Tony Hawk takes his third trip back to the GBA in THPS4. If you’re a fan of the console games and want to take your skateboarding skills on the road, the Game Boy Advance version is the perfect thing, mirroring its console brothers very well and bringing the Tony Hawk legacy to the small screen with few flaws to write home about.

The gameplay is similar to that of the platform versions. You’re free to skate around a selected level as long as you want. If you find a person that has a goal for you, you press L, and are given a certain amount of time to complete the task. Do it, you get a Pro Point. These points unlock new levels for you to explore. Also strewn about the levels are cash, stat points, secret packages, and new decks, all which need to be collected to buy new gear, power up your skater, unlock secret, etc. Once something is collected with one skater, it’s available to all the others, including stat points, so there’s no need to play the game through with everyone. It's much more gamer-friendly that way.

To earn a skater’s reward movie (which, by the way, looks pretty nice on the GBA screen), you’ll need to earn enough total Pro Points, select a skater, and then try that particular skater’s Pro Challenge, which is a nasty task that you’ll need to accomplish in a pre-determined level. Do that, and that pro’s movie is yours. It’s a much better system than in THPS3, where you needed to beat every level with every skater multiple times over, which got really tedious.

In terms of looks, the game is amazing. The three-quarters overhead perspective fits perfectly. The skaters have their own unique physical features, so although you can’t see their faces, you can match a name to a body and believe that they are a match. Clothes and skateboards are well done as well, with real decks clearly visible when doing flip tricks. The levels are nicely detailed too, although sometimes a bit on the small side. Levels also have a slightly more obvious flaw, and that’s when your skater is behind a structure. You can still see the skater, of course (via transparencies), but it’s really hard to know what objects are, where a ramp goes, and whether or not there’s a half pipe there. It's also a problem when you get behind confusing walls with multi-tiered objects. Regardless, once you take a level to heart, you’ll get over it, so it’s a small gripe compared to the whole package.

Of course, the game controls exactly the same on the GBA as it does on the GameCube, even without all those fancy buttons. They’re all just as solid and perfect as they’ve always been, either way. Jumping, grinds, grab tricks, and flip tricks are all customizable to all four of the unit’s main face buttons. The revert and spine transfer moves are also included, performed in the same way as the console versions (with L and R). Of course, with less buttons, you’ll need to give up a few things (like holding a shoulder button to spin), but you can’t complain given the number of buttons on the system.

A smaller problem with the control isn’t really the game’s fault, and that is, of course, the awkwardness of using the L and R buttons frequently. The GBA just can’t do it unless you cradle the system in your hands a bit more, which might be slightly annoying to some people with larger hands. It’s something that can be lived with, however, and nothing that would turn you away from the game.

The sound department is the game’s weak point. The sound effects are pretty good, but it’s the music that might get you peeved. It seems that there are only three or four tracks available in the entire game, and with the GBA’s small speaker, it starts to become a tad bit annoying after listening to it over and over again. As always, you have the option to turn it off, but since listening to your favorite CD instead of the game’s soundtrack might not be an option if you’re on the road, the game might feel empty without some sort of background music to amuse yourself with.

Since THPS4 is portable, you can play it anytime you feel like it. This is the type of game that you can just pick up and play anytime, so it’ll last you a while. With all the things to find and collect, it’ll take you quite some time to find everything, then actually figure out how to get the things once you do. It seems like there’s always something to do, other than just playing for the fun of it, and for a Game Boy game, that’s perfect.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 on the GBA is a great game, like it has been every year. However, if you have THPS3 for the system, you’re probably better off sticking with your guns unless you want a new set of challenges. As great a game as it is this year, last year’s version was pretty good in its own right. On the other hand, if you don’t have a previous handheld Pro Skater, it’s a must-buy for anyone looking for their skateboarding fix on the go. How this series can get better in the next version is a toss-up, so you might want to hop on board the bandwagon while it’s still moving.