0
0
It’s blasphemy to say that but I prefer Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater any day of the week. I was around when THPS (Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater) hit the big time in the late 90s, and while I personally had a skateboard back then, I still preferred the BMX version of the game. I did play Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 (and their OG equivalents back in the day), so I’m honestly confident I’m being objective.
I didn’t really enjoy any of the THPS games until Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland. Partly because it now incorporated BMX bikes, and also because the open world gave you more freedom! I never did like retrying over and over on a single stage, something the OG THPS games practically forced you to do to progress.
Well…we’re back to the dark ages again with the return of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4.
Did the time away help or is the formula just as stale as it was back then?
What is Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4?
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 is third-person skateboarding simulation developed by Iron Galaxy and published by Activision. It is a remake of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, and is available right now on the PC, PlayStation and Xbox consoles.
Our review copy was provided by the awesome folks over at Activision! Thanks so much!
We are reviewing the game on two different desktop rigs and a notebook.
Here are the specs:
Desktop 1 –
– MSI B550M Mortar WIFI
– AMD Ryzen 9 5900X with NZXT Kraken X73 RGB Liquid Cooler
– MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim X 24G
– Teamgroup T-Force Dark Z 64GB DDR4 RAM
– Samsung 980 PRO 2TB SSD
– NZXT C1200 Gold ATX 3.1
– Lian Li LANCOOL III RGB case
Desktop 2 –
– MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi
– AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D with Cooler Master MasterLiquid 360L Core ARGB cooler
– Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24GB
– G.SKILL Trident Z5 NEO 32GB DDR5-6400 RAM
– Samsung 990 PRO 2TB SSD
– Corsair RM850x PSU
– Lian Li LANCOOL 207 Digital
Notebook –
MSI Raider GE78 HX 14V
– Intel Core i9 14900HX
– NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
– 32GB DDR5 RAM
– 1TB SSD
The majority of the hardware above has been kindly sponsored by MSI (Desktop 1 and the MSI Raider GE78 HX 14V) and AMD (Desktop 2), and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank them for all their support!
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 feels like a game mired with an identity crisis. It attempts to slavishly stick to the originals, yet also enhance and expand on what was present in those games.
This comes in the form of expanded stages, new skaters (and the removal of licensed unlockable skaters), new tricks and crossplay online multiplayer.
One major plus point for me is the sheer number of unlocks the game has.
You unlock stuff by doing certain actions, which range from the easy (creating a custom character) to the insane. The drive to unlock more and more stuff should keep you playing for a while, and while there might be DLC incoming, the games have more than enough gear and equipment to keep anybody satisfied.
Both games are presented via a selection in the main menu, and you can freely move between them at any time. Skaters share stats between both games, so there’s no need to increase their stats again.
Speaking of which, there are a ton of new skaters (and a lot of returning ones) but I still prefer to create my own.
The good news is that while there’s a ton of stuff to unlock (from decks to gear to skill slots) to customize your skater with, the character creator is rather limited.
You don’t even get eyewear to equip your skater with!
Bummer!
It works well, but I feel that the presentation could’ve used more fanfare and sprucing up. Perhaps an overworld of some sort, instead of just clicking through menus.
It feels rather boring and uninspired though perhaps that’s only my opinion.
In-game, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 feels right on though.
Despite it being more than a decade since laying my hands on a THPS (or its offshoots) game, I felt right at home from the get-go in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4. I didn’t need a tutorial at all. The reverts and manual commands all coming back to me as I grinded and ollied the parks.
This is peak Pro Skater and while Neversoft (the original developers) may be long gone, their spirit is keenly felt in this remake.
The games still retain their goal-based structure, which was revolutionary at the time. Collect the letters S-K-A-T-E, find hidden tapes, get stat boosts, get a certain number of points, along with some stage specific goals.
While this style worked in the past, it doesn’t feel that way in the remake.
Due to the sheer amount of stages, the same handful of basic goals feel boring about halfway through. I started to dread going around looking for the S-K-A-T-E letters after the first few times. It became a chore, instead of a fun and challenging objective.
I also felt the time limit made things more restricting. I know it’s a carryover from the old games, but some of the stages are huge and the 2 minute timer only adds to the frustration if you’re unable to complete your goal in that time.
On top of that, the stages also vary in quality.
While the parks in both games are around the same size, I feel that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 has the edge in locations. They’re just more interesting visually and feel much more fluid and interconnected. The Foundry (despite it being the first ever level) is still my favourite level and shows off the gameplay of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 perfectly.
There are grinds galore, ramps for vert specialists and potential to rack up massive points with practice. It also looks cool (and superbly dangerous) with all the molten iron and industrial equipment around. No matter how many times I play the stage, I still find new skating lines or places to trick off.
It’s just like THPS’s Factory and THPS 2’s Hangar levels. Compact, yet filled with stuff to interact and trick on or off.
You can even create your own skate park with the Create-a-Park mode.
It’s a very flexible editor that is easy to pick up and learn but has the potential to create some really spectacular courses. You can customize a ton of variables…which makes it an invaluable tool for getting more stages to fool around in.
I dabbled in it for a while and really came away impressed with its flexibility. While you can plop down prefabs anywhere and get to playing within a few minutes, you can also insert smart objects that you can tweak and customize to your liking. Want a rail that goes around your park while spiraling ever higher? Go for it! There’s not much stopping you (other than the object limit).
Multiplayer is similar fun with one MAJOR caveat.
There’s no server browser or text chat. You get randomly matched into a room no matter what mode you’re playing. While you can set up a private room, nobody can find your room unless you invite them to it. Since the game is crossplay, you’ll meet up with console players alongside PC gamers. I didn’t have any issue with lag in the handful of games I played though it can take a bit to get matched into a room.
You can still play Local Multiplayer though, so that more than makes up for any online hassle if you have siblings or friends to play with in your house!
While the gameplay is top notch, other aspects of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 don’t measure up.
I’m not really happy with the soundtracks for the games though.
Most of the original songs are gone and replaced by newer tracks by known and not that known bands. These are also hit or miss depending on your preference. I’m honestly surprised that Rob Zombie’s Dragula (which was everywhere back in the day) didn’t make it in. No Offspring or Green Day too.
The game tries to draw the metalhead faction with bands like Alice in Chains, Motorhead and Iron Maiden, but the songs they’ve picked are nowhere near the best. Motorhead has way better hits than Ace of Spades (which does fit the setting though) and Alice in Chains’ Them Bones is a pathetic choice considering the band’s discography.
Come on, I can do better than that!
Scrap Ace of Spades, slap in Motorhead’s King of Kings, nix Alice in Chains completely and bring in Alice Cooper instead, with Poison as the chosen track. Add in Ozzy, DIO and Rammstein and WHAM! You get the makings of an insane soundtrack!
Hell, throw in Prince and Sting (and The Police) for added bonus!
In fact, the game soundtrack is a mish-mash of genres which I feel is lacking identity. Skater culture has always been closely associated with punk and alt-rock, so why are bands like RUN-D.M.C. or singers like Denzel Curry on the list while Bad Religion or blink-182 isn’t?
That’s not to say the soundtrack sucks bad (Seven Hours After Violet’s Alive is one of the new standout songs) but it is rather weak compared to the original.
I really recommend creating your own list of songs and playing it alongside the game (perhaps via Spotify on your phone) instead of listening to the game’s soundtrack.
I’m also disappointed by the game’s visuals.
Despite a bright color palette, the game still manages to look drab and shabby. Character models are pathetic, textures aren’t as detailed as they can be (even on 4K) and there are tons of animation snafus due to wonky hit detection.
The upside is the framerate remains stable on every single machine I tried the game on.
Whether it’s the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 in the desktop or the one in the notebook or the AMD Radeon RX 7900 RTX in the other desktop, the game ran smoothly on 4K (or 2560 x 1600 on the MSI Raider GE78 HX 14V) with all the settings maxed out.
Then again, the game really isn’t that good looking, with no option for ray tracing. It’s not like this game is going to push hardware like Cyberpunk 2077 or Monster Hunter Rise.
The Bottom Line.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 is a fun trip down memory lane for older gamers.
It’s a fun jaunt with the familiar gameplay the series is famous for, its weird fratboy-ish / Jackass-style humor and a ton of unlocks to keep you playing. Multiplayer is a bit hit or miss, but with Local Multiplayer an option, you can always play with somebody at home!
I’m let down by the lame new soundtrack and visuals though. The songs are pretty meh, or don’t really fit the theme and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 certainly deserves better than it got. It also deserves a better looking graphics engine, because the one it has now doesn’t cut it.
Despite its drawbacks, the positives more than make up for it. That means Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 is a worthy game to add to your library, whether you’re old school or somebody who’s just getting to know the Birdman.
TLDR:
Issues with the visuals and soundtracks aside, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 is a great remake of an old school classic.
The Good:
- Classic THPS gameplay.
- Lots of unlockables.
- Create-a-Park is awesome.
- Crossplay functionality!
The Bad:
- Visuals could be much better.
- Online multiplayer options a bit lacking.
- Soundtrack is lame.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
You must be logged in to post a comment.