playstation counterpart, the first of two that made it to the Dreamcast were very simple, but those games were running in high resolution. The Dreamcast at one time just happened to get a gem when running directly against the Playstation. One of having a 128-bit console was that you had much less fog and false texturing. So you could see the other end of the arena / stating rink quite easily. The graphics were some of the Dreamcast’s best. The Playstation 2, where all Tony Hawk games are known to exist from did have extra texturing to its characters. In fact if the more playstation textures were drawn in then in the Xbox games, the Dreamcast game would have about 1/3 the processing power of that of the Xbox. It looks better then 70% of all Dreamcast games which quite an accomplishment when also is considering that the game play mechanics are amongst the best of that system. The graphics vastly improved over the N64 version of Tony Hawk. Tony Hawk Pro Skater is one of the few games that I’ve played before I stop playing the Sega Dreamcast all together.

For obvious reasons, I thought there would never be a popular Playstation game for the poor knocked around Sega Dreamcast. Some say that in a year the DC graphics were not going to last those of the duel processing power of the PS2. While others said that Dreamcast only had only a few good titles from a handful of good Playstation 2 games. Well may I remind everybody that when Playstation first came out in 2000, although we knew that there would be some quality titles coming, it didn’t have any exceptional titles except for maybe Tekken Tag Tournament and Ridge Racer V. Well if this game isn’t a popular game port from the Playstation, then I’m mud! First of all the Dreamcast managed to get 2 new exclusive skating parks that the N64 and Playstation didn’t have.

Pros for Tony Hawk Pro Skater for the Dreamcast

• It had a lot of skating parks to skate in.
• Much better graphics then Playstation and N64
• The graffiti contest in Multiplayer mode rocks.
• The part where you’re only player that plays against yourself unlike in later Tony Hawk games were the gamer has to answer to other skaters to do jobs.
• A lot of fun doing tricks in free skate mode. Neversoft got rid of the trick bar in THPS3. Points don’t add up unless you’re against the clock. In this game the skate tricks are added up in the game while you’re playing the game. I thought that game was better. One reason why Tony Hawk Pro Skater was more fun then the sequels.
• The ability to customize your skate and make your own skater with a variety of clothes, tattoos, caps, shorts
• High Resolution graphics over the Playstation, the frame rate improved I’ve heard
• Game takes advantage of Dreamcast hardware
• Music in the game is some good, some bad.
• The Dreamcast version, I wonder wasn’t easier to play then the Playstation AKA the difficulty of the game got better. Tricks and landings were better polled off.
• Replay mode.
• Could create your own skating parks. However, Neversoft gave more options in creating skating parks in Tony Hawk Pro Skater sequels. The parks seem to be bigger in size in the later games.
• I remember H-O-R-S-E and it was fun. Only one thing wrong with H-O-R-S-E. It’s was like your opponent was doing better then you were and you could barely catch up then he would finally beat you after a long time. I realize that this mode is in THPS3 and THPS4 so I’m happy. The mode followed through. One reason to get the next Tony Hawk game for next generation consoles. I played it in THPS4 on Xbox and I realized the same mode was on Sega Dreamcast which was cool.

Cons for Tony Hawk Pro Skater for the Dreamcast

• Bulky Dreamcast controller. Ever since I got a Playstation in near the end of 2002, I realized that the PS controller felt better then the Dreamcast and N64 controllers.
• Couldn’t play your character in THPS2
• Tony Hawk may be a legend but he is so much easier to control then the other skaters. This got better in THPS4 when playing it. It doesn’t hurt the game all that much, but you screw up a lot when playing Tony Hawk first and then playing my other favorite skaters Andrew Reynolds and Kareem Campbell.
• I don’t watch the X-Games on ESPN so I don’t know much about skating.
• Replay mode could have recorded longer.

Summing up Tony Hawk Pro Skater
Graphics	7.0	The talented group at Neversoft improved the game when Playstation owners said that it couldn't be approved apond.. The game wasn't a direct port. Tony Hawk and Spiderman used the same graphics engine. The Dreamcast unlike the PSone and N64 versions before it, had a perfect 60 frames per second speed.
Control	9.0	Tricks are easily pulled off. The Dreamcast controller was bulky but that didn't hurt the game too much. An extreme sport game shouldn't be this professional. But it did and did it very well shocking most Playstation owners when it came out. Extreme Sports doesn't have a good reputation of having a good selection because most of the games suck. But then you have four Tony Hawk Pro Skater games too so you can never run out of Tony Hawk Games. It couldn't of done it wtihout the outstanding achievement Neversoft gave all platforms when releasing this game.
Orginalism	8.0	The game had all the pro skaters in it. The levels were based on actual locations throughtout the USA.
Sound	5.0	The game had music from the radio. Most of it was heavy metal and rap
Replayibly	8.5	Dreamcast has some unusually great titles. This was one of them. This game is great, I am a Sonic fan as much as I'm a Mario fan. I'm alittle old to be a Sonic fan, but I don't care.