Is it a bird, is it a man, is it a bird-man doing Christ Air? There are a million different ways I could have started this, and none of them would have suggested I’m new to the series. So, if you’re looking for a “non-biased” review you can go look for someone else, because you are barking up the wrong tree. Back before broadband was as readily available, but just after the advent of dial-up, you didn’t have far-reaching communities in hobbies when you were young as you do today. So the only accepting communities, though small they might have been, were in music, gaming, and skating. It doesn’t matter how weird or wonderful you are, you are accepted.

Back in the early 2000s, the Tony Hawk‘s series gripped the youth that is now either in their 30s or reaching towards the fabled age. It doesn’t matter if you are black, or white. It doesn’t matter if you have blue hair, green hair, or yellow shoes. You could like pop, rock, metal, or punk, as long as you like smashing your face off a railing and inventing new swear words so your parents didn’t realize you were in the gang. That, and if you could get two and a half-million points, that just gets you in the gang right away. I don’t think I know a single person that’s now in their 20s-30s that didn’t play at least one of the games.

So returning to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2, 21 and 20-years later respectively, there might be a bit of nostalgia baked into the perspective. However, after spending more time swiping left and right while grinding more than a gay man on a dating app, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 is not a 1-for-1 remake, remaster, or however you want to chop it up. Pro Skater 2 alone added the advent of manual-ing, a thing so ingrained in the makeup for the series I don’t know how the first game took off.

Pro Skater 2 itself is one of the highest-rated games, not only according to Metacritic, but IGN, Polygon, and every ambitious publication that wants to upset someone for ranking one of the Zelda games lower. So remaking it and its predecessor is like running into a minefield naked with a sled full of excited puppies attached to your nipples, it was a suicide mission. Not least of which didn’t help, it was to follow the disaster that was Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5, a game marred with so much derision from fans that they were glad Activision lost their license with that mess. Yet through all of that, Vicarious Visions (the ones behind the handheld version) pulled off a mammoth task.

For the last few days, I’ve thought about what Taylor said, “Are the Tony Hawk Remasters Testing the Waters?” Yes. Both in the sense that they are the proving ground there is still a market for these games, and that they are bringing something fresh to the table that wasn’t available before. Yes, the game pulls the physics, some of the characters, and the levels from the games before it. Yet in addition, there are some skaters that only grew up playing the games, a metric ton of challenges, a bigger create-a-skater variety, and several additions of older games like reverts.

This is all without mentioning that the levels have been polished. Even some levels that I (and others) didn’t like are enjoyable in some small part. The entire game or collection is stunning, looking at some of the early levels from THPS 1 you can see 20-years and four console generations in action. The only minor gripe I have with it is a slight frame drop when customizing characters and buying clothes, boards, and such. It doesn’t impact the skating side, but it is noticeable by even the most unknowing of observers.

The performance of the game in other areas, such as official game levels and player-created levels varies. Player created levels for consoles might have a slight issue if there is a bit of grass placed and a lot of detail elsewhere. This is most notable in player-created versions of the “Braille Skate house,” which is something from a YouTube channel that focused on skating. There wasn’t going to be anything else now, was it? Yet, in-game levels like Skate Park and Burnside can run somewhere between 30-60 FPS.

Speaking of the create-a-park levels, which Vicarious Visions added a few of their own there as well, it is all a bit rough early on. I’m hoping there will be a few people who really push it to its limits, creating things like the Southbank Skate space in London, and other real-world or fictional skating spots that are both interesting and good. Currently, it is a mix of the aforementioned YouTube-based creator content. Of course, there’s also vague attempts at gentlemanly sausages, and a half-pipe with the new custom feature that allows you to make weird things with it on an otherwise empty map. It is a hit and a miss for what you’ll find.

The creation tools within the create-a-park feature do prove to be very interesting, and if I had more time, I’d have made twelve refined maps with lots of detail. Alas, currently I’m stuck giving one map an hour a day testing it, adding, playtesting, adding more, and playtesting again. I think that’s the trouble with a lot of the levels that do attempt to recreate things, they are made to look like something but don’t function all that well if they do. That’s not to say it is entirely the fault of Vicarious Visions or players, it is restriction and clipping issues mixed together that result in odd moments of bailing.

We’ll stick with the player-creation for a moment, as the create-a-skater is slightly restrictive in my experience. Yes, you can have your man with long colorful hair, you can put him in the same clothes as Leticia Bufoni, even have women with beards. You can mix and match your clothes, boards, and facial features to do all you could imagine. All until you want to make a man with a larger chest, as you might be a player who had their rib cage broken for the purpose of surgeries when you were younger, but you can’t change physical attributes. Even with the more feminine faces, they all have breasts that two perky grapes would embarrass.

I’m not saying all women should be large breasted, I’m raising the point that anyone with a chest that might be large or a waist that might be a bit more round, can’t create themselves. It seems every man is tall and pin thin. I’m not saying it is bad for skaters to be taller or skinnier than some, but it leaves something to be desired when it comes to the create-a-character mode. That said, your variety of clothing, board, and accessory options is far greater than you could have though playing either game back in 2000.

The skaters that both were part of the roster and have been added make the game as deep as the ocean. Each skater, of which there are 21 by default with “secret” characters to unlock, has a whole collection of challenges to complete with each level featuring your points to level up. So you’ll want to play as all of them to do each challenge, some of which open up new outfits for each skater. You can also unlock new boards for you to use, and get XP to level up and open up more things through the skate shop. Some of the challenges don’t even need specific skaters, which you’d hope for given there are 714 challenges between normal modes and extras.

The create-a-park alone has a host of things to unlock. Each skater with their own specific unlocks, and parks themselves with their achievements, it is big. On the outside, it would look as if it was just a pretty remake of the classic games. However, hidden in the tiny puddle of the game’s box is a depth the size of the ocean that makes it fun to play as other characters and on different levels. I don’t know what else to say about that because, it is huge and proves to give you something to do for days of play.

That said, what is the skating like? As I’ve said, there is a bit more than the THPS 1 or 2 move sets, and I’m sure it would feel weird if it didn’t. It would be strange for our dulling minds to revert back to 1999 or 2000 to those move sets, though you can if you want. As I’ve said the slightly janky physics are still prevalent, so it feels like it jumped from that early PS2 and late PS1-era of gaming. That is all I’m sure most of us wanted with the Tony Hawk‘s games since Project 8. It is great, I love it.

Overall, I think Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 is the greatest skating game ever, which is saying a lot given the latter is the second-highest-rated game of all time on Metacritic. Perfect skating, beautiful finishes on classic levels, and a game I’m sure I and many others will be playing for years to come. I really do hope Vicarious Visions get to make something new to add to the series and kick off another generation of love for skating and games.

An Xbox One copy of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 was provided by Activision for this review.

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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2

£39.99

9.5

Score

9.5/10

Pros

• Perfect skating.
• A beautiful remastering of classic levels.
• Masks that save lifes.

Cons

• Minor frame rate issue in some sections.
• Create-a-skater is slightly restrictive.