The Birdman is back, and he’s once again 540° Christ Airing his way into my house and into my heart, like some kind of majestic, Motörhead-fueled, messiah of manuals, methods, and madonnas. As the follow-up 2020’s absolutely delightful remake of the first two Pro Skater games, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 may lack the outright initial novelty of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 – and it definitely colours outside the lines a bit more while bringing these classics back to life – but it’s also impossible for me to deny how infectiously fun it is being transported back to 2001 for some authentically old school, arcade skating action. “The pleasure is to play,” barks Lemmy Kilmister in the iconic speed metal masterpiece Ace of Spades, which was the high-energy opener for the original THPS3 more than two decades ago and returns to do the same job in THPS3+4.
You’re damn right it is, Lemmy.
Five years ago developer Vicarious Visions achieved the improbable with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2. Despite the stench of Robomodo’s disastrous Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 still lingering in the air like a swampy pair of SB Dunks, Vicarious Visions produced one of the most pitch-perfect and essential remakes of the modern era – one that would go on to record the highest first month of sales for any game in the long-running Tony Hawk’s series. For its valiant efforts, Vicarious Visions was promptly… shut down, and Hawk himself confirmed plans to produce Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 were subsequently kickflipped to the kerb. Fortunately, this decision was reversed and the project landed at Iron Galaxy.
Despite having a different developer at the helm, THPS3+4 remains mostly in sync with the look and structure of THPS 1+2. That is, the graphics are similarly crisp and colourful, and the performance is robust and reliable. The skate roster is a mix of returning pros from the original games, the new additions from THPS1+2, and some fresh faces debuting in the series (including Chloe Covell, Yuto Horigome, Rayssa Leal, and Zion Wright amongst others). Yes, Bam Margera is here, too. He may be absent from the intro sizzle but you’ll be able to find him in the unlockable secrets.
Both games in the package are again represented as two separate strings of levels but, beyond that, everything is unified. Moves and tricks are common across both games (including things like, say, spine transfers – which were only originally introduced in THPS4.) On top of that, the stat points you collect playing one game will improve your skater in the other, and any currency you gather goes to one central kitty to spend on kit for your custom skater (or secret skaters, fancy effects, or special visual filters). Basically, if you’ve played THPS 1+2 you’ll know what to expect. But even if you haven’t, I anticipate you’ll catch on quickly to the neat and tidy, two-for-one philosophy at work.
Kick, Push, Kick, Push, Coast
The magic of THPS3+4 lives in its levels and, despite a couple of apparent absences, the marvelously remade maps are the stars of the show. As was the case with THPS1+2, it’s just so charming to be carving and combo-ing my way through such familiar geometry, only with a slick and modern overhaul. From feeling the heat of the molten metal in Foundry to ascending the levels of Alcatraz, unlocking and arriving in each returning map has been a huge highlight. Airport is still an impeccable string of skate lines. Cruise Ship is still a wonderfully moreish challenge to score crazy combos without cannonballing into the Caribbean. It’s great stuff.
Kona still suffers from parts of its real world-inspired layout being a bit of a plain space for the zany, arcade skating of a Tony Hawk’s game – and London’s shift to night seems to make it a little more boring to look at – but there aren’t really any complete duds here aside from THPS4’s Zoo, which has been turned into a tournament level. The Zoo is now abandoned, so it’s now lifeless and lonely (and the night setting is once again dull on the eyes).
While there’s no sign of THPS4’s Chicago or Carnival maps, there are three brand-new ones Iron Galaxy has added to the THPS4 campaign. I’m not sure how I feel about it in purist terms, although Waterpark and Pinball are both seriously excellent levels. An abandoned waterpark full of empty pools and crusty old waterslides is such a perfect environment for a Pro Skater game it’s almost hard to believe it didn’t already exist, and Pinball is seriously eye-catching – from the chrome sheen of the shiny metal ball to the gigantic Tony Hawk looming over the machine itself.
Level goals are mostly drawn from the original games – Iron Galaxy hasn’t arbitrarily moved the hidden tapes somewhere else – but there are a few new or amended ones throughout. These generally work (for instance, the incredibly easy ‘Trash the Museum’ on Cruise Ship has been replaced with a far more satisfyingly complex trick gauntlet you need to complete in order to produce the same slapstick result) but there are a couple of misses (switching out London’s Stompy the Elephant for a weird bloke in his undies is an odd pivot).
Most of the liberties have been taken in THPS4’s levels, where there’s been some significant pruning. Essentially, THPS4’s levels have all been streamlined to function under the classic two-minute timer, so this means you won’t be freely skating around speaking with fellow pro skaters and receiving verbal goals from them as you encounter each one. Those conversations are gone, and so too are a bunch of goals. I will note that some that I thought were missing appeared as one of the five extra ‘Pro Goals’ that become available after getting every initial goal in all parks. For instance, the parade floats that are parked teasingly out of reach in College do start moving down the street once Pro Goals are unlocked, but you won't be, say, startling an elephant or hardflipping over Kenny the Koala at Zoo this time around. It’s neat that we eventually get C-O-M-B-O goals for THPS3 levels that never previously had them, but there’s give and take. Either way, the THPS4 campaign generally only feels like a remake in brief bursts; most of the time it’s really a reimagining. You can change the timer to be up to 60 minutes as a new gameplay mod (joining the list of cheats returning from THPS 1 + 2) but, while it reduces friction, it doesn’t really make it any more like classic THPS4.
On the topic of goals, however, elsewhere there’s been some well-considered evolution to the park editor, which now features a ‘create-a-goal’ function. This is a huge plus. Now user levels don’t have to exclusively be places for you to cruise around until you get bored and decide to move on; they can be a whole new pillar of your THPS 3 + 4 playtime, tackling new challenges and collecting S-K-A-T-E letters, C-O-M-B-O lines, and hitting smashables in fresh maps every time you boot up. I think this has massive promise. You can also add turbo boost pads, friendly and aggressive NPCs, and death pits (that will kick skaters back to a spawn point), so it’s a great evolution of the park creator tools in THPS 1 + 2.
Not the Same
While I’m certain the reimagining of THPS4’s campaign mode will be a bona fide bugbear for some purists, personally I’m far more disappointed in the total about-face on display when it comes to THPS 3 + 4’s soundtrack. It’s actually a genuinely baffling situation.
The importance of soundtracks to the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series is a well-established fact. They’ve achieved legendary status in the business, and multiple oral histories have charted the stories behind their creation over the years. In 2020, the philosophy was abundantly clear when it came to THPS 1 + 2: the soundtracks were a critical part of the equation, and it was a central priority. 22 out of the 25 songs that made up the original soundtracks to the first two games were re-secured for the remake, and only three could not be licensed again at that time. With 22 returning songs and 37 fresh ones (59 songs in total), the soundtrack to THPS 1 + 2 is more or less spot-on.
Unfortunately, THPS 3 + 4 is a different story altogether.
Whether it’s a coincidence or otherwise, THPS 3 + 4 has also arrived with 59 songs in total – but the balance is all wrong. Yes, it’s certainly true that both THPS3 and THPS4 had significantly larger soundtracks than the original pair of games (20 for THPS3, and 35 for THPS4). And yes, hypothetically re-securing every single song probably wouldn’t have left much scope to augment the soundtrack with new music released since the heyday of the original Pro Skater games. Therefore, I would’ve been content to concede that a fair compromise would have been half-and-half – or at least a similar mix to THPS 1 + 2. Say, 20-or-so classic songs, and the remainder new.
We didn’t get close to that. Bafflingly, we got just six out of 20 from THPS3, and a mere four out of 35 from THPS4. That’s 10 total; less than 20% of the originals’ songs, and less than half the number of returning songs THPS 1 + 2 has. In actual fact, there are bands that weren’t even asked, and are as surprised as their fans to be absent from the THPS 3 + 4 soundtrack.
Apologists may badger me about using Spotify instead but, despite the presence of Bodyjar, it’s simply not the same as having the music baked into the game where it belongs. That is, I count myself lucky that Bodyjar’s Not the Same made the cut; depending on the day of the week you ask me it’s near enough my favourite song of all time. But my fellow old fans may not be as fortunate. After all, even the title track for THPS4 was brushed aside.
Simply put, this is a fumble for any remake, but it’s a particularly disappointing one for a pair of games in which the music is a key pillar of what makes them special and memorable. Don’t get me wrong, there are some genuinely great new tracks on THPS 3 + 4 that have instantly worked their way from the game to my daily playlists. Dog Years by Urethane, hollywood sucks// by KennyHoopla, Boys in the Better Land by Fontaines D.C., Roller by The Saint Cecilia, and Better Off by Common Perry are all total bangers and I wasn’t previously familiar with a single one of them. Rescuing Lupe Fiasco’s skateboarding anthem Kick, Push from being forever marooned in 2006’s Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam was also a commendable decision. However, I just cannot ignore the casual indifference shown to the original soundtracks.
