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Whenever a group of 20-something gamers gather around a fire to reminisce about the good old days, the same three things always pop up: couch co-op, cartridges vs discs and of course, skateboarding. A staple of gaming culture during the early 2000s, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was a series to be reckoned with.

Fast forward to 2020 however, and the once revered series has seen two failed attempts at a comeback with the middling Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD and the abysmal Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5. Well, it’s been five years since THPS5 and Vicarious Visions is now back at the helm with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2.

As you can surmise, this latest entry is actually a remaster of the first two games, bundled into one package. Ahead of the game’s release, Trusted Reviews was given access to a demo, featuring a revamped version of the classic Warehouse level from the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.

Booting up the demo feels like peering through a gateway to the past. Clips of skaters I used to recognise play to the tune of Goldfinger’s seminal track ‘Superman’, but before long there’s a whole host of new blood to show that, in the years since the Tony Hawk’s series of video games have been out of the zeitgeist, the real-world of skateboarding has very much carried on and found its next generation of stars.

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It’s an uplifting thing to see, as the introduction lets me know that I’m in for something special that carefully walks the fine line of modernity and retro. If like me, you’re an existing fan of the series, then you’ll find that diving into THPS 1+ 2 feels like riding an old bike – the muscle memory’s there, it just take a moment to remember all the old tricks.

Diving into the gameplay, it wasn’t long before I was busting out ollies, kickflips and rail grinds with the same velocity as my younger self, and it felt fantastic. Stringing tricks together and building your combo feels incredibly slick, and there’s the added benefit of being able to pull off a manual – a trick that wasn’t present in the original two titles – to traverse these levels into a way that just wasn’t available before.

When you do string enough moves together, you’ll max out your special meter and this is where the fun really begins. With the special meter active, you’ll be able to enact some ridiculously impressive moves that seem to defy the laws of physics – how anyone can pull off ‘the superman’ is beyond me.

There’s also a nice graphical bump after the disastrous attempt of THPS 5 to cover up its blemishes with lacklustre cel-shading. Nope, this time around, Tony and the gang seem to be making good use of the technology available with current consoles.

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With regards to the soundtrack however, things are very much grounded in the past – and that’s no downside. As part of the Guitar Hero generation, I grew up on a healthy dose of epic guitar solos and slamming bass riffs, which makes me feel right at home with the 90s rock/hip-hop vibes being dished out here.

Still, with the air-tight gameplay and waves of nostalgia, the game doesn’t offer up all the means for exploration that THPS fans have come to expect, with the ability to step off your board and walk around being absent here. Of course, this is a feature that didn’t appear until Tony Hawk’s Underground, but it might alienate later fans of the series.

In fact, my only caveat so far is that if you grew accustomed to the wackiness of later THPS games, then this remaster might seem a tad tame by comparison. Staying true to its source material, this title puts more of an emphasis on becoming skilful with the gameplay, and while there is an element of level exploration to be found, it’s unlikely to be as much of a focus here as it was with the likes of Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 for instance.

Having dove into the series at Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 – where the levels became larger (as did the roster of absurd hidden characters), I partially include myself within this group, but it’s just so much fun to be playing a THPS game again that I’m not too fussed.

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Hearing familiar sound effects as I mash buttons together in the hope of pulling off something miraculous, THPS 1+2 is an undeniable rush of nostalgia. Even for newcomers to the series – the lack of any substantial skating games in the last few years means that this remaster is automatically your best bet, so long as the rest of the game lives up to the high standard set by the demo.

First Impressions

Between THPS 1 + 2 and the long awaited but finally confirmed return of the Skate series on the horizon, the next few years could be fantastic for the skateboarding genre. Anything that revitalises the genre from its long and unnecessary slumber is fine by me – here’s hoping that we a similar treatment for the Guitar Hero series down the line. Hey, a man can dream.

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