I have realized something: I suck at Tony Hawk 4 (1 Viewer)

[Chris Rock]

It's a shame, it's a real shame. Tomorrow, I'll be taking Tony Hawk 4 for the XBox back to EBX and exchanging it for something else, probably Tiger Woods 2003.

I just don't have the patience to play it. I swear I thought my head was going to blow right off my shoulders because of how frustrating the game is.

Today, I tried 6,372,323,673,234,122 times to get all the pink elephants on the College level. Never did get it.

I had the world's hardest time pulling off the 360 Varial McTwist trick. I tried that one twice as many times as the "pink elephants" run before I got it.

When I first heard that the XBox version wasn't online, I was disappointed, then I realized how badly I suck at it and I was glad.

The game is awesome. Great graphics, good levels, awesome sound, etc, etc...but it's not worth destroying my XBox controllers and possibly everything else around me.

 

[Sean Moon]

They just ramped up the difficulty my friend, that is all, and I find it welcome. As for the pink elephants, I tried it only ,372,323,673,234,121 times, but I found the trick.Jump and grind the second the countdown begins, grind around the edge until you are close to the ramp. Then do a small jump and spine transfer over the ramp, then grind your way to the rest of the elephants. Just remember when to jump in the grinds so you hit the next rail. If you miss, go into a manual to save the timer at the end.
That is a very tough challenge, but very doable. Just practice the line. The pink elephants are almost like a combo run. It can be done in two combos if you are good about it. i beat the elephants with 3 seconds to spare.

This game is much harder, but it is a welcome addition after the relative ease of THPS3.

Just dont give up on this game yet! You are missing out! The later levels are amazing! And the hidden character is great(hint: His backpack's got jets!)

 

[Chris Bardon]

hidden character is great

Does this mean only one? One of the things I liked about 3 was unlocking all of the new characters (and the new specialty moves that came with em). Nothing quite like giving Tony Hawk the force grab trick, or the Demoness' Summoner.

 

[Graeme Clark]

It takes some practice. When I first played THPS1 I kind of hit a wall and couldn't progress any further. Then my roommate at the time started playing it and we started figuring out new things.

The same thing happened with 2, and to a lesser extent 3.

I dunno about you, but for me, golf is just as frustrating.

 

[Sean Moon]

Chris, there are minimum of 4 hidden characters, I have bought 2 of them so far.Jango Fett is the first that I bought. he is so cool. He has a grappling hook move similar to Spidey in THPS2 and his grind he pulls out a gun and starts shooting the camera.
I just finished a marathon session on this. Trying to get enough money to buy the last two levels. Also, just discovered the flatland tricks. Damn are they cool. You could rack up 100,000 in 10 seconds and never move from one spot on the ground. WHOO!
Me, I am a vert whore in the THPS games. In 3 I became a little more balanced towards street style, but still racked up the scores in vert. Now I am pretty balanced overall, but now I gotta master the flatlands.
Also seeing if in this game I can beat my all time high combo score from THPS3, which was 2,300,000 something points in one combo. (Yes kids, the Canada level is your friend!)

 

[Dave Falasco]

Canada? I pulled off million-pointers in the airport, but never Canada. Where did you find the line for that? Oh, wait, is it the long parking lot at one end of the level if you go straight from where you start? I did pull off some pretty sick scores going from vert trick on one quarterpipe, revert, manual, special grind down the long rail in the middle, flip trick over the gap to the other rail, special grind down that, manual, vert trick off the other quarter pipe, revert, manual, back up the long rails, etc... But 2 mil plus--that's impressive!
Chris, it sounds like your mind is made up, and I don't even have THPS4 yet so I can't speak from direct experience, but I will say that every Tony Hawk game I have played has brought me to that brink of frustration that you are talking about. Getting 400k in L.A. was absolute murder for me the first few times, as was getting the secret tape in the New York level of THPS2, getting the last dollar in the school in 2, jumping the first VB gap in 2, etc. But after hours (sometimes days) of attempts, I would eventually pull it off and the feeling of reward was always worth it. I hope you stick with it, but having gone through my share of controllers on THPS2 I can certainly empathize with returning it.

 

[Sean Moon]

Airport? Damn thats impressive! The line in Canada you described is the place indeed. Just go down the first ramp, grind the short rail, ollie w/fingerflip(every time I ollie I do a flip trick, its instinct), manual, grind the other short rail, ollie, manual, do a lip trick on the quarter pipe at the end, then revert to a manual on the way down, then grind down the two long rails to the bottom(to add a lot switch between rails on the way down!)then do a vert trick on the bottom quarter pipe, revert to manual, grind back to the top, rinse, repeat. I racked up a 2.5 million combo on that, on my way to a 3.9 million run.

Wait, I just realized the line in the airport...the baggage claim!

My other favorite in THPS3 is the Cruise ship. Damn that stage is awesome. There was this one trick I did, not very high scoring, but just so damn cool looking. I was doing a series of tricks on the party deck, then I jumped off towards one of the spiral stairs, and did a misty flip as I jumped through the gap in the stairs, only to land safely on the ground on the base of the ship. It was really cool to see because during the flip it looked like every part of my body was grazing the staircase, almost like the only way I fit through was being wrapped into a misty flip. Unfortunately the replay didnt save on that!

 

[mourad]

You're not alone Chris. I rented THPS4 (Xbox) and as hard as I've tried, I cannot get beyond the college level.

I'm not buying it - which is good this way since I can go back and finish THPS3!!!

 

[BrianB]

Wait, I just realized the line in the airport...the baggage claim!

Yup. Kinda spoils score games - it's possible to rack up 10 million combos on the baggage claim.

 

[Dave Falasco]

Yeah, the baggage claim in the airport makes million-point combos pretty easy. :b
I downloaded a video of some cat pulling off a 32 million point combo in Rio; now THAT is freaking impressive. He just went around and around the park, pulling off these crazy stunts in places that I never would have thought to try. He even pulled grab tricks off of wallrides, and then landed in a manual! Very nice.
That misty-flip staircase-graze sounds awesome, I'd like to see that! I may boot up the game tonight and try it myself, although it sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.

 

[Sean Moon]

It is, I have tried and tried to do it again so I can get a replay of it to save right. I just cant do it. It was just perfect timing and jumping from the right location to fall perfectly through the gap. I did one close once, where I jumped from the pool deck, misty flipped(you can tell I love that move) over the top railing, and just as my feet came around to the ground again, I landed on the railing to the ramp going to the party deck. I DO have a replay of that. Cool and all, but not like the staircase jump.

32million!!!! Damn...I feel like a chump now. I thought my 2.5million combo was impressive. Did the guy do the combo with perfect balance on? I dont think I could keep balance for 32 million points.

 

[Dean DeMass]

Rio was my favorite level for big scores in Hawk 3. I'd hop up on the highline and grind around for a some huge combos. I think 2.1 million was my highest.

-Dean-

 

[Ryan FB]

Phew, I thought nobody else was going to say Rio . Grinding all the way around the perimeter is your friend...

 

[Sean Moon]

Grinding around the lines I have done, I think my record for that was 1.3 million. But 32 million!!!???? God, I am afraid to see that(got a link?)
The thing I liked about the Canada line is that it is a good mix of both street and vert.
In THPS 4 to rack up the highscore challenges I usually just find a half pipe nearby and whip out some quick combos and beat the challenge in about 15 seconds.
32 million!!???? God in heaven!

 

[Sean Moon]

I remember in Rio I usually would grind all the ground objects around the entire stage over and over again. There was more variety and more gaps on the ground.

 

[Chris Rock]

2 Million Points? To quote Keanu Reeves from The Matrix: "Whoa."

In a hundred thousand years of practice, I could never do that. Anyone have any pointers as to how scores like that are accomplished?

 

[Citizen87645]

Well, I can't say I'm great at Tony Hawk but I manage - definitely better at vert than street, but I'm improving. TH4 is more difficult than TH3, but the challenges are more interesting and humorous and I've managed to unlock Kona on a low intermediate level of skill (at least in my own estimation). I'm still not planning to purchase it for awhile, seeing that I'm making good progress and I still have a few rental days. Next up will be Shenmue II!

 

[Ryan FB]

32 million...hmmm...looked for it, couldn't find it, but I found a Rio video with over twice that score !
http://www.planettonyhawk.com/thcs/rio.shtml
76,918,699. Wow. Too bad I can't watch it here because WMP seems to be acting screwy :frowning:. I'll have to wait until later this evening.

 

[Sean Moon]

The trick to high scores is finding what special moves suit your playing style, then finding a line to best exploit them. Then just learn how to keep balanced. Me, I have very particulat tastes in special moves, especially the buttons I need to press. I usuall limit my grab moves to left, right or down, right combos. my grinds I use up down, or left right, and the same with manuals. I almost never add flip trick supermoves. For lip tricks it is ususally left right, or down right. Usually those are more natural movements for my fingers.
My standby moves I always assign are misty flips, russian boneless, and some crazy grabs that are hard to land without LOTS of training.
yes, I am obsessed.

 

[Dave Falasco]

I don't remember where I d/l'ed the video from, I think it actually was Planet Tony Hawk. Perfect Balance was definitely not on, you can see the balance meter rocketing back and forth as the player made corrections. The only difference I saw is that normally you only get one minute in Rio because it is a competition. This guy started with a 2 minute timer, so he must have done it as a "Single Session". I'll try to find where I grabbed it from to share with you guys; it's worth checking out. The entire 2 minute run is one long combo, and it ends with a whole string of kickflip-to-manuals to get the multiplier up. I kept thinking what if the guy bailed on the last kickflip? Getting a 32k combo is incredible, but can you imagine bailing and LOSING one??? Ugh.
Chris, with the right line it's really not too difficult to get a mondo score in some levels. The airport in THPS3 is probably the easiest. Go down to the baggage claim area (where you have to airwalk the escalator or crooked grind the baggage claim), and make sure you have loaded up on special grinds. Now, jump on one of the semi-circular rails after the metal detectors and grind it, leap off and land on one of the parallel rails leading to the escalator and grind that, leap off and grind the escalator up. At some point, you will run out of steam on the way up and start to head down; right at the end leap off and back onto the parallel rail, back to the semi-circle, jump the gap onto the other semi-circle, around to the parallel rail on the other side, jump onto the escalator, grind it up until you run out of momentum and come back down, back to the parallel rail, etc etc etc.
The whole thing forms a big semi-circle that you can grind indefinitely. If you use special grinds and throw in a kickflip and a 180 as you transfer from rail to rail you should get a million point score in no time. You just have to have quick fingers to keep your balance the whole time.
Sean already posted his big line in Canada, and there are some great lines in Rio and the Cruise ship as well. But the airport is definitely the easiest (and the only place where I've scored over a mil, which shows you my skill level ).