Right as the extreme sport of skateboarding reached a zenith in popularity in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, Tony Hawk Pro Skater paralleled its real-life counterpart by becoming one of the most influential video game series ever. Even 18 years removed from its somber conclusion, we regularly see popular games like Mario Kart World and Riders Republic borrowing a thing or two from the simplistic risk/reward-style fun of Neversoft’s seminal series.
Five years after the success of 2020’s Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2, Activision is taking another stab at bringing back its successful legacy franchise once more. It may have taken five years too long, but there’s still reason to be very excited. While the first two games are incredible in their own right, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 closed the loop on the original, arcade-y format with the series’ highest-rated entry, before turning it all on its head for Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4. And despite representing two divergent paths for what Tony Hawk games are, both games feature some of the best levels, best songs, and best overall vibes in the series.
While it’s wonderful to see such an important series make its grand return once more, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4 just has enough compromises to keep it from reaching the same legendary heights of the games it’s based on. The end product is still a lot of fun, especially for those who didn’t experience these games 23 years ago. And it’s clear developer Iron Galaxy understands the series enough to carry on Neversoft’s torch. But several of the cuts and changes are too deep to consider this a definitive version of the games I love.
Mass Appeal
Remade versions of levels like Tokyo look absolutely stunning in 4K.
Iron Galaxy
THPS 3+4 is a stunning reimagining of the originals. Like the 2020 remake, Unreal Engine 4 does a tremendous job adding flourishes and details to these iconic levels from the early 2000s. Locations like Foundry have explosive effects when grinding on specific rails, while levels like College feature more locale-specific nods like bulletin board notices and festive ticker tape parades to the academic setting.
Unlike that first game, these levels don’t rely entirely on their modern facelifts to feel more alive. Gone are the barren, borderline eerie levels of THPS 1+2. Here, pedestrians walk the streets around you and comment on your God-given ability to shred. There are more cars driving on the road and parts of the level to interact with. You’ll cause earthquakes, drain pools, and activate cranes that alter level geometry. This is all evidence of the third game being the first to make the jump from the original PlayStation to the PlayStation 2, but it’s a welcome change nonetheless.
As expected, THPS 3+4 plays like a dream. It’s virtually unchanged from the first remake, and that’s not a bad thing. Some new moves, like Skitching (grabbing onto the back of a car and riding alongside it) have been added, but save for a few specific moments in career mode pulled from the original, the game’s core remains largely the same.
Like the 2020 remake, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4 feels as fun to play as the best games in the series did.
Iron Galaxy
Instead, the star of THPS 3+4 is the level design. Levels like Airport, Alcatraz, Rio, and San Francisco are each some of the best-designed levels in the series. Whereas the first remake featured levels were built around a much simpler, more limited scoring system, THPS 3 and THPS 4 were made for big, elaborate combos. It feels like the full potential of how these remakes play has finally been realized. Even the new original levels created by Iron Galaxy, like Movie Studio and Waterpark, fit this style of gameplay like a glove.
Unfortunately, half of these spectacular levels are done a disservice in THPS 3+4’s primary single-player mode.
Not The Same
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4’s levels are too big to fit comfortably within the confines of the original trilogy’s single-player format.
Iron Galaxy
Like the old games, Career offers a steady progression through the game’s levels where players must complete a series of specific goals to move forward. How this remake goes about recreating the original Career mode is this release’s most controversial change.
While THPS 3 had players complete 10 goals in a series of two-minute-long sessions like the first two games, THPS 4 was the first to ditch that old format for something more freeform. In THPS 4, players skated levels without a time limit and activated challenges by talking to specific NPCs. It wasn’t perfect, as some of the wilder missions could be a little janky or brutally difficult. But it’s the defining feature of the fourth game, and the impetus for why these levels were designed the way they were.
This remake makes the bold decision to retrofit the classic two-minute format to THPS 4’s level design. The new goals do a decent enough job of translating some of the more memorable NPC challenges into static goals, but the results are awkward. Some of these levels are simply too big and not designed with two-minute career sessions in mind. Goals where players must collect a certain number of items can feel a little aimless and even frustrating. On the other end, classic goals like collecting each of the letters in “SKATE” can sometimes feel too bunched together in a way that doesn’t feel true to the originals.
“By the end of my first Career mode playthrough, I was left wishing Iron Galaxy had made time to be more faithful to the original.”
The disconnect between level design and career mode causes a strange divide in the remakes’ overall package. While the first half of Career is practically a perfect remake of THPS 3, the change is very noticeable as you progress further. What hurts even more is that the skater-specific Pro Goals of THPS 4, the endgame of the original experience, are not present here. The game’s new version of Pro Goals is a nice bonus. But they aren’t representative of the real-life feats of the game’s real-life skaters.
THPS 3+4 is still very fun to run through. The tone is right, and the gameplay is tighter than ever. But by the end of my first Career mode playthrough, I was left wishing Iron Galaxy had made time to be more faithful to the original.
Quite Bitter Being
The unlockable characters here aren’t nearly as compelling as the original’s.
Iron Galaxy
THPS 3+4’s Career mode is exemplary of the game’s broader nagging issues. There are a couple of fun unlockable characters, like Michelangelo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Doom Slayer. But these pale in comparison to the likes of Darth Maul, Jango Fett, Wolverine, and Jenna Jameson who were all featured in the originals.
I can give Iron Galaxy some grace, as signing deals with the new corporate overlords of all these characters would probably be a nightmare in 2025. But the fact that there are just three goofy playable characters in the game, two of which can only be purchased with real-life money, makes it feel like the playful fun and spirit of the original is being compromised by the harsh realities of modern gaming.
Perhaps the most egregious change is to the original’s music. It’s amazing to skate to CKY’s “96 Quite Bitter Beings” and Gang Starr’s “Mass Appeal” all these years later. But the original soundtrack has been cut down to just 10 tracks across both games (46 songs are missing in total). Some new additions, like Schoolboy Q, 100 Gecs, Vince Staples, and Run The Jewels fit right in with the vibe of classics. But when so much of the original game’s identity was tied to its revolutionary soundtrack, it’s a shame that these new tracks don’t get to exist alongside all the classics older fans will remember.
Kick, Push, Coast.
THPS 3+4 is a worthwhile new game in a series that’s been begging for a comeback. It’s a perfect exhibit of the series’ timelessness, and a loving visual update for a duo of games dating back to the start of the century.
But while it perfectly tees up the developer for a remaster of the fifth (and probably most beloved) game, THPS 3+4 only half commits to its potential. It’s a pitch-perfect remake of the third game, followed by drastic changes to the fourth that ultimately don’t land. It perfectly modernizes what a Tony Hawk Pro Skater soundtrack would be, but only brings back 25 percent of the iconic songs OG fans want to skate to. And the fun, mind-blowing unlocks from the originals have been replaced with sleepy novelties that are the result of in-house corporate dealings that won’t ruffle any feathers with the suits at Xbox Game Studios and Activision Blizzard.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4 is the new entry the series needs. I’m happy it exists for the sake of keeping the spark alive and exposing newer generations to what makes these games special. But as an old school fan who remembers these originals so fondly, it pains me to say this isn’t the perfect, definitive remaster I’ve been praying for since 2020.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4 is available now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, Switch 2, and PC. Inverse reviewed the PS5 version.
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