Action sports have experienced a surge of mainstream interest in recent years, in no small part due to the widespread popularity of the Tony Hawk video games. Neversoft essentially invented the action sports genre of video games with the seminal 1999 PlayStation blockbuster Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Though it is widely considered one of the top Playstation games ever produced, Neversoft has remarkably been able to reproduce that success year in and year out on multiple platforms. Pro Skater is now in its fourth glorious year, and although it is still the big dog on the block, the franchise is facing the first real competition within the genre it created. While most action sports titles have been content to merely mimic Pro Skater's successful formula, a few games (most notably Aggressive Inline) have offered gameplay improvements that provide the blueprint for evolution in the genre.

Realizing this, Neversoft has overhauled the franchise and infused a plethora of fresh ideas into their latest effort, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. The biggest change is in the Career Mode, which adopts the free-roaming, free-skate level design that Aggressive Inline introduced earlier this year. Instead of the traditional two-minute time limit that has characterized this type of game from the beginning, players can skate around any level at their leisure in what is essentially a free-skate mode. As a result the game feels more relaxed, as players are afforded ample time to explore the massive and detailed environments. Objectives are handed out through conversations with many of the games NPCs (non-playing characters), who will provide the player with goals ranging from high-score challenges to multi-part fetch quests. Personally I feel this change is fantastic for the series, as the tried-and-true formula began to feel a little stale in Tony Hawk 3.

There are a total of 190 goals to clear in Pro Skater 4's Career Mode. To attempt a goal you simply skate up to an NPC with a blue arrow over their head and talk to them. They'll provide instructions on what to do, and then you have to complete the goal in a limited amount of time. If you fail you can simply retry the goal by selecting Retry Last Goal from the Options menu, resulting in a very player-friendly game. Once you collect 90 normal goals, you'll unlock a set of Pro Challenges that provide, as the name suggests, pro-level goals that will challenge even the most seasoned Pro Skater veteran. The normal level goals are shared between all skaters, but the Pro Challenges are skater-specific. (If you're a fan of Jackass, you'll love Bam Margera's set of Jackass-themed Pro goals.) Competitions are incorporated directly into the levels and are much more interesting than ever before; some are vert-only or street-only, but the more challenging ones limit you to flatland tricks. There is much less repetition in Tony Hawk 4, as you only need to clear goals once and each skater has specific challenges apart from the other skaters. The game is much more fun and compelling than Hawk 3 ever was, and players will probably not grow bored of Hawk 4 as easily as last year's game.

In keeping with the expanded Career Mode, the levels themselves have grown in both scale and density, as there is simply more to see and do here than there ever was in Hawk 3. Trick lines are longer and more complex than ever before, as Neversoft has constructed multi-tiered levels that allow players to use the entire spectrum of tricks. Nine gigantic levels are available for sessioning in Tony Hawk 4, ranging from a college campus to a complex shipyard to a zoo (my personal favorite is the carnival). San Francisco's Embarcadero returns to the series in a more accurate and wide-open representation than the hodge-podge level seen in the original Pro Skater. Perhaps the most impressive arena is Alcatraz, which features a staggering amount of true-to-life detail and criss-crossing skate lines that make it one of the most complex environments ever seen in an action sports game. The Chicago level from Matt Hoffman's Pro BMX 2 is also included, and while it is an excellent level, I was rather displeased to see Neversoft recycle game assets like this. Overall the levels are well-designed and a lot of fun to skate, but I would have liked a few more bonus arenas. (I'm greedy, I know.)

The basic play mechanics remain virtually unchanged from Pro Skater 3, with the Revert and Manual still used to link trick strings together into unholy combos. Hawk 4 does introduce a few minor additions though. The Spine Transfer allows you to go up one side of a half-pipe and come down the other, which makes managing a series of pools much easier. You can also "skitch" (grab the back of a car), which introduces its own balance meter. Both of these moves can be linked into trick strings, allowing for a greater degree of freedom than ever before. Also new to the game is a 180° turn (down + L1 + R1), a very welcomed addition that allows you to change direction quickly. Special tricks are still handled like they always have been, and completing certain goals will unlock additional special trick slots (you'll need every last one of them to rack up the insanely high scores in the later levels). The Pause menu shows details about every goal, cash icon and transfer for all levels, which makes accomplishing objectives very player-friendly. A cool instant replay feature, complete with slow-motion, rounds out the proceedings. This feels like the most complete set of features in a Tony Hawk game yet, and I for one am very appreciative of the attention to detail shown by the folks at Neversoft.

As if the excellent career mode wasn't enough, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 includes a host of online multi-player games that dramatically extend the life of the game. Internet games (handled through GameSpy) are virtually lag-free on a broadband connection, with occasional frame hitches occurring only when players join or leave a game. All of the standard two-player games can be played online (with the exception of HORSE) with up to seven other players, with game servers spread across various geographic divisions (east, mid-west, etc.). Playing Pro Skater online will be a brand new experience for most players, and I'm thrilled to see it implemented this well. The create-a-skater feature is better than ever, with lots of great clothing and gear options to make just about any skater you can imagine. Plus you can individually adjust the scale of each body part to make grotesquely deformed characters, if you were so inclined. The skatepark editor also appears in Hawk 4, using two great themes: a mid-west style desert arena and the Los Angeles level from Tony Hawk 3. You can even download new parks over the Internet, or upload your creations for others to skate in. Very cool.

The expanded scope of the environments produces a two-fold impact on the visual quality of the game. The gigantic arenas are filled with tons of geometry in the form of railings, ramps and grindable ledges, all of which are expertly incorporated into the design of each level. Trick lines are much more complex now, with criss-crossing segments and multi-tiered areas on which to bust combos. Draw distance is quite good, with very little pop-in to get in the way of a good trick string. Texturing on most surfaces is sharp and detailed, with very few blurry patches to speak of (background plates excluded). Lighting is also well-done, with realistic outdoor lights and real-time shadows that lend the game a sharp, photo-realistic look. The animation on the various skaters is as smooth and fluid as ever, with a host of cool-looking "fantasy" moves (cartwheel grinds, for instance) added to the already impressive list from Hawk 3. Toss in some great-looking skate movies and attractive front-end menu design on top of everything else, and you've got yourself a solid visual performer in Tony Hawk 4.

The unfortunate side effect of the increased environmental detail is that the player models are woefully inadequate for a game released in 2002. Though they look decidedly better than in last years' game, the NPC characters are still poorly-modeled and poorly-textured, and feature a stock set of jerky, repetitive animations. Even worse is that the main skater models have received a slight downgrade from Pro Skater 3, especially in terms of facial texturing. They're not exactly poor, but the skaters noticeably lag behind recent releases in the genre like Aggressive Inline. Perhaps this was necessary to accommodate the larger environments, but it still comes across as a disappointment. The framerate is also much more sketchy than in Hawk 3, fluctuating wildly at times in the games sprawling outdoor areas. While it doesn't impact your performance too badly, it's still rather annoying, and I've come to expect better performance out of a Neversoft product.

Sound and music have been integral to the flavor of the series from the very beginning, and THPS4 continues that tradition with the biggest soundtrack yet. Thirty-five tracks appear on the customizable playlist, ranging from smooth hip-hop beats (De La Soul, Run DMC, Public Enemy) to bone-crunching metal (Iron Maiden, how cool is that?). A few songs have suffered some unfortunate censoring to get a T rating for the game, which is irritating to say the least. And while I personally prefer the soundtrack in Hawk 3, the selection of songs here is still enjoyable and very appropriate for the game. Sound effects seem to be identical to those in Hawk 3, but seeing as how that game sounded great to begin with, this isn't such a bad thing. Grinds on various surfaces sound suitably "grindy", bails are accompanied by gruesome "thwacks", and the squeaking of wheels on asphalt sounds more or less like it does in real life. The voice acting is pretty decent, as the various skaters sound very natural as they deliver instructions for level goals. All in all a great audio package.

There are three versions of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 from which to choose (excluding the PlayStation and GBA incarnations, which are completely different); this review has focused on the features in the PlayStation2 title. If you have multiple consoles and you're wondering which version to buy, I'd recommend the PS2 game due to its robust online support and better joypad. If the online thing isn't your scene, then I'd go with the Xbox version, which has slightly sharper visuals (due to anti-aliasing) and a cool custom playlist feature. If you only have a GameCube, you're getting that version for sure, but multi-console gamers will be better served with the PS2 or Xbox titles for the reasons I just mentioned. The GameCube version looks just about identical to the PS2 version and lacks any additional features that would separate it from the other two (no online play, for instance). But whichever version ends up in your living room, you're in for a good time.

Overall, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 is an excellent experience and a positive step forward in the evolution of the skateboarding action game. As the originator of the genre, Pro Skater is still at the head of the action sports class, incorporating new ideas from some of the games it spawned along the way. The expanded career mode is just what the series needed to stay fresh and interesting, and the increased difficulty will offer a tough challenge for skating veterans. With a deep and engaging single-player mode, as well as robust online multi-player games, this is undoubtedly the most complete and compelling Tony Hawk yet. Video game players from all walks of life should give Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 a try, as it is a game that simply must not be missed.