Revisiting The Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Trilogy On Game Boy Color
With the recent release of the THPS 3+4 remake & the critical acclaim still resonating from the THPS 1+2 remake from several years back, it's the perfect time to slip back to the year 2000 and look at where it all began... kind-of.
It's no secret that the wild success of the Tony Hawk games led to numerous ports. With versions of the first game still being ported to different platforms up to the year 2005 (oh, hello, N-Gage). But most of those ports were fairly straightforward. Porting a Playstation 1 game to the PC or N64 saw the game arrive in a fairly recognizable form, give or take some graphical finesse or a condensed soundtrack. But what about the Game Boy Color?
Obviously, Activision couldn't do 3D graphics or CD quality audio on a device slightly more powerful than an original NES. So they licensed the game out to developer Natsume to find a way to translate and adapt the first two THPS games for the handheld, with developer HotGen taking over development for THPS3 (put a pin in this).
So how did they turn out?
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater:
A true adaptation of the big brother console version, THPS does away with goal sheets and all the levels from the original game in favor of truly crafting a game befitting the smaller scale platform, while still evoking the spirit of what THPS is all about.
THPS on the GBC takes its cues from NES skateboard & extreme sports games of the past, like Skate Or Die, California Games, and T&C Surf. Which it is all the better for doing so.
Instead of levels with a timer & set goals, you have three game modes: a half pipe trick mode, a straight 1v1 race, and a competition mode. The first two are nice additions that would fit right in on those NES games. But the meat of this meal is the competition mode, which has you racing through a course, from a top-down perspective. All the while, pulling off grind combos, collecting speed boosts, and pulling off tricks. All of which contribute to your point total at the end of a race. The art style is suitably chunky & colorful. Perfectly befitting a GBC game.
I'm not going to tell you it's the greatest game on the Game Boy Color. Far from it. But I would absolutely consider it a hidden gem. It's not a particularly long or deep game. But it's a great shot of arcade style THPS on the go. A sequel could only improve on this winning formula.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2:
Yeah, about that.
THPS2 is a very mixed bag. In terms of presentation, it nails the look of the console version. Everything from the menus to the inclusion of actual levels from the console game are accounted for. The feeling is there. The actual gameplay, not so much.
Natsume get an A for effort, because I truly do understand what they were going for. This time around, they opted out of the top-down competition format and replaced it with side-scrolling left-to-right levels that retain the timer & goals format of the console THPS2.
On the surface, this is OK. But in execution, the levels are far too sparse and the tricks far too hard to actually pull off for having just two buttons and a d-pad to work with. THPS1 worked around these limitations by filling the levels with constant motion and opportunities to use the environment to propel tricks. THPS2 lacks this and, frankly, tried biting off a little more than it could chew.
Overall, THPS2 is a valiant effort. But it unravels quickly once you get into the core of its gameplay.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3:
Regardless of Natsume's shortcomings with THPS2, it remains clear that they were playing in the right sandbox. Which is why it's a shame that Activision cut Natsume loose for THPS3 and went with developer HotGen to work on the final GBC game in the THPS series.
A far cry from looking like the previous Natsume efforts, THPS3 looks more like an Amiga or British computer game. It sounds like one too, with its piercing chiptune bleeps.
THPS3 retains the side-scrolling adaptations of the console levels, but adds in layered backgrounds that you can get to by reaching the far end of the screen and swinging into them via a half pipe. While novel, this is a pain in the ass to navigate correctly. There were so many times I tried sliding up to the next layer, only to swing back down the same ramp, careening halfway across the screen (wasting precious time having to reverse course and skate all the way back to try again).
While the graphics are very drab and a downgrade from the Natsume games, credit where it's due to the character animations, which are extremely fluid and rotoscoped ala Prince Of Persia.
This time around, the levels aren't as sparse. But they are cumbersome in just how large they are in relation to how much time you get to actually try and navigate them.
It's a lateral move from its predecessor. Similar gameplay, better animation, more populated levels, but levels that are now too large, mixed with a presentation that feels outdated. Throw in the fact that, by the time THPS3 came out, 2 & 3 were already killing it on the Game Boy Advance with isometric 3D gameplay that blew people away at the time.
If you're going to investigate these games for yourself, I'd say go for it. This trilogy is a fun little curio and snapshot of how developers thought about how best to translate games to smaller scale hardware at the time. But if you are actually planning to enjoy your time, I'd stick to THPS1 and leave the sequels in Skate Heaven.
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