I’ve a protracted historical past with the Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater franchise. After my cousin introduced his PlayStation and a replica of the primary Tony Hawk sport to our grandparents’ home for Thanksgiving 1999, I could not get monetary savings to purchase a PS1 quick sufficient. From there, I obsessed over Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater and its direct sequels. I continued taking part in the collection via video games like American Wasteland, Challenge 8, and Proving Floor, however these first 4 video games and Underground have at all times 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 skill to copy the sensation these video games gave me twenty years prior. In my overview of that sport, I discussed that the franchise lastly felt prefer it as soon as once more had a vivid 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 likelihood this week, as Activision and Iron Galaxy invited me to spend hours taking part in 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 had 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 yr, 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 received them over with what we mentioned we might do, what we pitched them on, and what we needed to deliver 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 deliver this out.”
As soon as it was formally making Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3 + 4, Iron Galaxy started contemplating the way it needed to strategy creating the successors to Vicarious Visions’ glorious remake. “1 and a pair of f—ing nailed it; they set the bar,” Rossi says. “Frankly, it was a little bit intimidating, to be trustworthy. It was positively one thing that is like, ‘Okay, now we have this basis that is actually strong, so we have to take that, hit it, and exceed it.’ So, taking a look at that and the franchise as an entire, I feel it is truthful to say it is a staple of gaming franchises. […] We have got fairly excessive expectations to hit; that was one thing we needed to preserve evaluating ourselves.”
Particularly, Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3 is praised as one of many best 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 Recreation Informer), tying it for the fourth highest-rated sport of all time amongst different iconic titles like Purple Useless 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 Recreation 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 stress 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 elemental change of Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 4’s profession mode to comply with the two-minute session format of the prior three video games—it fastidiously thought-about what was finest for the general product for each new and returning gamers.
“We checked out 1 + 2 and thought that was captured very well and thought it was an excellent 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 totally different, however what, at its essence, is it?’ Our purpose right here is to make the last word package deal of three and 4. So finally, we felt that taking it into feeling extra in the direction of the three format, versus what 4 did initially, was a greater illustration for a cohesive package deal that we had been making.”
Once I drill down into the choices to make modifications throughout each video games, Rossi admits there was at all times nervousness when the staff made the decision to change one thing. Nonetheless, he maintains that the staff’s choices benefited the titles as they exist on this upcoming package deal.
From my hands-on session, a lot of the modifications are small in scope, equivalent to an additional rail to open a brand new line for gamers, or useful quality-of-life enhancements, like the power to combo along with skitching, the place the skater holds onto the again of a car to achieve further velocity, or customizable timers for periods. And having spent greater than 90 minutes taking part in the Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 4 facet of this package deal, I do recognize the cohesion and have parity that this package deal brings due to the format change.
Getting On Board
Getting On Board
Outdoors of that foundational change to the fourth sport, probably the most vital addition gamers will discover after 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 any case, replicating the design conventions whereas attempting to recapture the parks’ magic from the unique video games might have simply made them really feel like low-cost knock-off maps. Nonetheless, after taking part in a number of periods of this new stage, I used to be impressed by how simply you could possibly have satisfied me it was a hidden stage from the unique THPS 4 that I by no means discovered.
“The massive 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 stage, and we introduced it as much as fashionable requirements,” Rossi says. “That was at all times the mantra: Does this really feel like this might have match within the unique sport?”
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 properly. 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 sport is, funnily sufficient, like driving a motorcycle. After a number of fast periods to regain my bearings, I returned to my high kind from once I poured dozens of hours into Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 1 + 2 again in 2020. It is nice to see all the 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 sturdy character creation and customization choices that additionally come again for 3 + 4.
The instant rush that comes from nailing a line in THPS, with on-the-fly planning, fast improvisation, and a light-speed calculus of threat and reward, coalesces into one thing actually particular. Once you’re within the thick of a very nice session, it is unimaginable 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 sport bulletins in 2025 merely can not. Nonetheless, after spending a number of hours revisiting these glory days with outdated digital buddies like Tony Hawk, Bucky Lasek, Bob Burnquist, and the remainder of the roster, Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3 + 4 has develop into 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, Swap, and PC on July 11, earlier than releasing on Swap 2 someday this summer season. 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.
