Crazy Like a Hawk! Or is it Fox? Hmmm...

I had been frothing at the mouth for the longest time to get my grubbly little mits on this game. After its unprecidented success on the Playstation, I only knew that it would be twofold better, at least, on the mighty Dreamcast, and boy, was I right. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is a classic game that proves the skater philosophy, "Skate or Die." This game is suitable for one or two players and has a few different modes to keep the player busy for quite awhile, not to mention the beautiful graphics for eye candy.

Storyline
Storyline? Story what? "We don't need no stinkin' storyline!" This game is all about skating for all you're worth. Get off your butt, slap on your skate shoes, pump up the punk rock, and you're off. The only thing that comes remotely close to a storyline is the Career game mode, and I will get to that momentarily...

Gameplay
The gameplay is surely this game's bread and butter. First, I shall explain the Career Mode. Here, you the player gets to choose from about seven different real-life skaters. There are also three(I think) secret skaters that you can obtain if you can skate well enough. But anyway, in the career mode, you are given a course to skate at and certain objectives you need to obtain to get 'Tapes.' These tapes are your key to the next level(s). Each level's tapes are different, but always based on the same things: You need to reach X amount of points, you need to find five ______(insert skating object here, such as a bench or police car), find the secret tape, reach XX amount of points, and find the letters S-K-A-T-E scattered throughout the level. As easy as this sounds, it is not. At over 8 different levels with three skate competitions, this is no easy task. The skate competitions have you compete against computer skaters(not at the same time, mind you) and you get ranked on how well you did, the difficulty of your run, and how successfully you pulled it off. You are awarded(if you do well enough) with a bronze, silver, or gold medal.

If you do not wish to compete in a career, you can opt for a 'single skate.' Here you can refine your skills in each level of the game for two minute. This is a place where you can obtain high scores while still honing your skills.

The newbie part of the game is the practice run. Here, you just kind of mess around and get a feel for the game and it's controls. You have unlimited time here and can practice to your little heart's content. You don't rack up points, but rather receive points for your trick, and then it resets for the next trick you do.

The moves are wild and plenty. If you can imagine a trick, you can probably do it on this game. The thing is to this game is to 'not think small.' If you think you can pull off a 900 Madonna, grind on the wall, do a 360 kickflip and end it with a nose grind on a billboard, go for it! The most different and innovative tricks rack up the most points. You have to be creative and open-minded. Now, the controls took awhile to master, and I by all means don't call myself a 'master.' The game starts off as a 'button masher,' where you experiment by pushing all the buttons at once and hope you do something cool. But as time goes by in the career, you must learn which combinations do which and what gets you mean points. It will take a long time to learn this and great combination tricks.

There is also a multiplayer on this game where you go one on one with another person. You get to compete in the same park and see who can bring in the most points. I haven't had to much experience with this game mode, so that is all I can provide. Sorry!

Overall, when you get used to the controls, you will have a helluva time playing this game. As you get better and better, you begin to become more and more addicted to high flying theatrics and the such. Replay value only gets better as time goes on!

Graphics
I absolutely loved how crystal clear the graphics were on the Dreamcast version. Foregrounds and backgrounds were beautifully drawn and never out of focus. It always ran smoothly without any slow-down, pop-up, or fog. You can just see the tricks done to precision. Perhaps my favorite part of the beautiful graphics is when your skater takes a spill and the blood splurts out(ok ok, call me sadistic).

The game sounds just as good as it looks. You hear the skate wheels rolling and running over pebbles, you hear the taxis and hippie buses flying towards you, you hear in detail the cars running you over and you groaning as you get back on your skate.

Overall
Go buy this game! Hehehe. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is one awesome game. It was able to get me as close as possible to being a great skater without ever being one. Once again, I stress the amazing graphics mixed in with the fun factor and gameplay makes for a really fun game and wise investment. Happy skating!