In 2020, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater made an unlikely return in the form of an excellent remaster of the first two games in the series. It had been five years since the abysmal Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 left a sour taste in fans’ mouths, and developer Vicarious Visions did a tremendous job helping them forget with both a healthy dose of nostalgia and proof of the series' timeless mechanics. But what seemed like the beginning of a revival silently faded. That was until earlier this year.
Another five years later, the seminal skating series is set for its second comeback of the decade, this time highlighting two of the most important games in the series. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4, like its predecessor, remakes all 18 main levels from the third and fourth games in a brand new engine all in stunning 4K. The game feel has been refined to ensure it feels like you remember. And most importantly, the soundtrack is both intact with some smart additions that feel right at home. Based on the demo that was released earlier this week, it’s fair to say that Pro Skater’s second go-round is shaping up to be just as strong if not better than the first.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4 demo (available to anyone who pre-orders the game on a console besides Switch 2) lets you rip through the introductory levels of both games in two-minute single sessions. First up is Foundry, the first level in THPS3 that riffs on the intro levels to both games that came before it. In this remaster, however, the level’s fresh coat of paint is absurdly gorgeous.
When the game was released back in 2001, it marked the series debut on the PlayStation 2. Developer Neversoft used the new hardware to make things feel way more alive. Factory workers were doing their job, the foreman overlooked his industrial plant from high above, moving machinery that you could trick off of all of it went a long way in proving the power of the new consoles. I’m happy to report that developer Iron Galaxy is giving this small but busy level the modern upgrade it deserves. The level is bright and full of detail. Added explosions, creaking metal, and a cacophony of working factory noises take things up considerably. Playing this new and improved version of Foundry feels like you're skating through a very dangerous location at a time you really, really shouldn’t be.
The remaster’s game feel is practically unchanged from 2020. While the original THPS3 introduced the Revert (a move that lets players link vertical tricks performed off a quarter pipe to grinds and flip tricks performed on flatland), its inclusion is less of a revelation here since it existed in the last remaster. Unlike the last game, however, these levels were built with linking combos endlessly in mind.
Foundry is admittedly not the best showcase for this (the game’s other eight levels are where the potential of the Revert really becomes clear). But College, the first level from THPS4, already makes a case for why this remaster is poised to outshine the previous one. College is a sprawling campus that has endless opportunities for stringing together combos. There are moving vehicles in the streets, parade floats, and buildings to ascend. As an intro level, it is noticeably larger than Foundry and breaks from the traditional “half pipe/small gap/rail” structure that all of the games’ first levels followed. And with the change, there’s more room to experiment.
This change is why Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4 already has a major leg up on the 2020 remaster. THPS2 tends to get recognized as the series' high point. But its sequels are better games in terms of playability. THPS3 defined how these games should play while THPS4 refined that perfection with impeccable level design. There’s a reason why the 2020 remaster doesn’t actually play like the games it's based on. And it's nice to get to the part of the game’s legacy where its genre-defining gameplay really gets to shine.
The game’s soundtrack has also been expanded flawlessly. Artists like Adolescents, Gang Starr, Motörhead, and CKY are joined by new additions from Schoolboy Q, Lupe Fiasco, Vince Staples, De La Soul, and more. Iron Galaxy clearly understands why the soundtracks for these games have the legacy they do. And they managed to find songs that feel right at home over two decades later.
This spot-on understanding gives me hope for the rest of the game. However, there is one change I’m still holding my breath for. Iron Galaxy already confirmed that the open-ended Career Mode of THPS4 will not be coming back. Instead, the developer is converting that game’s single-player component to the classic 2-minute, goal-based mode.
A big part of why I wanted to see the fourth game remastered was for its Career Mode. So this is a change I’m not fully on board with. Running through these much larger levels in 2-minute increments seems like trying to fit a square peg through a round hole. The ability to increase the two-minute timer at will as Iron Galaxy has confirmed doesn’t seem like an adequate fix for such a big change. I will keep an open mind about the change to see how it works for myself.
That gripe aside, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4 is a dream game for fans like me. It’s going to be awesome to revisit the height of the series with all the modern bells and whistles like online crossplay.
