TONY HAWK’S PRO SKATER 1+2
Have you been looking forward to this? You’ll flip
Both of these games are so fondly remembered, they could’ve been rereleased separately with nothing more than shinier graphics, and they still would’ve sold a gnarly number of copies, dude. But that’s not how the developers roll. They roll on well-worn trucks of love and care, stringing together combos of value and revision, grinding rails of respect before riding a wall of, er, new online modes. Or something.
These are supercharged versions of the games the fans remember. The graphics have been brought (re)masterfully up to date, wonderfully detailed and super-smooth. The skate parks are the same, from the classic Warehouse to Venice Beach. Systems from future games have been included; manuals (first introduced in THPS2) and reverts (an addition to THPS3) can be performed regardless of where you’re skating. A nice touch is that the pro skaters appear here as their current ages, and newer, younger pros (including Tony’s son Riley) have been added.
Your skater moves forward automatically, with tricks mapped to button combos. Stringing moves together for the big scores means, for the most part, throwing in manuals and grinds – both of which depend on a balance meter. The result is something with strong beat-’emup vibes, as you make split-second decisions about which rapid button inputs to use, and when, for more effective combos.
TRICK ASTLEY
It’s part platformer, too. Each park has a set of objectives, including collectibles – sometimes in places that you’ll need both brains and skill to reach – which demand that you think and act creatively, and multiple runs in the same park can be very different. At first you might be desperately trying to draw together huge combos, saying naughty words when you bail; the next, you might ignore points altogether, concentrating on collecting all the SKATE letters, or hunting down stat points to improve your pro or custom skater.
This is a game in which you notice yourself improving over time. When you start, you might find the top score targets unreasonably high, your epic combo attempts ending in a painful tangle of arms and legs. Once you start to pass those ‘sick’ scores with little trouble, though, your progress is immensely satisfying.
And you’ll certainly need to bring your best game online, where plenty of veterans are to be found. The modes are a little disappointing – Graffiti aside (which asks you to tag items with tricks), it’s all about high scores – but they successfully sparked my competitive streak.
Brilliantly, there’s a park editor mode, allowing you to create your perfect playground and/or play the creations of others (although it’s difficult to get your park noticed). Throw in online leaderboards, and you have a game that definitely doesn’t feel like a grind.