23 Years Later, A Classic Series Is Returning To Skate Some More
Doom Slayer has entered the chat.
As teased in Call of Duty’s newest map last month, Activision has finally revealed what’s next for the beloved Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise: a full remake of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4.
The 2001 and 2002 PlayStation 2-era classics will be making a grand return come July 11, Activision announced Tuesday. The game is a direct follow-up to the 2020 critically acclaimed remake of the first two games in the series. Like that remake, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 will recreate the levels of the original from the ground up in a new engine, along with the return of the original video game’s athletes joined by today’s top pro skaters. The reveal trailer also revealed that at least one all-new level, a massive abandoned waterpark, will be included.
The game will pull in a majority of tracks from the two games’ iconic soundtrack including Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades,” Gang Starr’s “Mass Appeal,” and CKY’s “96 Quite Bitter Beings,” as well as “new tracks that capture the spirit of modern skate culture.”
Visuals for these 20-year-old games are getting a significant upgrade.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 is being developed by Iron Galaxy, not Vicarious Visions, which handled the first remake. The game will release on all modern platforms and Xbox Game Pass. The game’s eight-player multiplayer will also be cross-platform this time, a nice addition for those looking to test their mettle online.
The announcement comes as a surprise for fans of the series. When the 2020 remake released and sold well, most assumed it was the first volley in a franchise resurgence. But in 2022, Tony Hawk himself confirmed that a follow-up from Vicarious Visions was in the works but eventually canceled by Activision.
“The truth of it is, [Activision] were trying to find someone to do 3 + 4, but they just didn’t really trust anyone the way they did Vicarious,” Hawk told AndyTHPS on Twitch. “So they took other pitches from other studios, like ‘What would you do with the THPS title?’ and they didn’t like anything they heard, and that was it.”
Levels like Tokoyo are getting a new coast of paint.
A lot has changed over at Activision since then, including a $69 billion acquisition from Microsoft. With the game debuting on Game Pass, maybe it was new leadership that saw potential in a remake follow-up.
Activision also announced that those who pre-order Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 + 4 will get access to a demo with a single level in June and an exclusive skin for Tony Hawk. The Digital Deluxe Edition will also net players playable versions of the Doom Slayer and an enemy Revenant, both characters from id Software’s iconic shooter series. The Doom Slayer skates on a hoverboard shaped like a firearm from the demonic first-person shooters, a nice touch.
The Doom Slayer’s inclusion is a neat callback for the series as he was a PC exclusive unlockable character in the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3. Activision said there will be additional secrets to unlock in the full game. However, I’d be shocked if those secrets reach the same highs as the original game, which had the likes of Darth Maul, Wolverine, and Jango Fett as unlockable skaters.
It’s a big deal for these two games to make a return. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, in particular, is considered one of the best games ever made and remains the seventh-highest rated game of all time on Metacritic. The fourth game was the first to stray from the proven formula. It features a more open-ended career mode with pro-specific challenges players must tackle. While Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 is still a very fun game, it doesn’t quite reach the highs of its ultra-focused and tightly designed predecessor.
