The game play in ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4'' is much like its console versions even though it is a hand-held game. All the tricks are back and better than ever. There are now more bails than previously, numerous well designed levels to skate in, gaps, rails, half pipes, walls, and a truck load of other things to strut your stuff on. In career mode,you don't have a time limit, so instead of just doing objectives, you can get huge air, bust out monstrous combos, or just casually stroll around. Packed with thirteen real-life pro skaters and the ability to create your own to put some personality into the game and decide your skater's name, where he is from, what kind of style he has (Vert or Street), and much more.

This is it; you have finally hit the big time! You are a professional skateboarder! But you need to prove that you are more than that; much more than that. Finish career mode with 100% to show all the other skater that you are better than them.........

Now if you are playing as a custom skater, you are going to have to make a name for yourself, starting at the very bottom. Which will you choose?

The skaters and pedestrians look amazingly realistic, considering this is a hand-held game. Even though your skater is quite small, you can still see all the minute details on him/her such as hair color, skateboard wheel color, and each of the skater individual fingers if you look hard enough. The half pipes, ramps, rails, water, trees, and all other parts of the environments are portrayed accurately.

The first time you play ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater'', the button setup seems kind of like they're reversed, like some free racing games. It seems like the A button should be used to jump and the B button to grind, but it's actually the other way around. The R button is used in conjunction with the D-Pad to perform grab tricks. The L button is used in conjunction with the D-Pad to execute flip tricks and to talk to people when used alone. Left and right on the D-Pad is for steering and when up is pressed immediately followed by down, or vise-versa a manual or nose manual will occur. Once you are in a manual or nose manual, the A & B buttons can be used with the D-Pad to pull off flatland tricks.

The music seems to be a little bit too heavy for this type of game. But the bails and grinds sound pretty realistic.