Given the massive success of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 in 2020, it only made sense that the third and fourth game were going to get the same treatment. After all, those titles are arguably at least as good as their earlier counterparts, with both having review scores in the 90+ range.
However, with Vicarious Visions merged into Blizzard, there was the question of who’d even make such a game. Would one even happen now that Activision is seemingly going so hard on its biggest franchises?
Well, fortunately the answer is yes. Because just a few days ago, the company announced Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 for all major systems, with 1+2 port developer Iron Galaxy at the helm. Here’s the trailer if you haven’t seen it already:
As you can see, it’s pretty much everything you’d ever want from a game like this one. You’ve got all the same skateparks from the original except with updated HD graphics, you’ve got almost all the skaters from these games returning (albeit with the seeming exception of Bam Margera), and the engine seems to be directly based on that from the last remake, ensuring it’ll play out just as well as that game did.
Hell, we’ve even got new parks and characters too, like the abandoned theme park from the trailer. So, if you want a modern Pro Skater experience, this game is probably as close as you’re ever gonna get.
That said, there are still a few questions that need answering. Most notably, how is the story mode actually going to play out here?
Because in the original games, THPS 3 and THPS 4 didn’t exactly have the same setup for their campaign mode. No, while the former played things close to the first two games with timed levels and a very linear progression structure, the latter had a full-blown career mode with a lack of time limits, NPCs and a more engaging story setup.
Unfortunately, this remake seems to imply the latter will be streamlined, featuring the 2-minute level setups found in prior games instead. That’s not necessarily the worst thing ever, and it could still be great fun depending on how many of the missions are kept intact here…
But it does raise questions about how it’s going to adapt things, and how much of 4’s career mode will make the cut here. Will it be present as its own mode? Will the best parts about it still make it in, despite the change in format? Or will it somehow strip 4’s maps back to the basics and take away much of the feel of that game in the process?
We’re honestly not sure, and it’s something that’s definitely dampened our excitement here.
Regardless, the idea that these games are getting remade at all is nice to see here, and there’s definitely a lot of potential for this title if the team could pull it off as well as the first one. Here’s hoping everything works as expected when it heads to all systems on July 11th this year!
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