From the opening crawl of Rage Against the Machine’s “Guerilla Radio” playing over footage of the cast skating, something just feels right with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2
Developer:Vicarious Visions
Price: $40
Platform: PC, PS4, and Xbox One
MonsterVine was supplied with a PC code for review
It’s been twenty years since the original release of these two games that exploded on the scene, catapulting skateboarding from a niche activity to the mainstream. While the series continued to see success for a few more entries, skateboarding fatigue was inevitable as the sun set on the Neversoft era. This closure then led to the Robomodo era that gave us the motion-controlled titles that came at the height of plastic toy fatigue, and the disastrous Pro Skater HD & Pro Skater 5. Those two games were attempts at reviving the series back to its roots but the former was a pale imitation to its original and Pro Skater 5 was plagued with bugs and the highly questionable slam mechanic. This one-two punch put the series on ice for years until Vicarious Visions came with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, a perfect recreation of those original two games that eclipse them.
THPS 1+2 is easily one of the most faithful remakes of a classic game. All the original levels are here along with the brilliant soundtrack, the physics feel just as they did back then, and everything feels as it should. It took a bit to get back into the groove of things, but after a while, the muscle memory woke from its slumber and I was pulling off ridiculous combos like it was nothing. The two campaigns are sequestered off in their own tabs and feature the same levels and goals as before, which admittedly can feel like you’re going through the motions as your memory floods back. THPS 1+2 is really just those original games but touched up to modern standards and like any good remake, outperform the originals in every way.
But we all played those games ages ago, so let’s talk about the new. First up the new songs added in are perfect; there’s a great selection of new rock songs along with a healthy dose of hip-hop. It’s all a lot of lowkey stuff too that’s definitely getting added to my Spotify playlists. Along with that, a major change is that songs don’t just play for the two minutes you’re in a level anymore, with songs playing continuously across menus and gameplay. You can even go into the settings and turn off any songs that aren’t to your liking, like that atrocious Papa Roach track that should’ve been removed.
Besides a visual overhaul, the game’s UI got a nice modern aesthetic change with a sort of graffiti style to the main menu pages, and your character having a glitch effect whenever they fall over. You’d think the two would clash but it works great. On the gameplay front, unlike Pro Skater HD that excluded any mechanics that came to the series after THPS1, Vicarious Visions smartly included everything from reverts to manuals. It makes you look back on these stages with a fresh perspective as you think of potential combos you couldn’t previously do.
Free skate is back and with it comes a new mode called Speed Run. Completing every goal in a level will unlock it for that stage and the objective is to complete every goal on the stage as quickly as possible. It’s a hugely refreshing addition that’s addicting to play as you compete for the fastest time on the leaderboard. Rounding out the changes is a newly added progression system. There are literally hundreds of challenges to complete that all add XP to level up your profile which will give you access to cosmetic items for your Create-A-Skater in the skate shop. I was initially skeptical at its inclusion, but after I was playing for a few hours it’s nice to have something to be actively working towards. There are also exclusive challenges for each skater so it encourages you to try everyone out as well, with people like Tony Hawk having vert specific challenges while Rodney Mullen has more street trick ones to accomplish.
If you had friends as a kid then multiplayer was the name of the game with THPS. I can’t even begin to guess how many hours I dumped in the level creator, making the most absurd skateparks with my friends and playing trick attack or graffiti. All those modes return along with a few others like one that tasks you to reach a specified score before everyone else. The multiplayer sessions toss you and your group into a random level for a few modes before moving you to the next stage, but it would’ve been nice to see filter options to make it so you don’t see certain stages. I wouldn’t say there’s a stage that’s genuinely bad, which speaks volumes to the level design of those original two games, but there’s a handful I don’t really care enough for. A way to play a private session with your party would also be much appreciated considering sessions lose a bit of their fun when you get placed in a room with an obscenely great player who wins the combo objective before you’ve even landed a trick yet.
Besides the basic multiplayer mode, you’ve also got the return of Create-A-Park. It’s frustrating how much Vicious Visions nailed every aspect of this package but completely dropped the ball on half the multiplayer experience by not allowing you to play the Create-A-Park levels with friends. You can make stages, publish them, and play ones others have posted but there’s no way to directly share one with a friend or explore a series of created parks with people. It’s a mind-boggling exclusion, considering how huge of an appeal sharing weird stages you find would be. Now coming from comments from people I’ve played with, lobbies are allegedly coming to Create-A-Park in a future update, but I’ve yet to find a source on that so fingers crossed.
The Final Word
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 does everything a remake should do: improve on every aspect of the original release and set itself as the new standard. It proves that skateboarding games aren’t dead just yet, with a much-needed shot of adrenaline and nostalgia.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
