I was dying to find out if the developers of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 had done so, had brought back the original feel of the series, and I got my answer very quickly: this is what I wanted. It was hard to stop smiling once everything clicked.
The demo sent to the press by Activision is the same demo that you will get access to in the coming days if you pre-order the game or buy the right burrito, but don’t expect much. It’s not long, but then it does not have to be. It includes one level: The Warehouse. There are no goals to be achieved, no letters to collect, and no hidden ties to find. You can only play as Tony Hawk, and you have two minutes to get as many points as you can during your run. That’s the whole experience.
I stepped away, gained momentum on the slope down, left myself on the metal bar in the middle of the level for a short slip, appeared, came in a manual to hold the combo through, and then shook the disaster on the opposite side of the level, still in my manual, and transition into a slide that held me back to the other side of the level, jumped from the disaster to land a slip on the track right in front of the hole , jumped off the track and sailed over the hole. It was beautiful.
Until I realized that my timing and spaces were both a bit off, and I got into a heap – only to see my skater pixelated as a light “playback” sound played by the speakers, a new addition to the series . i the net shit eat, which turned out. The tape I made just needed to be returned to where I was at my feet. Fair enough!
Despite the failure of my first attempt at a line, I was upset. My old muscle memory was still there, honking for hours upon hours playing the original games, finding judgments of distances and lines and learning how to go through a trick. I lost virtual teeth because I could not land that last ollie and bring the points home, but I knew it was my fault, not the game.
This feeling of continuity, the re-utilization of that muscle memory, was one of the goals of this inn.
‘We’ve digging into Neversoft’s codebase, we were able to extract the handling code, put it in the engine where we are now and update it to make sure it feels exactly as you remember it, but updated with modern animation, ”Vicarious Visions studio director Jen Oneal told Polygon in an earlier interview. “It just looks incredibly smooth, and the fidelity is fantastic.”
This is the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater I remember, and I can play it as I remember, which is all I wanted from this updated version. The rebuilt and rebuilt levels I could take or leave, although the updated appearance visually modernizes the experience to such an extent that it would not look in place like a brand new game in 2020.
More importantly, even though I had downloaded this particular controller a decade ago, playing this demo for the first time made it feel like there was no time left.
There are some liveability updates here – the manual did not exist in the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, at least – and you can change a few things to customize the experience, such as making sure your special meter is always full or that you can not clear. The skaters from the original game that it will make in this one release will be the current, older versions of the real life sketches, with some additions to the roster. The definitive soundtrack is a fine mix of old and new, with a few tracks missing due to licensing issues.
But the demo as it exists is an exercise in restraint and showmanship. It’s the kind of statement you release when you know you’ve done enough important things right, and that a little taste will be enough to get people excited. It is a minimal working version that is hopefully indicative of the final game.
If you love the first two Tony Hawk games, this demo will get you even more excited to see how the rest of the levels look and play like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 was released on PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One on September 4.
