Select controller:Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is an arcade-based sports game and mastering it will require memorizing certain moves, pulling off large combos, and avoiding bails.
Main Menu[edit]
The main menu of the game features four modes of play, an option menu, and cinematics. Use 
to pick your selection, 
to confirm it, and 
to go back.
Single Player[edit]
There are three modes to offer for one player: Career Mode, Single Session and Free Skate.
Career Mode is where a skater is chosen to embark on a countrywide tour, collecting tapes by accomplishing goals or trying to earn medals in a tournament. Playing this mode is required to unlock levels, skateboards, and videos (or in the N64's case, signature move lists).
Single Session allows you to play in a level to gain a high score. Similar to Career Mode, you have two minutes to get as many points as possible, only there are no goals to accomplish.
Free Skate is basically practice mode. You can explore any level as long as you like. Use this mode to learn certain moves, find gaps, or search for secrets.
Two Player[edit]
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater allows another player to join. There are three competitive modes available for play: Graffiti, Trick Attack, and Horse.
In Graffiti, two players tag skateable objects in their respective color. Objects already tagged can be recolored by opponents. However, their combo score on that object must be higher than the opponent's when they tagged it or it will have no effect. Tricks must be landed to tag an object; bails do not count. Whoever colors the most objects when time runs out wins.
Trick Attack is basically Single Session with two players. Both opponents must try to outscore each other in two minutes. Incidentally, if both skaters touch each other, the slower skater will bail.
In Horse, players take turns performing one combo, trying to outscore each other. If a player bails or has a lower score, that player gains a letter. After that, both players move to a new location in the level. Whoever has enough letters to spell "Horse" loses.
Other[edit]
The options menu allows you to configure the controls, turn the HUD and game tips on and off, adjust the volume, and load a different save.
Selecting videos will let you see any saved replays and videos that show highlights of pro skaters as well as a montage of bails. Most of these need to be unlocked in Career Mode. The credits are also in this option.
Due to the console's limitations, the N64 version does not have any videos, so the option is dubbed "Extras". You can still see replays and the credits in this selection, but now there is a trick tutorial where you can see a selected skater perform a move and attempt it yourself. Beating the game in Career Mode once will unlock a signature move list in Extras where you can see the combination required to pull off a skater's special move.
Starting a Game[edit]
Once you choose a game mode, you'll first pick your skater. Initially, they all have varied stats in four attributes: ollie, speed, air, and balance. Ollie is how high the skater can jump, speed is how fast the skater can go, air is how far the skater can fly off a quarter pipe, and balance is how well a skater can keep steady while grinding. Moreover, some skaters excel at vert while others prefer street skating, which affects their initial stats as well as some basic tricks.
After choosing a skater, you can choose their skateboard and wheel color as well as adjust the trucks. Adjusting them will make your skateboard easier or harder to turn; practice with different truck adjustments to see which one you're most comfortable with. Finally, pick an available level and you're ready to skate.
The Basics[edit]
When the game begins, your skater will slowly pick up speed and skate ahead from their starting position. With , you can press left and right to turn and hold down to brake. Press to ollie, or jump, from the ground. You can hold down to crouch, which speeds up your skater. Once you let go of , your skater will ollie. If your skater ollies off the edge of a ramp, they'll gain more airtime.
will allow you to switch between two camera views. This feature is not present in the N64 or Dreamcast versions.When skating on a quarter pipe, hold 
before your skater reaches the edge to fly forward and land away from the quarter pipe. While in the air, you can use 
/ 
or 
/ 
to rotate.
Lastly, pressing 
will pause the game and open up a menu. You can start over, end your run, adjust the volume, change the soundtrack, or resume playing.
Tricks[edit]
Your skater can perform tricks to raise your score. While airborne, your skater can perform two types of moves: flip tricks and grab tricks. A flip trick is performed by pressing a direction on and 
simultaneously. A grab trick is performed by pressing a direction on and 
simultaneously. The key difference between the two is that grab moves can be held in place by holding down for extra points. Be careful though, if a trick is not finished by the time your skater lands, they will crash and not earn any points.
Some objects and surfaces allow skaters to grind on them. To grind, you must press when your skater makes contact with the object. While grinding, use / to keep your skater balanced. If they lean too far in either direction, they'll bail. There are other grind moves available by pressing a direction and .
Pressing and produces a Nollie. It has the same height as an ollie, but it rewards points. Double-tapping and quickly pressing performs a Fastplant. It rewards points and has more height than an ollie.
To do a handplant, press and when at the edge of a ramp. You can hold down for more points, but hold it down too long and your skater falls off the ramp.
The Special Meter[edit]
Along with your score, the top left corner has a special meter. The meter fills up by doing tricks; the higher the score, the quicker it fills up. The meter diminishes over time, so tricks must be done quickly to keep it from getting empty. If your skater bails, the meter resets.
When the meter is full, your skater is now in special mode. The meter will glow a golden color and decrease much faster. While in special mode, your skater's attributes are higher and they can perform signature moves. These moves require more time to execute, but reward a lot of points. If the meter runs out or the skater crashes, special mode ends.
Scoring[edit]
When executing tricks, the name of the trick along with its point value is shown at the bottom of the screen. A successful landing rewards you those points. By performing two or more tricks, your skater can create a combo for even more points. When doing a combo, the base score increases and a multiplier is added. Tricks increase the multiplier by one while rotations increase it by half. However, rotating off a ramp increases the multiplier by one. For example, a Kickflip rewards you 100 points, but a Kickflip and a Heelflip earns you 200 x 2 or 400 points. Rotating 180 degrees along with that Kickflip and Heelflip gives you 200 x 2.5 or 500 points.
Grab tricks, grinds, and handplants give out more points the longer they're held. Specifically, they reward 5% of a trick's base score every 1/20th of a second. While a Madonna rewards you with 525 points, a Madonna held for one second increases that to 1050 points.
Regular moves show up on the combo list in white while signature moves show up in yellow. If a signature move is successfully executed, a sound cue is played. Signature moves add one to your multiplier like regular tricks. Some signature moves are grabs and grinds, which can be held for extra points.
| Attempt | Value |
|---|---|
| 1st | x1 |
| 2nd | x0.75 |
| 3rd | x0.5 |
| 4th | x0.25 |
| 5th | x0.1 |
Gaps or transfers are spots in the level that reward you points for jumping or grinding off certain objects. They show up in your combo list in blue text and add one to your multiplier. Knowing where certain gaps are can help your skater earn a very high score.
How many times a trick is performed can degrade that trick's score over time, so it's crucial to use a variety of moves to keep your score high. For example, doing a Kickflip the first time earns you 100 points while the second time reduces it to 75, the third time to 50, and so on. Even if your skater bails, the deprecation of that trick's score will still occur. The only exception to this are gaps.