The Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series represents more than skateboarding to me. It is the whole vibe surrounding the series — from the punk rock/hip-hop soundtrack and early 2000s environments to the outrageous NPCs and addictive gameplay. Iron Galaxy’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 (THPS 3+4) logically follows the success of the THPS 1+2 remakes, and it does so well for the most part.
While THPS 3+4 features fun and upscaled addictive gameplay, the overall vibe is nonetheless sacrificed for a more streamlined approach. For newcomers to the series, this probably won’t matter much. However, long-time fans will immediately spot the absence of the THPS 4 Campaign, NPC interactions, favorite music tracks, wacky characters, and other elements that made the originals a snapshot of the early 2000s. THPS 3+4 is a good entry in the series, one that I recommend due to the outstanding gameplay, level design, and stable performance. Nonetheless, THPS veterans are warned — the remakes do not attempt to recapture the magic of the originals.
“You Look Like Tony Hawk”
THPS 3+4 wastes no time in putting you in the middle of the action. The remakes feature self-contained stages where players must tackle several objectives within a default two-minute timer before they are allowed to progress to the next stage. These include high scores and combos, collectable S-K-A-T-E letters, secret tapes, outrageous tasks like getting revenge on frat boys, and more. Fan-favorite stages, including Airport and College, make a return in shiny 4K. There are three new stages added to the remakes, with Pinball being a likely contender to take the crown for best new stage addition. The variety of stages, objectives, and level design is diverse and well realized to keep you engaged throughout the five to six hours needed for a full playthrough. If you want a more challenging time, THPS 3+4 features a New Game+ which gives you the opportunity to return to the stages with all the stat upgrades you acquired in your first playthrough, but expect more difficult objectives. On top of that, there are secret levels that can be completed to stretch out the playtime even more for completionists.
However, THPS 3+4’s progression structure often feels impersonal and too streamlined. The remakes do not feature a campaign similar to the original THPS 4. The NPC interactions found in the original THPS 4 are removed as is the world exploration and campaign. This means THPS 3+4 essentially teleports you into a stage to cross objectives off a list before you move on to the next stage to repeat the process (with occasional competition stages sprinkled throughout to break that monotony). The default two-minute stage timer also feels like a hinderance when you want to take some time to fully explore the stage.
The roster of over 35 legacy and new skaters provides good variety as each skater features specific stat points and strengths. Nonetheless, the skaters rarely have much to do in the game despite providing their likeness. That’s because most of them are not voiced by the skaters or have very few lines, except for the Birdman himself.
Music is fundamental to the THPS experience. The remakes feature just 10 songs from the original two games, compared to 54 new tracks, according to a VGC analysis. Mixing new and legacy music may help with variety and accessibility for newcomers. Nonetheless, the absence of classics like AC/DC’s TNT dispels a lot of the original magic. In this sense, THPS 3+4 often feels like it is struggling to form its identity.
Airwalk to Japan
The highlight of THPS 3+4 is its gameplay – fast, addictive, fun, and varied. The controls are snappy and responsive. The gameplay is smooth due to the stable and polished 60fps or 120fps performance (depending on your display) on the Xbox Series X. This is a great case of accessible gameplay that is easy to pick up but difficult to master. The game encourages you to go for it by connecting wacky combos – from rail tricks to airwalks, Japan(s), and much more. The satisfaction of pulling a high combo is immense… and so is the disappointment of failing at the end of one. It is difficult to see how the THPS gameplay can get any better than this.
The game features the Create-A-Skater mode which lets you create and customize your own skater. There are clothing, tattoos, hairstyles, skateboard tapes, and more from where to choose from. However, this is overall a letdown. I wasn’t expecting RPG-level customization. Nonetheless, it feels like corners have been cut since most of the content is recycled from THPS 1+2. There are also limits on how much you can customize and “sculpt” your character. For example, there are no options for eyewear despite glasses being present in the game for certain characters. In this sense, creating your skater similar to your likeness will feel like a stretch.
THPS 3+4 also includes cross-platform online gameplay, featuring several modes such as Free Skate, Competitive, and the new HAWK mode which is basically Hide and Seek on a skateboard. Unfortunately, the online component is underbaked. There is no option to chat with other people except by using a mic, no lobbies either, and you can’t pick your preferred maps for Competitive mode unless you start a Local Multiplayer stage. You run the risk of randomly getting the same maps a few times. There are also no team matchups or co-op modes to compete in. As it stands, online gameplay leaves much to be desired and feels strangely impersonal despite being surrounded by other players because of the lack of interactivity. In an attempt to streamline THPS 3+4, Iron Galaxy may have oversimplified the online experience. I hope that new online maps, modes, and interactivity options will be included in the future to address these issues and make the online mode feel more like a community.
Summary
Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades” kick-starts the game with the line “You win some, lose some […].” That’s exactly how I feel about Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4. Despite the outstanding gameplay, level design, and stable performance, this is not a faithful recreation of the originals. Long-time fans will immediately spot the absence of the original THPS 4 Campaign, favorite music tracks, zany characters, and other elements that made the originals a snapshot of the early 2000s.
THPS 3+4 adopts the mentality of streamlining the single-player and online experiences. In this sense, the remakes often struggle to find their identity and, in the process, lose the magic that characterizes the originals. Nonetheless, there is still lots to love about THPS 3+4 and because these are basically sold as two games for the price of one this is a recommended buy especially for fans of the series.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 is out now on Xbox Series X|S and Game Pass, Xbox One, PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2.
The Review
Good
