I’ve a protracted historical past with the Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater franchise. After my cousin introduced his PlayStation and a duplicate of the primary Tony Hawk recreation to our grandparents’ home for Thanksgiving 1999, I could not lower your expenses to purchase a PS1 quick sufficient. From there, I obsessed over Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater and its direct sequels. I continued enjoying the collection by video games like American Wasteland, Challenge 8, and Proving Floor, however these first 4 video games and Underground have all the time remained my favorites.
That is why when Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 1 + 2 arrived in 2020, I used to be elated by the standard of these remakes and their means to duplicate the sensation these video games gave me twenty years prior. In my evaluation of that recreation, I discussed that the franchise lastly felt prefer it as soon as once more had a vibrant future, however I by no means envisioned it will take 5 years to see that potential manifest into one thing tangible. When the long-awaited Tony Hawk’s 3 + 4 was lastly introduced, I couldn’t wait to get my palms on it. Fortunately, I had that probability this week, as Activision and Iron Galaxy invited me to spend hours enjoying the upcoming Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3 + 4.
Pushing Ahead the Legacy
Pushing Ahead the Legacy
Following the discharge of Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 1 + 2, stories surfaced that comparable remakes of the third and fourth entries have been canceled following developer Vicarious Visions’ merging into Blizzard. Although it felt as if these remakes would by no means see the sunshine of day, earlier this 12 months, Activision introduced it was lastly taking place with Killer Intuition and Divekick developer Iron Galaxy Studios on the helm.
Iron Galaxy, which had beforehand labored with Activision as a help studio on remaster collections like Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited Trilogy, takes the lead position on this collaboration with the Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater writer. “We apparently gained them over with what we stated we may do, what we pitched them on, and what we wished to convey to the franchise,” design supervisor Mike Rossi says. “I used to be simply as bummed when it appeared prefer it was, like, ‘Oh, so shut. Can we get it?’ So, I am so pumped to have the ability to convey this out.”
As soon as it was formally making Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3 + 4, Iron Galaxy started contemplating the way it wished to strategy creating the successors to Vicarious Visions’ wonderful remake. “1 and a couple of f—ing nailed it; they set the bar,” Rossi says. “Frankly, it was a bit intimidating, to be sincere. It was positively one thing that is like, ‘Okay, we’ve this basis that is actually stable, so we have to take that, hit it, and exceed it.’ So, taking a look at that and the franchise as a complete, I believe it is honest to say it is a staple of gaming franchises. […] We have fairly excessive expectations to hit; that was one thing we needed to maintain evaluating ourselves.”
Particularly, Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3 is praised as one of many biggest video games ever. That third mainline entry holds a 97 out of 100 mixture rating on Metacritic (together with a 9.75 out of 10 from Sport Informer), tying it for the fourth highest-rated recreation of all time amongst different iconic titles like Pink Lifeless Redemption, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Tremendous Mario Galaxy. In the meantime, Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 4 is not any slouch itself, holding a 94 out of 100 on Metacritic (together with a 9.25 out of 10 from Sport Informer), tying it with such titles as Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Batman: Arkham Metropolis, and Metroid Prime.
Switching Stance
Switching Stance
The staff felt strain to protect and honor that legacy. That is why, when it determined to make changes—whether or not minute particulars in an present park or the basic change of Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 4’s profession mode to observe the two-minute session format of the prior three video games—it rigorously thought-about what was greatest for the general product for each new and returning gamers.
“We checked out 1 + 2 and thought that was captured rather well and thought it was a very good illustration of these two,” Rossi says. “We checked out 3, and that was clearly one other very extremely regarded title within the franchise. So then it was, ‘Let’s take a look at 4. It is fairly completely different, however what, at its essence, is it?’ Our objective right here is to make the last word package deal of three and 4. So in the end, we felt that taking it into feeling extra in direction of the three format, versus what 4 did initially, was a greater illustration for a cohesive package deal that we have been making.”
After I drill down into the choices to make adjustments throughout each video games, Rossi admits there was all the time nervousness when the staff made the decision to change one thing. Nonetheless, he maintains that the staff’s selections benefited the titles as they exist on this upcoming package deal.
From my hands-on session, a lot of the adjustments are small in scope, comparable to an additional rail to open a brand new line for gamers, or helpful quality-of-life enhancements, like the power to combo along with skitching, the place the skater holds onto the again of a automobile to achieve additional pace, or customizable timers for periods. And having spent greater than 90 minutes enjoying the Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 4 aspect of this package deal, I do admire the cohesion and have parity that this package deal brings because of the format change.
Getting On Board
Getting On Board
Exterior of that foundational change to the fourth recreation, probably the most vital addition gamers will discover once they fireplace up Tony Hawks Professional Skater 3 + 4 this July would be the first all-new THPS parks in over a decade. I used to be skeptical once I first loaded into Waterpark; in spite of everything, replicating the design conventions whereas making an attempt to recapture the parks’ magic from the unique video games may have simply made them really feel like low-cost knock-off maps. Nevertheless, after enjoying a number of periods of this new degree, I used to be impressed by how simply you may have satisfied me it was a hidden degree from the unique THPS 4 that I by no means discovered.
“The large factor I informed the extent design staff was that this must really feel prefer it was left on the cutting-room flooring, like Activision gave us some outdated laborious drive from 4 and we discovered this unfinished Waterpark degree, and we introduced it as much as fashionable requirements,” Rossi says. “That was all the time the mantra: Does this really feel like this might have match within the authentic recreation?”
That is what stood out to me probably the most throughout my hands-on session: The soul of the Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater video games from the late ’90s and early ’00s is alive and effectively. Whether or not I used to be knocking a foreman into the water on Foundry, clearing branches from powerlines in Suburbia, or destroying the high-score targets on Alcatraz, the exhilaration I as soon as intently related to the collection’ heyday got here flooding again to me.
Although I used to be initially rusty, it quickly dawned on me how re-learning to skate in a THPS recreation is, funnily sufficient, like driving a motorcycle. After a couple of fast periods to regain my bearings, I returned to my prime kind from once I poured dozens of hours into Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 1 + 2 again in 2020. It is nice to see your entire skater lineup from that exemplary remake return on this package deal, with a number of extra faces additionally filling out the roster. That is not even counting the strong character creation and customization choices that additionally come again for 3 + 4.
The quick rush that comes from nailing a line in THPS, with on-the-fly planning, fast improvisation, and a light-speed calculus of danger and reward, coalesces into one thing actually particular. Once you’re within the thick of a extremely nice session, it is inconceivable to not bear in mind the magic this collection as soon as delivered each time you dropped right into a halfpipe or ollied from one rail to a different.
The announcement of Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3 + 4 excited me in methods most different recreation bulletins in 2025 merely can’t. Nevertheless, after spending a number of hours revisiting these glory days with outdated digital associates like Tony Hawk, Bucky Lasek, Bob Burnquist, and the remainder of the roster, Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3 + 4 has turn out to be one in every of my most anticipated video games of 2025.
Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3 + 4 arrives on PlayStation 5, Xbox Sequence X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Change, and PC on July 11, earlier than releasing on Change 2 someday this summer time. Along with native multiplayer, potential skaters can anticipate eight-player on-line with crossplay throughout all seven platforms, in addition to cross-platform sharing of Create-a-Park creations.