Iconic Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 comes in the form of a remake that’ll provide you with a gnarly experience.
We got Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 Remake back in 2021, but now we finally have Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 remake. It’s great that five years after the release of the remakes of the first two games. And the hype across the gaming community had reached an unreal level after it was announced that we can once again relive a franchise that was made after one of the greatest and most influential skaters of all time, Tony “The Birdman” Hawk with two more sequels that arguably took the Pro Skater gaming franchise to peak levels.
You have the chance to experience a little taste of what you’ll be getting with the demo that arrived last month to try out, and it allowed you to enjoy snippets of both 3 + 4’s content. Now that the full game is available, we’ve reached exciting times. Having to reconnect with the nostalgia as we turn back the clock and enter the PlayStation 2 era, and enjoy both iconic sequels.
Let me tell you a little story. I can remember back in 2002 when my mother bought me a PlayStation 2 for my birthday. My first two games were WWE SmackDown: Just Bring It! and, of course, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3. The number of hours put into this game was unreal for a child. But I loved every minute of it.
The gameplay, the content, the soundtracks, and much more made this game special. Plus, it’s unsurprisingly regarded as one of the greatest games of all time. Although I did play Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, and it was also an iconic title, it wasn’t as much as the former. But that can change with the remake.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 wasn’t made by the original developer, Neversoft. And it wasn’t developed by the developer of the remake, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, Vicarious Visions. Instead, Iron Galaxy Studios, the developer of 2012’s game Wreckateer, 2013’s Divekick, and so on, took the lead.
To replay these legendary skateboarding titles with modern gaming technology and mechanics is great and all, but as long as Iron Galaxy Studios maintains the magic that the original versions had, then it’ll all be perfect. On top of that, it’s available on Xbox and PC Game Pass.
Now, the question is, did Iron Galaxy Studios keep the magic? Is everything we loved about Pro Skater 3 + 4 in the remakes? You’ll be happy to know that they managed to do just that. But the remakes include additional skaters, additional parks, additional soundtracks, additional content, and more.
It’s like they’ve taken something special and then added many more sprinkles on top. Now, they do say that if something isn’t broken, don’t fix it. But this is an exception. It’s great having to use your favourite current skaters in iconic titles in the form of remakes.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 introduces brand new modern day skaters such as 2016’s Skater of the Year, Jamie Foy, Japanese Gold Medalist, Yuto Horigone female skating phenom, Nora Vasconcellos and of course one of the greatest skateboarders of all time, Nyjah Huston, who so happens to be my current favourite skater. Here’s another treat: you get to play as the seed of Tony Hawk, Riley Hawk. On top of that, if you got the deluxe edition, you’ll get two special playable characters, Doom Slayer and Revenant.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4’s parks also have a mixture of original and brand new parks for you to showcase your skills, such as Movie Studio and Waterpark. You don’t get many new parks, but that’s not a big problem since you also have a sizeable number of original parks from both games to play. Moreover, who knows? We might get additional parks in future patches.
As for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4’s music, it truly feels good playing with your favourite skaters while listening to the likes of the iconic Ace of Spades soundtrack. Just like the old days. Along with the iconic soundtracks come additional unskippable classic and modern era rock, heavy metal, and rap songs that are just pleasing to the ears. However, I’m not too happy that they only added like 10 original songs. We need the whole shabang.
The best thing about the tracks is that, for you content creators, if you enable the Streamer Mode, the copyrighted songs won’t play, but the safe music is also great to listen to. It’s like you won’t be hard done by or missing out on awesome music, regardless of what audio mode you use. It’s fair to say that this soundtrack playlist is simply perfection, and you can say it’s even better because we’ve been blessed with more bangers.
Seriously, there isn’t a single track I didn’t like. Although Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4’s original gameplay and mechanics were awesome and unforgettable, the remake version has much smoother, refined, and more realistic mechanics, movements, animations, and more, thanks to modern technology.
Performing tricks, tricks, and more feels close to what you see the real-life counterparts do. Plus, the character models look identical to their real-life counterparts. But we’ll discuss more on the visuals in a few moments.
The skaters have their unique special tricks, and just like in the original versions, you’d have to execute commands on your pad or mouse and keyboard to perform them. For example, as you’re airborne, to perform Nyjah Huston’s Hospital Flip, you need to move the analog stick or direction button left, then right, and follow them by pressing the X button. This is one of the many gnarly tricks you can do.
Moreover, you can select special tricks you’d like to perform with your skater, and you can select which command you feel comfortable using for that move. However, to perform special tricks, you’ll need to complete a series of ordinary tricks without fail and accumulate enough points to fill the special meter located on the top left side.
Once that meter lights up, you can do as many special tricks for as long as you please, as long as you don’t break your momentum by falling over your board; otherwise, you’ll have to start again. My favourite special tricks are the likes of Nyjah Huston’s Hospital Flip, Zion Wright’s Kickflip Backlip (down, right and X) and Leticia Bufoni’s Hang Ten Nosegrind (left, up and Y. If you’re wondering, yes, you can still hang onto cars to give you more speed or perform grinds with your board.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 combines the content from both sequels, allowing you to play both games’ career modes in any order. Progressing and completing challenges in either career mode will allow you to unlock rewards. Enjoy the Free Skate, offering completely relaxing and stress-free sessions.
In the Single Session mode, you aim for high-score runs. Then there’s the Speedrun for you to enjoy park goal time trials. But wait, there’s more: the Challenges mode lets you complete an abundance of Pro Skater 3, 4, Skater, and Tricks tasks to unlock rewards.
Of course, there is the in-game shop for you to purchase boards, apparel, and secret items. You also have a records section to check out your stats for your entire playthrough. If you don’t want to play alone all the time, the multiplayer has been introduced to help you with that.
You can play against fellow players worldwide, and it’s cross-play. Regardless of the platform, you’ll all have a totally rad time together. You simply select your favourite or custom skater and showcase your skills.
As for customisation, you have a great variety of skaters having their signature outfits, skateboard art, and more. And of course, you can create your skater however you see fit, and like it was mentioned before, you can create your park with a large and in-depth customisation. You can also customise a skater’s stats, and if you still want more parks, you can create your own with large customisation options to suit your vision.
There isn’t much to say about the visuals other than they are stunning, and thanks to modern technology, they are more appealing, vibrant, and realistic. And it feels great to play both iconic games in modern-day resolutions. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater in 1440p or 4K? Yes please.
Playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 literally felt like time-travelling back to the early 2000s. It’s amazing how the remake has additional features, content, and so on without even diminishing the sparks of the original versions.
Moreover, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 is built for everyone, regardless of skill set; you’ll all have an incredible experience with this remake. I highly recommend that you get this, regardless of whether you have to pay the retail price or install it on Xbox and PC Game Pass.
Need more incentive? Activision is currently running a ‘Grind to 100’ competition where the player who completes the game the fastest will be the winner of a set of unique, 24 karat gold-plated, £100,000 valued skateboard trucks. And all you need to do is be the first to acquire every achievement or trophy. Unfortunately for PC players, this competition is only available to the current and previous gen console players. Anyway, are you up for the challenge? Then get this bad boy quickly.
