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Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 is a wonderful remake of two beloved skate classics.
Title: Tony Hawk’s 1 + 2 pro skater
Developer: Vicarious Visions
Editor: Activision
Platforms: PlayStation 4 (revised version), Xbox One, PC
Release date: September 4, 2020
More than two decades have passed since Tony Hawk’s professional skater released on PlayStation. Now Activision with Vicarious Visions has remastered the two classes: Tony Hawk Professional Skater 1 and Professional skater 2 – and we group them into Tony Hawk’s 1 + 2 pro skater for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. I dug deep and came off my caving expedition to tell you that there is indeed gold in these hills. Metaphors aside, this is in X-Games mode.
When you jump for the first time Tony Hawk’s 1 + 2 pro skater, you will be able to see a really cool video of live images with many of the professional skaters of then and now. There are also images of some of the new young ducks that have also been added to the game. But it’s perhaps the inclusion of Tony Hawk’s son, Riley, that will certainly make you feel absolutely elderly.
Seriously, seeing Riley Hawk in this game would be like playing a new Mario game as Mario’s adult son to show how much time passed. Or a Pokémon game where your character from previous games went ahead and had / ditched a trainer of their own. It just shows how far we’ve come since the debut of Tony Hawk’s professional skater in 1999, and how old are we.
You can choose from a wide variety of trainers when you play and each character has a list of personal challenges. Completing them all unlocks a video you can watch of them doing their thing. I absolutely suggest focusing on Rodney Mullan first because that man is the god of all things manual and watching his video reminded me why he used to skate.
When you enter the game itself, just like the Spyro or Shock remasters, you can choose if you want to enter Professional skater 1, Professional skater 2 or free skating. Free Skate gives you immediate access to all stages without the objectives and, most importantly, without the timer. I recommend this because it allows you to discover the controls, remember how to get to the most difficult access areas of the game without being pressed by the sands of an hourglass.
One of the things I love about this game is the amount of work that went into proving that time has progressed. All the skaters who were previously in Professional skater in 1999 they have returned but they seem their age. I told my wife that I was playing a “dad simulator”.
Even the stages show their ages. Little touches like covered skate parks that have faded paint in places and roof tiles are missing is a nice touch, but the most beautiful was the mall.
The scene of the mall of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 is back in all its glory. A linear stage that mysteriously teleports you to the beginning when you try to exit.
But because it is a mall in 2020, it has been treated accordingly. The mall is now completely abandoned. Old posters advertising clearance sales hang from the ceiling. The stores are still there, but they are bricked up shop windows with some leftover shelves and naked mannequins. Leaks from flooded roofs occasionally fall from the roof. It’s a really nice touch that makes me feel a lot less guilty about destroying store directories to serve a purpose. I still have a strange joy in destroying the only remaining mall kiosk because let’s face it, we all wanted to do it.
Outside of the game’s traditional goal-filled timed mode, there are plenty of other things to do as well. Beyond the well-known skaters, you can fulfill your dream of becoming one yourself with Create-A-Skater.
However, there aren’t exactly a lot of options in character customization. Also, almost every item has a huge logo and if it didn’t, it was likely promoting one of the pro skater’s own clothing lines, so it felt odd. Most of the clothes are just logo jerseys, so it’s not worth unlocking any.
Create-a-park is here too and it’s not really that bad. While the interface is a bit clunky, it does feature a host of things to do. Items can be placed anywhere and are not tied to physics, so if you need something in the air for any reason, for sure have air rails.
I wish I was creative enough to do something cool, but instead I did a recreation of the little skate park Parma, Ohio once had until they freaked out about the fact that it attracted skaters and then they took it down in favor of a vacant lot. It is posted and available if you are looking for Parma, but like I said it is small and honestly only good if you want to remember the little thing.
Outside Fall boys, I’m not a big multiplayer gamer so I was surprised to find multiplayer on Tony Hawk’s 1 + 2 pro skater it’s where I have the most fun. There are a lot of cool modes here, including one where players battle to get the biggest combo before time runs out. Unfortunately for my opponents, I remembered exactly where in the school stage I could go to get an infinite combo, so I ended up embarrassing my teammates. The muscle memory kicking in and reminding me where I was was a really cool feeling.
There is also a mode where players try to rack up the highest possible score. This is easily the most relaxed mode due to the simple fact that you can just relax by the pool and level up.
My favorite was graffiti. I’ve never been able to do this mode with 10 people and it almost felt like a weird version of Splatoon. In this mode, every time you do a trick, change the color of the item you did the trick with and your goal is to mark as many things as possible. People can also steal your items by doing a bigger trick with them.
Great tip for this mode, if you know you’re near a hard-to-reach area like rooftops, go up there. Everyone fights for things from ground level, but if you climb onto a rooftop, you’ll have a host of notable items for you. Just remember that wall mounting also allows you to mark entire walls.
All in all, Tony Hawk’s 1 + 2 pro skater it’s a lot of fun and a great remake of two beloved classics. For newcomers, it’s a wonderful introduction to the skate franchise. For older fans, it is a real treat to remember the vast amount of knowledge that he had stored for decades waiting for the day when he would need it again.
A great starting point for newcomers and a refreshing return to the glory days of skateboarding for veterans of the franchise, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 does everything you want and a little more. While customizing the stages is a bit tricky and the character creator is notably boring, the game is an absolute joy to just jump in and play.
A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with 0.5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.
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