Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3+4 Evaluate – Evaluate

Years after Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 1+2 got here out on Transfer, it looked like all hope used to be misplaced for to any extent further skateboarding video games from Activision, particularly when longtime Tony Hawk-friendly developer Vicarious Visions used to be fed on by way of Snow fall in a while after the ones remakes had been launched. Fortunately some other developer used to be there to select up the torch in Iron Galaxy Studios. And much more thank you is wanted as a result of Iron Galaxy Studios did an unbelievable task in bringing remakes of Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3 and four to lifestyles in a brand new bundle for Nintendo Transfer 2. Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3+4 isn’t with out its warts, basically in some tough technical problems on Transfer 2 and one of the adjustments made to the fourth sport, but if all is claimed and carried out, that is some other nice number of skateboarding online game nostalgia paired with glorious fashionable thrives.

Normally, Tony Hawk 3+4 follows a equivalent construction and presentation because the prior remake. The menu structure is kind of the similar. It has a frightening quantity of real-life skaters to play as. It’s were given heaps of branded shirts and decks to earn and equip your customized skater with. The 2 authentic video games are cut up into distinct excursions with nearly each and every point returning. Whilst it’s acquainted at a look, below the hood some streamlining used to be carried out this is in large part for the most productive. In lieu of the level-up and problem machine of Tony Hawk 1+2, this one boils down development right into a extra centered number of demanding situations that at once free up some tools. You’ll additionally generate income from those demanding situations in addition to discovering some money in ranges to shop for apparatus and equipment from an in-game retailer. I didn’t to find anything else unsuitable with the best way the prior remake treated the whole lot, however I in the long run choose the somewhat no-nonsense structure right here.

Menus apart, the most productive a part of this sport is if truth be told skating in ranges. Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3’s excursion accommodates the 9 major ranges from the unique 2001 unencumber, all feeling simply as electrical as they’ve for the previous 20+ years. I imagine Foundry to be the most productive opening point in any access within the collection, stuffed with nice combo strains and neat secrets and techniques. I to start with idea that the Canada point used to be lacking one thing with the unfold of the preliminary point objectives, however the post-game added extra objectives to each and every point, serving to make ranges like Canada really feel extra entire. Rio, Skater Island, and Tokyo are 3 nice festival ranges. Suburbia is a Wisteria Lane-esque cul de sac that by some means feels more odd in 2025, particularly while you assist the Skinny Guy open a portal to some other size and input the abyss. The Airport is an all-time vintage Tony Hawk point, made higher this time round by way of letting you teleport to the start while you succeed in the top of the downhill trip. The general semi-secret point is the Cruise Send, which I’ve loved much more within the remake than I did within the authentic sport. Additionally props to sanding down one of the coarse ribald edges of 2000s-era video video games by way of now not having a look to provoke bikini-clad women however as a substitute impressing different skaters for some of the goals. I imagine Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3 to be some of the very best video games ever made and I got here clear of my time enjoying those ranges within the remake feeling just like the magic used to be recaptured.

Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 4’s excursion on this remake is a extra difficult tale, then again, even though it’s nonetheless extraordinarily just right. Lovers of the unique sport will needless to say the fourth access within the collection pivoted from the two-minute timer to a extra open point way the place you needed to to find quest givers at the map and entire objectives that method. Again in 2002, that used to be progressive, even though the implementation has proven its age through the years. For this 2025 remake, the degrees from Tony Hawk 4 had been tweaked and tailored to suit the two-minute layout. For essentially the most phase, this works smartly. Probably the most extra cinematic objectives, like chasing down the dudes who stole the professor’s automobile within the opening School point, nonetheless made the transition roughly intact. The parade floats from that School point nonetheless display up. It’s a forged adaptation of one of the more odd components of the unique Tony Hawk 4 unencumber. What I discovered from enjoying those ranges within the two-minute layout is that eliminating them from the extra open-ended exploration and prescripted objectives finds how they’re simply no longer as robust as conventional Tony Hawk ranges, particularly stacked up towards the 3rd sport. School and San Francisco each paintings smartly nonetheless, however I discovered one of the later ranges like Alcatraz and London to be somewhat extra stale. Two ranges – Kona and Zoo – had been become festival ranges, which is somewhat sq. peg/spherical hollow however they each nonetheless paintings within the layout even though they’re somewhat too large. Two ranges from Tony Hawk 4 didn’t even make the transition, as this misses the late-game Carnival level and the Mat Hoffman’s Professional BMX crossover Chicago point. What is helping to avoid wasting the Tony Hawk 4 excursion is the truth that the 3 authentic Iron Galaxy-made ranges integrated in it are in large part superior. The Waterpark is expansive, but additionally delightfully bizarre and artistic, stuffed with numerous amusing gaps and combo strains. Film Studio is a extra condensed festival point, however the two flooring give it some novel verticality and it additionally packs in a handful of excellent jokes. The Pinball point could be very gimmicky, however it additionally serves as a semi-bonus point and places you in some distinctive and colourful eventualities.

In the event you’re on the lookout for the similar revel in as the unique Tony Hawk 4 right here, you’re no longer going to get it. Iron Galaxy does a perfect task adapting the memorable goals from that sport into the two-minute layout, however it’s no longer the similar (and I say that as anyone who thinks the unique layout for Tony Hawk 4 is somewhat overvalued). On no account is it dangerous, as that is nonetheless Tony Hawk gameplay that feels tight and very good.

Whilst this isn’t the similar revel in discovered within the authentic Tony Hawk 4, what this remake does upload general is expansive and implausible. After you entire the preliminary point objectives, you free up tougher objectives and competitions. A few of these further objectives are both impressed by way of ones from the originals or off-the-wall bizarre and difficult. The post-game additionally allows you to tackle person excursions for all of the roster, which can result in unlocking particular tools for each and every skater. At a undeniable level, the post-game begins to run into some repetition, however as anyone who has often returned to Tony Hawk 1+2 to roll thru some ranges as a brand new skater, it’s an overly welcome carrot on a persist with have.

Talking of the skaters, whilst you’ll be able to most effective get the 2 Doom characters as a part of the Virtual Deluxe Version, the opposite secret skaters are neat, together with cool animated film characters like Michelangelo from TMNT and Bam Margera from Tony Hawk video games and CKY. Maximum of the name of the game skaters are simply that can be purchased within the store, however Jack Black’s British accented Constable Richard is accessed thru arcane hidden items.

Past the common runs during the ranges, the everyday collection of choices are right here, together with unmarried consultation and loose skate. You’ll fine-tune your revel in in your liking, together with turning off bails or turning on best possible steadiness. I recognize how there’s a component of letting the participant play then again they would like. Making it so you’ll be able to necessarily by no means fail doesn’t save you you from clearing objectives or demanding situations. Having bother with skitching? Pass into the menu and make it so you could have best possible steadiness whilst skitching.

You’ll additionally tackle Velocity Runs during the ranges, the place it’s important to entire all of the standard objectives as briefly as you’ll be able to, entire with crossplay on-line leaderboards. Create-A-Park is again and all items are unlocked by way of default, so you’ll be able to simply dive in and construct immediately. You’ll even create objectives inside your created ranges and position NPCs right through. I didn’t get too deep into development a park, however I loved seeing the default showcases Iron Galaxy already made. The web multiplayer, all in a position to be performed with different platforms by means of crossplay, is in large part very similar to the former remake’s taste. You necessarily hand around in ranges, with top ranking or territory seize demanding situations shooting up each and every minute or so. The brand new mode is HAWK, the place a handful of avid gamers conceal the letters from HAWK round a map, after which everyone tries to seek out each and every different’s letters in a restricted period of time. It’s an overly artful mode, encouraging numerous exploration right through the nooks and crannies of each and every point.

Whilst on-line on Transfer 2 ran nice in my revel in, the similar can’t be stated for general balance. Visually the whole lot seems to be superb docked and on hand-held, however the sport crashed again to the console’s house display with reference to 10 occasions over my 20+ hours of gameplay. I haven’t performed different variations to grasp if that is only a Transfer 2 drawback, however even though there’s a tight probability those problems get resolved, because it stands as I write this, it’s shaky at this time.

The soundtrack, as in keeping with collection legacy, is a wonderful number of punk, rock, hip-hop, and all of the intersections therein. My nostalgia soared when “96 Relatively Sour Beings” by way of CKY hit the streets of Suburbia. I jumped for pleasure as I heard Jeff Rosenstock’s “HEAD” blast during the audio system whilst skating across the Foundry. I discovered of a brand new ska band known as Commonplace Perry by means of their music “Higher Off” appearing up within the sport. It doesn’t have each and every unmarried music from the unique releases of each and every sport however it’s nonetheless a perfect collection, even though I omit the Alien Ant Farm and Zebrahead songs.

I had some trepidation when Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3+4 used to be introduced. Whilst the 1+2 remake used to be very good, Activision’s monitor document with the collection for the reason that mid-2000s has been spotty at very best. I’m extremely joyful that the skateboarding on this sport feels simply as just right because it did 20+ years in the past and that this is going past only a easy remake, with such a lot of amusing and stress-free post-game demanding situations that builds off of the root. One thing is misplaced in Tony Hawk 4’s transition to the 2-minute timer, however I nonetheless had a good time saving Painter Neal from the shark in San Francisco. And the standard of the unique ranges Iron Galaxy made makes me longing for the way forward for the collection, whether or not it ends up in a brand spanking new sport or an strive at remaking Tony Hawk’s Underground. Irrespective of whether or not or no longer you convey nostalgic luggage for the layout from the fourth sport, Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3+4 is a wonderful online game that may stay you kickflipping and reverting to an increasing number of upper ratings for a very long time.