Forget any other skating game out now, because this is the one. Neversoft worked closely with some of the best pro skaters, including but not limited to Tony Hawk, Chad Muska, and Andrew Reynolds. With their help, Neversoft was able to make everything as close to realistic as possible.
Some of the game's features:
That should give you a good idea of what to expect from this game. (Of course, if you're reading this then you probably own the game by now.)
There is an official strategy guide available from Activision and Brady Games, which provides a great deal of useful information for the beginning player. There are some benefits to this guide, but by and large it's not worth the money; most of the information in this guide is included here in the FAQ, and the only thing you might want to get it for is the overhead maps of all the levels.
A lot of people have asked about the bands on the game, and which albums the songs come from. This condensed list was obtained from the game's credits, and the format should be intuitive enough for anyone who's ever watched MTV.
Graffiti is one of my favorite modes, although it suffers a little from trick degradation. The Mall and Phoenix are problem levels, since they progress in a linear fashion from top to bottom and are difficult to backtrack in -- as well as having finish lines. The best levels for graffiti are small, enclosed levels like the warehouse, Chicago, Burnside, and Roswell. Larger levels, like the school, Minneapolis, and San Francisco, present way too many objects for there to be any serious competition; the most enhoyable part of graffiti is the competition for specific objects (like the twinkie in Burnside, around which most of our two player bouts at my place seem to revolve). Unfortunately, as the level progresses, the degradation of tricks makes it hard to match any of the early combo scores that set the ownership of most objects.
Horse is an excellent mode in any level, providing ample opportunities and setups to pull off some of the more difficult transfers. Unfortunately, skaters with higher balance ratings have a distinct advantage here, presented as they are with so many grind opportunities on every level.
An outright high-score competition, this is where you can match up side by side with another player and see who has the biggest... combos. The Mall and Phoenix are problem levels here, as well, since you can merely raise your score above your opponent's and race for the finish line -- making it impossible for him to beat your score. The same levels that make bad graffiti levels -- the school, Minneapolis, and San Francisco -- tend to make excellent trick attack levels... but correspondingly, the levels that make good graffiti levels aren't as good for trick attack. Small, enclosed levels tend to make for a lot of collisions.
One of my favorite multiplayer methods, noncompetitive and more social in nature, is to start any given level in free skate mode and simply skate until you bail. At that time, pass the controller to the next player while your skater gets up, and let him continue the run. The best part of this is that it allows all the players, regardless of skill, to play and have fun... as long as all of the players push their limits, and don't try to hog the controller by doing easy tricks the whole time.
There are no skater videos in the N64 version.
After winning the final competition with any of the skaters, you will be treated to one or two videos. Even if you've only earned silver or bronze in one or more competitions, you will be shown video of the pro skaters bailing in various nasty ways. If you've earned gold medals in every competition, you will also be a short showcase of the skater you're playing right now.
When you take three gold medals with Private Carrera or Officer Dick, you will get the "Neversoft Bails Video" -- a video of all the developers from Neversoft trying to skate, and doing rather badly. There is also a hilarious series of scenes displaying someone unidentified practicing his right uppercut, and a shot of Tony Hawk making a quite miraculous recovery from what might otherwise have been a nasty bail.
The game has a reasonably simple and straightforward control setup, which is easy to learn -- yet has enough depth to allow detailed control of the skaters. I'll be covering the default settings here, although you can configure the controls in a few other ways.
N64 players will want to note the following conversions: the X, Square, Circle, and Triangle buttons are replaced by the C-directional buttons on the N64 joypad. So wherever you see Square or S, replace it with C-left; Circle or C, replace with C-right; Triangle or T, C-up; and X, C-down. Other than that, the only thing you need to worry about is that the N64 pad does not have L2 and R2 buttons -- so L1 and R1 are, of course, the same as L and R.
As you might expect, the directional keypad (D-pad) is used to control your skater; left and right to turn, down to brake. Up is used to transfer over the lips of pools and halfpipes. The four other buttons -- triangle (T), circle (C), square (S), and X -- are used to perform tricks. Wherever the D-pad is mentioned, the left analog joystick can be used instead; unlike many other games, THPS allows you to use either or both interchangeably when in analog mode. You will discover that in many cases, the analog joystick lacks the necessary precision (such as when doing special moves), and the D-pad is almost required. Most players to whom I've spoken never use the analog stick, although I myself prefer the stick and only occasionally use the D-pad. The four trigger buttons on the front of the controller are used to spin, and the select button is used to change the camera angle from near to far. (There are minor camera angle differences when following tricks, but nothing really noteworthy.) The start button, of course, is used to pause the game -- like just about every other game in the world.
The X button is used to jump, and works much like a real jump on a skateboard: when you press the button down, your skater will crouch and prepare for an ollie, and when you release it the skater will kick the board up and forward in the traditional fashion. Also like real skating, your skater will move a little faster while crouched, and the more prepared and "set" he is for the jump (i.e. the longer you hold down the button) the higher his jump will be. When transferring over the lip of a pool or halfpipe, you will go HIGHER if you jump high up on the ramp, and FARTHER if you jump a little lower. If you jump too low, you'll just catapult yourself into the edge of the ramp and feel like an idiot.
Nollies and fastplants add style and points to your tricks. To perform a nollie, press up on the D-pad and release both up and X at the same time; to perform a fastplant, press up twice and then release both up and X at the same time. While both are worth a few extra points, the fastplant also launches your skater higher than a normal ollie or nollie, allowing you to clear higher obstacles and longer gaps. An ollie is normally not worth any points, but you will receive a minimal number of points for it if you spin while in the air and don't do any other tricks.
The triangle button is the grind button, and is used to slide on lips and rails -- almost anything with an edge. While you can press the triangle button on its own to do the standard 50-50 grind, it's worth more points if you press the D-pad as you land to select one of the five more complicated grinds. You'll get from 100 to 150 points for landing a grind, and this will rise by 5% for every certain amount of distance you hold the grind (probably along the lines of a foot or so, in game scale).
If you watch the screen (or you know skating), you'll recognise that if your D-pad were a skateboard with the nose pointing up -- you're pressing the part of the board you'd like to grind on. While you grind, you'll notice that your skater often leans to one side or the other, and if you lean too far you'll fall. Use the D-pad to nudge your skater back toward the center by pressing left if your skater leans right and right if your skater leans left.
The triangle button is also used for handplants and wallrides. For a handplant, where you grab the edge of an object and suspend yourself in a short one-handed handstand, press up and triangle at the lip of a pool or halfpipe without jumping; you can hold this position for a short time before falling, during which you will mount a slight bonus to the points normally received for the trick. To wallride, where you literally ride along a vertical wall in order to clear wider gaps or avoid falling into something undesirable, press the triangle button while in the air and close to a wall; in order to receive any points for a wallride, you must ollie out of it or ride off the edge of the wall into the air. While wallriding, you can use the D-pad to steer much the same way you would on flat ground.
The circle button is the grab button. When you press the circle and one of the eight directions on the D-pad, your skater will grab his board in some fashion.
As long as you hold the grab button down, the points for these moves will count up higher and higher -- 5% for every twentieth of a second -- until you either let go of the button and land the trick... or hit the ground and fall all over yourself. You'll achieve higher scores during grabs by spinning your skater at the same time, using the trigger buttons or the D-pad. (Most players use the L1 and R1 buttons in the end, but I personally found that the L2 and R2 buttons are easier to work with in the beginning and result in fewer miscalculations.)
Flip tricks work very much like grabs, but do not add up to higher point totals when held (excepting the finger flip and the kickflip to indy, which can be held). Most of these tricks are rapidly performed, and can be done from a simple jump on flat ground -- but the finger flip, varial, and kickflip to indy take much longer to complete than other flip tricks. All three require a little bit of a ramp or drop-off to complete successfully. These tricks will also benefit from a spin or two in the air.
You will notice that three of the directions list two tricks and note that the trick depends on the skater -- dividing the skaters into what is called roughly "vert skaters" and "street skaters". The finger flip is the dividing line; this trick can only be done by Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist, Bucky Lasek, and Rune Glifberg. The front foot impossible can only be done by Tony Hawk, Bucky Lasek, and Officer Dick. The varial can be done by Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist, Bucky Lasek, Rune Glifberg, and Officer Dick. (Officer Dick, however, does the varial on Up + Right instead of Down + Left -- retaining the sex change on Down + Left.) Private Carrera has the unusual quality of reporting the same tricks as Officer Dick on screen, but performing the same tricks as Elissa Steamer.
All of the skaters also have a series of "special" or "signature" tricks, which are worth a lot more points than regular tricks. Each of these signature moves is performed by pressing and releasing one direction on the D-pad, then pressing a second direction and one of the trick buttons at the same time. These moves are listed with each skater on the skaters page.
The following table is a quick reference guide to how much each trick is worth and what the button presses for them are. A + next to the trick's score means that it can be held for more points. L/R indicates that either left or right may be pressed for this trick.
Two tricks are not included in the table below, as they are something of a special case. The car plant is any trick done while jumping over a moving car in the Minneapolis or San Francisco levels, a feat worth an additional 1000 points. There are also bonus medals hanging in the air at various places in the levels, which are worth 100, 200, or 500 points when your skater passes through them -- depending on the value listed on the medal. It doesn't matter which buttons you press for these, since they're based more on where you are than on what you're doing.
| Trick | Buttons | Points | Notes |
| Ollie | X | 50 | Points are awarded for every full 180 spin. No points awarded without spins. 180 Ollies are not awarded points when done from vert ramps (see trick system). |
| Nollie | U + X | 200 | |
| Fastplant | U, U + X | 250 | Launches skater higher than normal ollie or nollie. |
| 50-50 Grind | T | 100+ | |
| Nosegrind | U + T | 125+ | |
| Crooked Grind | U + L/R + T | 150+ | |
| Boardslide | L/R + T | 100+ | |
| Smith Grind | D + L/R + T | 150+ | |
| 5-0 Grind | D + T | 125+ | |
| Handplant | U + T on lip | 1000+ | |
| Wallride | T near wall | 500 | Skater must catch air between wallride and ground (either by jumping out or riding off the end of the wall) to receive points. |
| Method | L + C | 300+ | |
| Stalefish | D + L + C | 300+ | |
| Tailgrab | D + C | 300+ | |
| Benihana | D + R + C | 400+ | |
| Indy Nosebone | R + C | 300+ | |
| Rocket Air | U + R + C | 350+ | |
| Japan Air | U + C | 350+ | |
| Madonna | U + L + C | 500+ | Board is held at right angle to normal direction of travel, which can confuse some players when trying to line up for landing. |
| 360 Shove It | U + S | 250 | |
| Finger Flip | U + R + S | 500+ | Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist, Bucky Lasek, and Rune Glifberg only. Takes longer than other flip tricks. |
| Hardflip | U + R + S | 300 | Except Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist, Bucky Lasek, Rune Glifberg, and Officer Dick. |
| Heelflip | R + S | 100 | |
| 360 Flip | D + R + S | 300 | Except Tony Hawk, Bucky Lasek, and Officer Dick. |
| Front Foot Impossible | D + R + S | 600 | Tony Hawk, Bucky Lasek, and Officer Dick only. |
| Impossible | D + S | 250 | |
| Sex Change | D + L + S | 500 | Except Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist, Bucky Lasek, and Rune Glifberg. |
| Varial | D + L + S | 800 | Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist, Bucky Lasek, Rune Glifberg, and Officer Dick only. Officer Dick uses U + R + S instead of the listed buttons. Takes longer than other flip tricks. |
| Kickflip | L + S | 100 | |
| Kickflip to Indy | U + L + S | 500+ | Takes longer than other flip tricks. |
When trying to achieve higher scores, it helps to understand how the trick system in the game actually works. When you do a trick in THPS, the trick is actually not merely a trick, but the beginning of a "combo" -- which includes tricks, spins, transfers, bonus medals, and car plants. The points awarded for all of these tricks are totalled up by the game, and then multiplied by the number of elements in the combo.
You'll find, when you go into career mode and start doing tricks, that your tricks seem to be worth less as you go. This is because of the trick degradation system Neversoft has installed in the game; the more you do a trick, the less it's worth. Here's how that happens (using the points awarded for a 360 Flip as an example):
| # Times | Value | Example |
| First | 100% | 300 |
| Second | 75% | 225 |
| Third | 50% | 150 |
| Fourth | 25% | 75 |
| More | 10% | 30 |
In a terribly unfair decision, this happens whether you land the trick or not. So if you try to do four 360 Flips in a row and you get all four of them off but then land wrong, your next 360 Flip will be worth a lousy 30 points.
Tricks do not degrade in free skate, so you'll be able to pull off bigger tricks there than in single session or career mode. It is generally accepted in the THPS community that high scores, whether for a single trick or the entire run, are only "legitimate" when done in single session or career mode.
Obviously, the most basic element of any given combo is the trick. In previous skating games, this was the only thing you could do for points, and most of the time you could only do one trick. Neversoft does this one better by allowing you to do as many tricks as you can manage before you land -- assuming, of course, you don't hit the ground or a wall in the middle of doing a trick, resulting in a nasty bail.
Each trick adds two things to your score. First, a point total, just like every other game; second, a multiplier, which goes up by one for every trick you do. When you land the trick, your point total is multiplied by the multiplier (which you probably guessed already). If you only did one trick, that multiplier is one, so you just get the "raw" point total. If you do two tricks, however, that multiplier becomes two -- giving you double the points for both tricks. So if you jump to do a 360 flip and then jump again to do an impossible, you'll get 300 points for the 360 flip and 250 for the impossible, or 550 points... but if you jump off a ramp and do both the 360 flip and the impossible before landing, you'll get that same 550 points times two -- 1100 points.
The system of totals and multipliers combines with trick degradation to create one very simple strategy which makes for the biggest scores: go big, go long, and go soon -- pull as many big tricks as you can manage in one tremendous combo close to the beginning of the run, and don't screw it up.
When you spin in the air, you'll add more multipliers to your score; the first at a full 360, and an additional multiplier for each 180 after that. When jumping from flat ground, as opposed to the top of a vertical ramp, you will receive half a multiplier for the first 180 if you don't do a full 360.
Every time you jump in a combo, the spins at the front of the combo reset to 0, but this is purely cosmetic -- you retain the multipliers previously acquired. So when you do two 360s in separate jumps with a grind after each, and then 180 on your way out of the second grind, you'll only see 180 displayed on the screen... but you'll get full credit and multipliers for the 900 degree spin over the course of the combo. It's generally a good idea to pull at least a 180 every time you jump, which adds up rapidly over the course of long combos.
Transfers are the blue text you see in combos. Unlike tricks, however, these don't degrade; if a transfer is worth 500 points, it's worth 500 points every time you do it, and adds a multiplier to your combo. Transfers work through a series of invisible lines in the level, which mark the beginning and end of the transfer; if you pass through both invisible lines in the same combo, you get the transfer. Not all transfers work in both directions, so it matters which way you're going. When you make a transfer, you'll hear a clickety camera sound.
Never underestimate the power of transfers. Pulling a simple 360 grab through a 2000 point transfer will net you at least 6,000 points every time; working transfers into longer combos will tack scads of extra points onto your scores, and can often make the difference between a 5,000 point combo and a 30,000 point combo.
In the air over various ramps and rails, you'll see spinning silver medals that say 100, 200, and 500. These are basically one-time transfers; you get the points listed on the medal and an added multiplier, but the medal is removed from the level for the rest of the run and cannot be picked up again. When you pick up a bonus medal, you'll hear a cash register sort of "ka-ching" sound.
Bonus medals are almost useless during grinds, but can be useful to tack an extra multiplier onto your score when throwing a big air off a quarterpipe or halfpipe. Better than nothing... but not worth going out of your way for.
Car plants are something of a special case. You can only get them by jumping over moving cars -- the taxis in Minneapolis, and the van or trolley in San Francisco. While these are displayed in white text like tricks, they don't degrade like other tricks -- making them more like transfers. A car plant is always worth 1000 points and an added multiplier to your score no matter how many times you do one. When you do a car plant, you'll hear a clanging sound as your board bounces off the car.
Car plants can be useful to throw extra modifiers into combos, and are truly impressive when used in the middle of a combo -- or when used in combination. In Minneapolis, few things "wow" your audience more than throwing a huge air over the deck gap and into a car plant... if you can manage the timing and precision necessary to hit a moving target you can't see. Double or even triple car plants can be achieved in San Francisco, if your timing and control are flawless -- the triple car plant being worth a good 30,000 points in one shot if you nollie in and hold a spinning grab through the whole sequence. There are bigger combos and higher scores, of course, but very few things quite as jaw-dropping in a replay.