This Way Back Wednesday I bring you a game that I’ll write about, but won’t show any video of. I went back and booted up my system and holy crap, the years of dual analog sticks and the addition of shoulder buttons have made my hands try to press buttons that aren’t there.
I booted up Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and picked my favorite skater Geoff Rowley. I did picked my bull skateboard and my dark red wheels while keeping with medium trucks and headed to free skate. The first place I headed was Downtown, because I wanted to see if I could perform my lines and my famous trick. As mentioned above my fingers were working against me as I switched between analog stick and d-pad. I noticed I could steer better with the stick but perform tricks better with the d-pad and thus the struggle began. I decided my line wouldn’t be working, so I went to perform my famous trick combo. I went up to the roof and was still able to jump to the next roof where the ramp I needed was. I picked up some speed and as I hit the ramp I tried to perform a back flip, but only a benihana was performed. My combo trick of backflip to darkslide on the rail at the bottom was a flop and then I got hit by a taxi. I decided to cut my loses and just stop playing and delete the video I was capturing. There’s no one who should witness the horrific game play I was displaying with the great Geoff Rowley.
If you’re able to play this game on the Playstation, which is the true and best version, I suggest you do it. Remembering back to when it first came out, the game was smooth and the songs actually played the full length of the song. The Dreamcast version cuts them down and lowers the volume and the N64 version is a joke when it comes to music. The playstation version is the only version where you can site in the pool on the school level and watch videos as the songs play.
The amount of fun that this game brought to me over the years can never be replaced and I hope that the release of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 doesn’t let me down and allows me to use my new control handling skills to my advantage.