If you’re a returning fan of the series, Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3+4 might make you question the nature of time and mortality. The demo for this remade duology – currently available to those that pre-order the game on PS5, Xbox Series consoles and PC – opens with a collection of live footage from the included skaters, that roster including Riley Hawk, Tony Hawk’s adult son, 15 year-old Chloe Cavell, and Olympic star Rayssa Leal, who was born in 2008. For all that this is a remake and remaster of two games from 2001 and 2002, time has definitely passed for Tony Hawk and the skateboarding scene.
What it does show is that the skateboarding scene is not just alive and well, it’s kickflipping its way into a whole new generation’s hearts. The easy ability to share clips worldwide, the sport reaching all the way to the Olympics, and the resurgence of games like Skate and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater speaks to a sport that’s in rude health. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 is only going to cement that further.
The demo gives you two skaters, Tony Hawk and Rayssa Leal, though there is a third available if you’ve preordered the Deluxe Edition of the game. That third option is the Slayer from Doom, and maybe it’s just me, but does the Doom guy really seem like the most obvious choice for hitting a wicked Manual and bouncing into a cool kickflip? Weirder tie-ins exist, for sure, but I don’t think it’s the biggest draw for a Deluxe Edition, which also gives you a horrific alien Revenant skater too. If Doom is your favourite franchise, then maybe you’re spending the extra. At least Bam Margera is lurking around the final release.
The demo has two areas, Foundry and College, and it’s little surprise to find that these levels look absolutely stunning on current-gen hardware. Running in 4K, 60fps on PlayStation 5, Foundry has molten metal and jets of steam spilling out into the arena, as well as a focused set of rails, ramps and half-pipes, with the build feeling quite claustrophobic, forcing you to make split-second decisions to keep your combo going.
It’s definitely a more intense option compared to the sprawling College level. Here, those two minutes you’re given feel utterly lacking, as the number of options, hard-to-reach sections and potential routes spiral into the hundreds, if not thousands. It looks stunning, and I loved re-learning the techniques that fans of the series will have embedded in the back of their brain. Rightly or wrongly, grinds and manuals feel more natural now, flowing together more readily than they did when I was younger, but perhaps that’s just the result of familiarity and practice that have been years in the making.
Even in the demo you can dig into your skater’s setup swapping out or adding additional special moves, changing the inputs for these, or altering a few of the cosmetic options, like the board designs. You do earn money through each run, and while there’s no options here to spend it, I’m sure you’ll be buying your favourite skater’s different looks in the full release.
That will undoubtedly play into the upcoming Create-A-Skater mode, so you’ll be able to put yourself (or at least a version of yourself that can ride a skateboard without falling off) into the game. That sits handily alongside the Create-A-Park mode, which lets you create your own park from the ground up. I’m expecting this to run better than ever too, with the current gen horsepower behind them.
Tony Hawk’s would be nothing without the right soundtrack, and the demo gives you the requisite mix of bands like CKY and Motorhead nuzzling up to Lupe Fiasco for a great mix of vibes while you attempt to land that 900. It’s a real shame to find that some songs from the original games have been cut – an announcement from Alien Ant Farm dropped this week saying they were out – but we won’t know the full track list until we have the final game in our hands. You can remove any songs from the rotation if you don’t like them, and there’s some original tracks from Logan Byers that you can add in as well.
Perhaps the nicest surprise about THPS3+4 is that Activision have opted for a mid-range pricepoint of £39.99, which feels like a great price to jump in at, particularly on Switch 2 during its release window. For those on Xbox, it’s also going to be there day one on Game Pass, giving you no reason not to check it out.
Tony Hawk’s has never felt smoother, or looked better, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 looks like the perfect way to blend the old-school and the new-school together when it releases for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series consoles, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.