Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD (PS3)

Prior to the release of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 in 2015, developer Robomodo released a digital-only remaster of the first two games (in theory), Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD, in 2012. After playing through the recent remaster of the first two games by Vicarious Visions, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, I remembered I still happened to own a copy of Pro Skater HD, which has since been delisted, on my PS3 hard drive and wanted to see how well it held up (or didn't) after eight years. After going through the game again, I remembered more of the game’s shortcomings and why I didn’t really like it when I first played it.

The gameplay features a mixture of mechanics and other features from Pro Skater 1 and Pro Skater 2, though in a somewhat odd fashion. For starters, rather than presenting every level from those games, there are only seven total stages from both, four of which are from Pro Skater 1, so Pro Skater HD appears to come up a bit short. The system for unlocking new levels takes more from Pro Skater 1, except you have to complete a certain number of goals in the preceding stage rather than completing a total number of goals across all of them. Additionally, the Cash system from Pro Skater 2 returns, including all of its mechanics from said game. However, while you can purchase stats and tricks with cash, boards are merely cosmetic and have no effect on gameplay. The game also doubles the number of goals in the Pro Skater 1 stages to line up more with Pro Skater 2, including more collectibles and trick-based goals, though each goal also has a Cash value and there is a reward for completing all challenges and collecting all the floating Cash.

One mechanic reintroduced in this game from Pro Skater 2 is that falling from a great-enough height indicates a Big Drop, which requires holding the Ollie button to survive and otherwise results in an instant bail. Since this mechanic has never been used before or since, the first time it happens is a bit jarring and quickly became one of my least favorite things about Pro Skater HD due to introducing an unneeded complication to gameplay. Elaborating on this, the moveset takes more from the first two Pro Skater games, along with the Revert introduced in Pro Skater 3, which does retain the spirit of those games in theory, but can feel a bit restrictive in practice for those coming off of some of the later titles in the series.

This feature was brought back for some reason.

There are some more technical issues as well, such as the floaty physics and the slower pace of the skater, making it all too easy to completely lose momentum at a moment’s notice, such as after finishing a grind. There are also frequent and often odd glitches, such as grinds registering below a rail and bails causing you to phase through the level geometry and into the void. While not a technical problem, one particularly questionable design choice was converting the final level, Marseille from Pro Skater 2, from a competition into a regular level, robbing the game of any sort of meaningful end goal. However, one of the new missions slapped onto the stage was gathering five Medals, and so I went out of my way to collect all of them just to have some semblance of closure on the campaign.

One thing I will give the game credit for is that, fitting for a remaster, each level is given a major visual upgrade to take advantage of then-modern systems. Despite the increased level of detail, however, each stage looks a little too “clean”, which manages to make them somewhat devoid of any personality and feel like they’re more or less going though the motions. Not helping is the several seconds of texture loading that occurs before you can start a level for the first time, which actually prevents the skater from moving forward or the timer from starting until the loading ends. In addition, the UI is a bit busy and takes up roughly a third of the screen, though one thing I actually did appreciate was the inclusion of a pop-in progress bar for a number of the challenges. I will also mention that there was some noticeable advertising for Nixon and Monster Energy, especially the former going so far as to sponsor the two-minute timer, a practice that Robomodo would later repeat in Pro Skater 5.

The UI is very intrusive.

The soundtrack contains 14 tracks in total, though only seven of them are actually carried over from the original two Pro Skater games, with the other half consisting of newly-licensed songs. While this small track list is oddly appropriate, in the way that each of the two games themselves had small soundtracks, it seems a bit jarring when compared to most other games having rather sizeable song selections, as well as the two original games’ soundtracks put together. That said, many of the returning songs are ones that I happened to like from those games, plus the new tracks aren’t that bad themselves and fit in with the old ones to some extent. Taking this into account, my personal highlights from this game’s track list include “Bring the Noise (ft. Public Enemy)” by Anthrax, “Superman” by Goldfinger, “When Worlds Collide” by Powerman 5000, “Heavy Metal Winner” by Consumed, “No Cigar” by Millencolin, “You” by Bad Religion, “The Bomb” by Pigeon John and “We the People” by Lateef the Truthspeaker.

One thing I should mention is that there was one bit of DLC that was released later in the game’s lifespan, known as the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 HD Revert Pack. This DLC introduced three levels from Pro Skater 3 (Canada, Airport and Los Angeles), four extra playable Skaters (Steve Caballero and Geoff Rowley, as well as Metallica members James Hetfield and Robert Trujillo) and one extra song (“All Nightmare Long” by Metallica). I will admit I never knew about this DLC, so I never managed to get it before the game was delisted. As such, my experience with this game was entirely based on its base contents.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD is a remaster that tries to capture the “old-school” feel of the first two Pro Skater games and instead falls short of its potential in several areas. In trying to give old levels a fresh coat of HD paint, it manages to neglect a majority of them, while a number of technical issues and questionable design choices mar the experience overall. Though the game has been delisted from digital storefronts, it appears you can still get a PC copy of the game for $10 on Amazon, as well as the Pro Skater 3 HD Revert Pack DLC for $5, if you are really curious about playing this title. However, if you’re looking for a way to play/relive such classic games, you’re honestly better off playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 instead.