Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2 Remaster Later This Year

The extreme sports games have fallen away from gaming in one of the worst possible ways. During the PS3-era that brought in grim and gritty, we got a handful of them, but we mainly got the remasters, reboots, and redundant tripe that gave us all that thumpy “dub-step.” I remember when we had angry young men and women singing about their annoying parents, back when it was angsty teenage punk with actual punk, rock, and some hip hop. The Tony Hawk’s games (with Burnout and SSX) have influenced not only my music tastes, but entrenched many of us in the skating culture overall.

Releasing back in 1999, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater is the reason many of us have that piece of wood with plastic wheels. It is also one of the highest-ranked series on game review aggregation sites, so it is surprising that there was only one remaster in the history of the sixteen games released. Pro Skater HD was a HD release of the first game and while it was in HD, it didn’t resurrect the games Neversoft made. It didn’t help that Robomodo dug the grave, defecated in it, and dropped the body. Now 21 years on, the first and second games in the series are getting a full remaster as this current generation snuffs out its last flames.

Announced yesterday morning, Activision partnered with Hawk and Jack Black to showcase the first trailer of the remastered games to be released later this year. I have bemoaned Activision Blizzard in the past for their endless desire for microtransactions, and their mess last year with Overwatch and Hearthstone. However, there is one thing they have done right in recent years; the Crash Bandicoot remasters. I am referring to both the trilogy and Nitro-Fueled remasters done by long-time Activision subsidiary, Vicarious Visions. The New York-based studio has had a long history with the Hawk series as well, working on the 2001 release of Pro Skater 2 on the Game Boy Advance, and through 2007 on the series’ handheld market.

This two in one package of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 will release on September 4th, 2020, featuring all the original skaters (and hopefully cheat codes). The remaster will release on PS4, Xbox One, and just to annoy paranoid idiots who’ll believe just about anything, the Epic Games Store for PC players. Along with these, for those who don’t like money; the game will release in a standard edition at $39.99 in the US, a deluxe edition for $49.99, and a collector’s edition with the digital deluxe and a limited-run Birdhouse deck for $99.99.

In a statement in the press release announcing the remaster, Jen Oneal, studio head at Vicarious Visions, said, “Getting the chance to bring back the original two games which had such a meaningful impact not only on gaming, but on an entire sports genre, has been an epic experience for our team, many of whom worked on the original series.” “The original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series is a big factor in the evolution of modern skateboarding tricks and inspiring many of the pro skaters you know and love today,” said Hawk. He went on to say, “I’m excited to help inspire a new generation of skateboarders and gamers – and exciting fans – to grow the sport even further.”

To say I’m a little excited for this would be an understatement. I’ll be talking about this until Alexx and Lisa stop fighting about Animal Crossing being their game of the year. Along with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and some Star Wars: Battlefront II, extreme sports games like Pro Skater, Pro BMX, SSX, and to an extent, Burnout are the reason I love games. It is taking that thing that is so dangerous to do in real life and making it feel so good in games Ok, okay, i hear you. Pro BMX wasn’t that great. Yes, I’m very excited and I can not wait until September 4th, because I know who’s face I’ll be scraping along the floor until its unrecognizable. This Tony Hawk guy, you might have heard of him.