I spent way more time than I would ever like to admit playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 on my PlayStation. I ultimately got so good at the game that I could regularly break the score multiplier on maxed tricks, and would do so well in the judged events that I would get lower scores because my previous runs were full of the same varied amount of tricks. It was disgusting, time consuming, and some of the most fun I’ve ever had trying to max out and master any game I’ve ever played. While future iterations of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater started to disappoint and ultimately disgust, there’s magic in the first two games and Activision knows this. That’s why there was already an HD Remaster before this, and now we have a completely revamped re-release in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 Remastered.
Everything about this remaster feels so familiar, and yet it’s just varied enough to keep me coming back for more. Classic tricks still feel identical to the way they did back on the PlayStation, but now they look incredibly fantastic in full realistic glory. While I’ll always be somewhat partial to a weirdly drawn Elissa Steamer’s blurry face (she was my favorite ‘cause she was the only playable female skater) that made her look more like Shaun White than a female skater, seeing professional skaters from my childhood updated to be more reflective of their current looks – age and all, was both bittersweet and surprisingly refreshing. Birdman himself looks a little more weathered than he did 20 years ago, but that’s a staunch reminder that time waits for no one and oh God I’m getting too old someone please make it stop, and seeing new faces such as his son Riley added to the game is a great way to bridge the gap between the past and the present.
Environments are faithfully recreated in regards to the originals, but with just enough new twists to make them stand out and capture your attention to want to fully explore. The downside is that my memory sucks and I keep getting lost because it’s been so long since I played these games, but I don’t even care cause it’s so much fun to play. My only complaint about the design are some of the dated references that were included, since they’re going to quickly be forgotten, and it should have been easier to throw in classic skater mag posters, advertisements, or something else from the wayback machine instead of dated references to that time Vicarious Visions revamped a classic.
The gameplay is largely the same as you’ll remember from the originals, but there’s a few extra quality of life additions that were added from future installments. Things like being able to kick off of the wall, pretty much the only good thing in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 were added, and that’s sometimes a boon but can also ultimately mess with your muscle memory as I’d often push off the wall instead of ollie’ing up for more air from a wallride. Ultimately it doesn’t matter, because the majority of people who are going to pick this up are newcomers to the series or players who came to the franchise somewhere between Tony Hawk’s Underground and American Wasteland.
There’s a lot of appeal to making a custom skater in THPS 1+2, as most of the things you’re going to want to do are largely more relevant to a custom skater than they are the provided roster. I made this glorious trash bag, lovingly named Fucc Boi for your enjoyment, and he’s as douche-bro as I could make him, looking like he smells like AXE body spray and Natty Lite, but just cultured enough that you could give him a PBR and a puka shell necklace and he’d be Philly AF. He sort of looks like Enzo Amore but less like an electrocuted chicken.
The soundtrack is quite obviously the most important part of this game, because you simply can’t hear songs like Goldfinger’s Superman without this game immediately popping into your head. What I do wish is that Activision would have opted for the M rating on this game and included uncensored versions of the songs as well as the blood for when the skaters crash like the previous games had. The glitching effect is cool, but it’s not quite the same as a classic bail. In addition to the soundtrack consisting of most of the original songs included in the game, there’s also a plethora of new tracks that fit really well – songs like Sublime’s Same in the End (though I would have preferred Badfish) The Ataris’ All Souls’ Day, Alex Lahey’s Misery Guts are welcome additions that would have fit perfectly fine if included originally. Bad Religion’s You returns from the last time they remastered this game, but there are some new songs that absolutely crash the party and have no business being here. Songs like Baker Boy’s In Control doesn’t really fit, but it’s not the worst offender – that honor belongs to CHAII’s South. That song is terrible and I wish I could fire it from a cannon into the sun.
At the end of the day, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 features a super fun (even if terribly repetitive) return to simpler days and does with enough style to keep you coming back for more over and over again if for no other reason than just to listen to those classic punk rock earworms. It’s a steal at $40, and it’ll likely be half that by Black Friday, so jump on it and get grinding!
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 Remastered is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 Remastered was provided for review by Activision.
