Developed using the same engine and gameplay as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (2002), Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure was created as a licensed title to appeal to a younger audience, with the game featuring a simplified control scheme.

Upon release, the game received generally positive reviews, with praise directed to the presentation and level design, and mixed reception to the simplified mechanics in contrast to the Tony Hawk series.

Development of Extreme Skate Adventure was based upon the RenderWare engine used by Activision subsidiary Neversoft to create Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4,[1] with minor additions added to the game to include "multi-stage tasks and more conversational interactions".

Describing the title as "Tony Hawk for a younger audience", Kaiser Hwang of IGN noted "the number of moves has decreased, as has the difficulty", finding it to be a "watered-down experience".

[2] Michael Lafferty of GameZone similarly noted that the game "may be a bit too simplistic" for older players, citing the "scaled-down trickset and limited controls".

[1] Adam Pavlacka of PSM noted the level design was what "really makes (the game) shine", writing that the worlds were "true to the original film".

[11] Frank Provo of GameSpot observed that the game's presentation was not "as realistic or technically ambitious" as its counterparts, noting that the environments were not "colorful or detailed enough".