Avril Lavigne's song "Sk8ter Boi" comes to my mind as I get my hands on the newest version of Tony Hawk; if you know the song you can only imagine how my latest relationship went down the drain as I forgot about life outside of the Ps2 and kind of forgot to call the poor girl. "He was a skater boy, she said see ya later boy..." - it's funny how music can relate to almost anything in life. Never thought it would work with video games though. So she may not be my girlfriend anymore, but that's ok because my Ps2 and I have never been closer.

I guess things all worked out for the best as I now have the opportunity to play countless hours of the game and really make a better effort to bringing all of you a wicked review. Now I personally don't like skaters or skateboarding, especially those skaters that hang out near my house at 2:30 in the morning which I thought would have made me really biased when making my final thoughts on the game, but even when I tried to hate it I just couldn't. From grinds to plants to kick flips, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 is a skater boy's dream come true.

By now most of you have had the opportunity to play one of the first 3 games in the past 4 years. If you have not you either don't plan on reading this or you're a weirdo. Either way I won't go into a lot of detail on the controls as for the most part they are the same of last year's game - and that is a good thing, cause they are nearly perfect.

There are a few new improvements in this year's version of the game that are much better then any other of the classics. To begin with we will look at the new vast environments that you get to skate in; gone is the 3 minute time limit and in comes a free skate mode that allows for unlimited skating freedom. To make it simpler, once you start a level you no longer have to rush to complete a goal. You have the ability to skate wherever you feel is necessary. In order to achieve goals you now have to make your way to various people throughout the huge level and talk to them. Each person with an arrow over their head will give you a goal to accomplish, much in the same fashion as the goals in other versions of the game. These goals include collecting skates, trick attacks, high scores, and manual combinations. This of course is only a minor sample of the 190 total goals you have to complete. Most are repeated in different levels getting harder and harder to complete, but each level does have 21 different goals to accomplish. Not to mention that each skater has a specific goal for you to do that relates to something they accomplished in real life. For example, with Tony Hawk you have to do huge transfer tricks on two ramps that are about 70 feet in the air. Time limits do exist when you are trying to achieve some of the goals and can range from 10 seconds to 3 minutes. Some of the more challenging goals you achieve will award you a stats point. This means you no longer have to search for those stat point icons.

The levels, as discussed before, are huge. At least double the size of the last Tony Hawk game. They are very realistic and there is more of an emphasis on flat land and grinding tricks this time around. There is a vast number of quarter and half pipes through the level, but if you want to bust out a million point combo you'd better get your grinding balance to master level pretty quickly. Pay attention to the detail of each level and see if you can point out some of the key features to the various US cities you will unlock along the way.

Some new tricks added to this year's Tony Hawk include the ability to "skitch" or tailgating. Grab onto the back of a car and go for a ride. You balance the same way you would with a manual or lip trick. Some of the goals include tailgating a car around the level and even skitching an elephant. That's right: grab onto the tail and go for a ride. Careful though, the elephant has bad gas and tends to relieve himself causing you to slip. You think I'm joking, don't you. I swear it's in there. Also included are the new easy to use flatland tricks. Once in a manual you can simply double tap a button and perform some amazing tricks like the pogo (jump up and down on the tip of your board). You can also hit a different two buttons combo to do tricks like a handstand. Then you can ollie and kick flip to make your hands spin the board and land back on you feet. Sweet eye candy. (I can do that in real life <- yeah right)

This year's line up of characters is pretty much the same with the exception of Bob Burnquist back in the picture. This year's "Create a Skater" is much better then last year's too as it is much deeper and easier at the same time than before. In less than 10 minutes you can adjust sneakers, clothing, hair color, hair style, leg size, arm size, weight, height, and body size. With the ability to buy new boards and clothing with the money you earn in the game, you will be creating skaters over and over until every last possible clashing combo can be discovered.

Finally comes the online aspect of THPS: 4. Oh how I have lost many hours trying to pull out a 4 million point combo rather then the simpler 1 million just to destroy my fellow riders. 7 other skaters actually. That's right, THPS: 4 now supports 8 skaters at one time rather then last year's 4. Back is the trick attack and graffiti styles, along with a couple new games like capture the flag and goal style events. Capture the Flag is exactly like it sounds, get across to the map to the other team's hang out, steal the flag and bring it back to your starting point. Team with the most flags after a time limit wins. Goal style is like playing single player but instead it is a race to see who can finish a set number of goals first. Good Times.