The screenshot is taken from the Dreamcast version. The player, as Tony Hawk, has gathered all the letters of the word 'SKATE'. If the player bails (falls off their skateboard), any points that may have been earned from the current combo are lost, and the special gauge is emptied. When this gauge is full and flashing, the player is capable of performing a special trick that is worth many more points than ordinary tricks. When the player succeeds in performing tricks, a special gauge increases.

The number of points earned from a successful trick sequence is dependent on the amount of time spent in the air, the degree of rotation, and the number and variety of tricks performed the more a single trick is performed in a sequence, the fewer points it will earn. Each skateboarder has eight grabs, eight slides and eight flips. Movement can be altered using the d-pad, and ollies, grabs, flips and slides are each assigned to individual buttons. The goal of the game is to perform tricks and combinations thereof in an effort to increase the player's score. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater puts the player in control of a famous skateboarder and takes place in a third-person view with a fixed camera. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was met with critical acclaim for all versions but the Game Boy Color version, which had a more mixed reception. The game offers several modes of gameplay, including a career mode in which the player must complete objectives and evolve their character's attributes, a free-play mode in which the player may skate without any given objective, and a multi-player mode that features a number of competitive games. The player takes control of a variety of famous skateboarders and must complete missions by performing skateboarding tricks and collecting objects. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater takes place in a 3D environment permeated by an ambience of punk rock and ska music. It was released for the PlayStation on Septem and was later ported to the Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, Dreamcast, and N-Gage. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, released as Tony Hawk's Skateboarding in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Europe, is a skateboarding video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision.

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