Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 – PS5 Review

Perhaps the biggest no-brainer in gaming was when Activision commissioned the remaster of the first two Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games back in 2020 (WAIT!  It was FIVE YEARS AGO?!).  Two of the most-loved games of all-time lovingly recreated for modern audiences.  It was a big success and while it wasn’t perfect, mainly thanks to all the extra stuff that they put in rather than anything being wrong with the original games, fans of the series loved it.

But, of course, this all led to the inevitable question:  would we ever seen Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4 get the same treatment?  There were rumours that we would.  And then rumours that we probably wouldn’t.  We’re not even sure what’s going on with Vicarious Visions, the studio behind the first remaster.  But eventually Iron Galaxy got the nod to produce the remake everyone had been waiting for.  And despite them having a somewhat patchy softography, everyone got pretty excited to finally see THPS3 (and to a lesser extent 4) get the remaster treatment.  Because, and forget what all the Nintendo fans say, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 might be the best game ever made.  We say ‘might’ but we mean ‘is’ and that’s why it still remains in Metacritic’s all-time top ten list.

Anyway, finally it’s here and despite the change in developers, THPS 3+4 has the look and feel we were all expecting from a follow up to 2020’s effort.  You’ve got a massive roster of skaters (not that it matters, we are always going to pick Rodney Mullen), an exhaustive (and kind of exhausting) list of challenges to complete, tons of items to unlock and, of course, levels to skate.

We won’t spend too long explaining what the Tony Hawk games are.  This isn’t the game to start your skating journey with but essentially this series defined what extreme sports games would be for decades.  You skate around small-to-medium sized levels, pulling off tricks and combos while trying to complete a list of goals.  But where the original games really shone was in the controls.  With enough practise, dexterity, skill and nerve you can pull off astonishing combinations of tricks.  This isn’t a simulation of skating, this is an arcade experience where skating is practically a superpower and, despite how good SKATE was, the thrill of those early Tony Hawk games has never been matched by any series (including the Tony Hawk series since).

If you’ve played THPS 1+2, this feels much the same when it comes to the controls and general feel of the game.  Some commenters have mentioned it being a bit clunkier than before but we immediately locked in with the gameplay, shredding our way through the campaign without too much trouble.

But look, here’s the elephant in our review office, as much as we LOVED the third game (essentially completing everything on it back on the PS2 over countless playthroughs), we don’t have the same fondness for THPS4.  We never have.  We beat it once back when it came out and that was enough.  We didn’t enjoy the switch to a larger play area, we didn’t enjoy the goals and levels as much as before and, crucially, we were just a bit done with the series by then.  Younger gamers who started with it will swear by it though, so your mileage might vary but, for us, playing this remaster gave us the same feeling.

Playing through all the THPS3 levels was a joy.  Everything looks crisp, clean and lovingly-recreated but the stages still have that familiarity to them.  We had a blast on our favourite levels.  Tokyo, Airport, Foundary and Cruise Ship all feel better than ever.  All of the levels do.  We felt immediately at home and they’re still some of the best stages the series has to offer.  The objectives have been remixed a little from the original and there’s a lot less cash to collect but it all felt reassuringly familiar while the game engine kept things modern enough to still feel contemporary (although, that said, we recently completed THPS3 – the Gamecube version but emulated on an Android handheld – and it was still excellent).

For us, THPS4 never had the same charm and that’s the case here too.  The game has been shoehorned into the same structure as the previous three games.  The once open-world(ish) structure has been turned into the usual small-sized arenas, built for the two-minute runs we’re all used to from THPS 1-3, which has certainly irked some fans, and they’ve had to make some other changes too.  They’ve added three competition stages – Movie Studio (good), Waterpark (okay) and Pinball (looks great but is a bit rubbish in terms of flow) – and a couple of levels have been removed.  So you’re not getting as pure a THPS4 experience here which works in the context of the larger game maybe.

Once you’ve beaten both campaigns, a set of Pro Goals unlocks on each stage and these up the ante considerably.  So, veteran players will be happy to get a real challenge out of the game as everything up until then is pretty easy to get through.  We didn’t get stuck anywhere on the main campaign, even on those THPS4 levels, but the Pro Goals have been kicking our arses ever since.  However, it’s when you get past that that things lose their appeal a bit.  At this point you’ll be either looking to beat the game’s massive list of challenges (including finding all the gaps, doing speed runs and the very taxing ‘Get There’ ones) or beating the game all over again with other skaters which is fine but there’s like 30+ of them and so if you’re motivated to continue by trophies, you’re in for a very long, grindy time.

A bit like THPS 1+2, everything with this game is polished and slick but it’s just a little lacking in other ways.  Where 1+2 had their original, iconic soundtracks, this version has a mostly all-new one.  There are still some old favourites in there but it’s mostly a new list.  There are some good tunes in there (Turnstile!) for sure but if you’re hoping for nostalgia, you might be disappointed.  And constantly unlocking things we’re not going to use – mainly cosmetics – gets a bit tiresome.  We can’t help thinking that if they’d just given us a straight remake of THPS3, we’d be happier with it instead of what’s a bigger but more bloated product.

But as with our THPS 1+2 review, we’re focusing on what we don’t like but the main thing here is that this is still a really good game.  Both THPS3 and 4 benefit greatly from the graphical glow up, they still play great and you can’t really beat the thrill of pulling off a great combo.  The gameplay is what matters and you’ll have a lot of fun playing through it all.  And with a host of customisation options (including the ever-present level editor) and some good multiplayer features, there’s a lot to do here.  And, ultimately, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 still rules.  THPS4 is okay too.