Game Classification

For every extreme sports superstar Tony Hawk, there is a minor-league counterpart, toiling away in obscurity striving toward much subtler achievements in the same field. We shall call this hypothetical echo Tiny Hawk and this game shall be his crowning achievement in his field of skateboarding video games, after his mentor and inspiration; Pro Skater as it might have been initially pitched, drunkenly scribbled on a cocktail napkin.

Many of the basic gameplay dynamics are retained -- building cumulative score multipliers (up to 10x) by successfully landing chains of tricks including grinding along rails, wall-jumping, and kickflipping the board in mid-air, all without touching the ground. Where these multipliers make a difference is in the points racked up while collecting round red gems, getting all of which is each level's objective, through each of six levels (32 in the later browser release.)

It is true that the immersiveness of Tiny's skating simulation is less rigorous than Tony's, but as a sole developer has fewer resources at his disposal than Activision, that is perhaps to be expected. And so rather than a fully 3D-rendered environment, Tiny navigates a series of 2D platforms. And instead of maneuvering an obstacle-filled environment with a modern game controller boasting dozens of buttons, dials and sticks, this gauntlet is run using only a single key to launch jumps and execute tricks. Finally, the simulated (and exaggerated) physical laws that govern Tony Hawk's universe have here been streamlined; rather than calculate things like momentum and velocity, Tiny maintains a constant motion in one direction until he runs up against an obstacle and then reverses orientation.

In the browser release, player performance on each level is rated according to four different grades of medals, to reward exceptional play. [source:mobygames]

Distribution : Retail - Commercial
Platform(s) : Browser (Flash) - PC (Windows)

Links

• http://www.mobygames.com/game/tiny-hawk/