When you think of old games (particularly anything after 16bit), there is a vision of what they actually were in your head. But generally, if you go back to play them, they don’t look or play like that. And Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Pro Skater 2 hold true to this. They are still great games today but they are visually muddy and have gameplay quirks that were ironed out in later sequels.
Vicarious Visions remake of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 +2 somehow captures what the game looked and felt. It is the perfect encapsulation of all our nostalgia bringing the game forward visually but somehow being exactly as we remember seeing it originally. And it has modernized the gameplay, incorporating aspects from later games in the series but at the same time feels like what we remember the first two Tony Hawk Pro Skater games as.
Hitting the Warehouse (the first stage of Tony Hawk Pro Skater) just feels right. For many gamers, myself included, this level is just etched in to memory and this remake nails it. And that continues throughout the remainder of the game’s two campaigns. As does my absolute sucking at it.
Look, I wasn’t great at the games originally and that hasn’t changed in twenty plus years. In fact, I may be worse but there is just something about the nature of the game that keeps you plugging away at it to complete the objectives needed to unlock the next skate park. I think ultimately it comes down to the two minute time limit on runs. It is short enough that even if you failed to get any objectives on a run, you don’t feel rage inducingly mad. You just hit retry and give it another go, and another, and another, until it’s two hours later and somehow you’ve finally gotten that elusive collectible or combo score that you needed.
And on top of the base campaigns, there is a multiplayer mode (and competitive challenges) and a robust skate park editor/creator in addition to hundreds of unlockable cosmetics for created skaters and online identification. It is kind of crazy the amount of content this game has and coming off the horrific disappointment of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5, it kind of has no business to be this good. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2 is a phenomenal remake and update to the series.
4*
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