THPS 3+4 Review

I honestly never thought we would see the day that this game came out. After the overwhelming success of THPS 1+2, publisher Activision rewarded the dev team at Vicarious Visions by… merging them with Blizzard and putting them to work on Diablo content. I had heard on the grapevine that a remake of 3+4 was in the works back around this time, but all talks had ceased after the Blizzard merger. Still, money talks: And as long as the Tony Hawk name brings Activision money, they will find a way to milk the franchise.

When it comes to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4, they are arguably 2 of the greatest skateboarding games of all time. THPS 3 is held in high regard, alongside THPS 2, and whilst many cite THPS 4 as the moment the series starting going downhill, to me it’s a stark reminder of just how popular and mainstream skateboarding culture was at the time, with Bam Margera and the influence of Jackass being a core part of that game. Remaking the first two games, and leaving the third and fourth on the tabl, just didn’t seem like an option long term, especially with Tony Hawk all too eager to continue lending his name to games.

So, Activision listened, and hired Killer Instinct developers Iron Galaxy to bring THPS 3+4 up to date with a modern remake. Iron Galaxy are no strangers to carrying on someone else’s work and delivering an excellent game: the aforementioned Killer Instinct being a prime example, where they took over development of the game post launch from the original devs at Double Helix, making the game perhaps even more incredible than it originally was.

What Iron Galaxy has delivered is… a mixed bag.

Firstly, the positives. All of the solid skateboarding gameplay and improved graphical fidelity we saw in THPS 1+2 is at play in this new sequel, and Iron Galaxy have even gone above and beyond to provide 3 brand new levels, new pro skaters and what is pretty much a new soundtrack (hand picked with the help of Tony Hawk). This is, for all intents and purposes, the closest thing we have got to an entirely new Tony Hawk game since the abysmal THPS 5 in 2015, and the content on offer blows that game away by a country mile, especially considering that the new levels have to stand toe to toe with some of the best levels in the entire series. Iron Galaxy even went the extra mile by building in 5 new “Pro” goals per level for the THPS 3 stages, giving THPS 3 fans an extra 50% of game to play for that title.

However, this robust package comes at the expense of what made THPS 4 special. The original THPS 4 played much differently to the classic 2 minute runs of THPS 1-3: with a free roam structure that allowed you to pick up quests from random characters in the level. This has been killed off in favour of following the 2 minute timed runs of THPS 3. As a THPS 4 hardcore fan who enjoyed the open nature of the series that would follow from here, I feel like the THPS 4 levels don’t work with this context, and the missions themselves (which were designed to be done piecemeal and often have complex multi-stage objectives which had to be signposted one by one) don’t work in a 2 minute timed structure.

THPS 4’s levels are also much bigger than the THPS 3 stages, which can often add stress and confusion to the goals: Trying to navigate these behemoth levels in 2 minutes to get the goals done is a chore and can often by frustrating. It’s another challenge to overcome, for sure, but it’s not the fun kind of challenge.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love the inclusion of the THPS 4 levels, and the re-imagined goal structure to fit the two minute timer gives a feeling of “familiar but new” that makes this an entirely new way to experience THPS 4 – but this isn’t a remake of THPS 4, this is an artist’s interpretation of how Neversoft would have made THPS 4 if it hadn’t expanded beyond the confines of THPS 3’s game design, which betrays the fact that the series evolved, improved and grew over time, inspiring the skateboarding games we have today.

Another change that I’m not a fan of is the change to the “challenge” system from THPS 1+2. The last game laid all of these out in an extremely satisfying and moorish collection of bitesize challenges, and whilst the general gist of this is still present, the XP system that drove this has been removed to simplify the whole thing. Whilst it doesn’t feel like nearly as much of a horrendous grind as the last game, something about the way this is structured doesn’t feel as satisfying or addictive as THPS 1+2. It also doesn’t help that the rewards you earn from this are a mountain of weird, unbranded, cheap looking clothing items or boards which fills the inventory with tat which doesn’t feel like it’s representing the core skateboarding brands that the game prides itself on.

This is the battle THPS 3+4 has to fight though: the balance of old VS new. These original games unfortunately straddle the line between what THPS was, and what it would become, and I empathise with the decisions the team at Iron Galaxy had to make here – if they went all in on THPS 4 gameplay, I’m sure an equal number of players would be angry that THPS 3 had been left behind, and if they had attempted to accurately recreate both games, the feel of both games would feel so odd combined together in one package that it would surely be really confusing for new players. I can’t help by mourn for the way one of my favourite skateboarding games was handled here, but I also understand the decision entirely.

Like THPS 1+2, however, this game does succeed on bringing modern skateboarding culture into an accessible and high quality video game. The list of pro skaters spans living legends and some of the most exciting modern names skating today.

The classic names people associate with these games, like Bob Burnquist, Steve Caballero, Elissa Steamer and Chad Muska are mostly here, as is Bam Margera (although as a secret unlockable rather than part of the core cast due to… his ongoing issues). Even still, there are still notable omissions from the list: Mike Vallely from THPS 4 is strangely absent, and the secret skaters from the old games have been replaced with characters from Doom and TMNT.

Out of the new names, most of the additions from THPS 1+2 return, alongside brand new faces such as Jamie Foy and Nora Vasconcellos – again, the list of new faces continues the series’ long tradition with trying to remain on the pulse of skateboarding culture. One of the odd choices in the list is Felipe Nunes though, who (whilst utterly deserving of a spot in this game) is unplayable and appears in a weird cutscene once completing a goal on the Cruise Ship level.

This perhaps relates to my complaints about Iron Galaxy making great additions in some places, but not delivering in other areas: If you are going to include Felipe Nunes in the game, then my expectation would be that there is a unique set of character movements and animations to cater to him. It’s not out of the question for the THPS series to add unique and different animations for different skaters or vehicle types (e.g. Neversoft added a shopping cart in THPS4 for a Bam Margera pro challenge), and the tease of including Nunes, but not making him playable and catering to his specific, unique style of skateboarding, just feels like a half measure that makes me wonder what could have been if Iron Galaxy were given more time to make this remake shine.

Overall, though, these are small complaints, and is largely influenced by how amazing THPS 1+2 was. This is a solid THPS entry, and a sign of what the series could become if Activision were interested in doing a fully fledged THPS 6. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with all of the new stuff that’s here (Waterpark is potentially a top 5 THPS level, Movie Studio has an old skool charm that nods to some of THPS’ competitors from the PS2 era, and Pinball is such a batshit insane idea that has all of the hallmarks of the series at it’s zaniest), and for anyone who was still hungry for more THPS after the incredible Game Of The Year contender that was THPS 1+2 will most definitely find a lot of enjoyment in THPS 3+4. Whether it will be my Game Of The Year the way the last game was is yet to be determined (especially with the new Skate game hitting early access in the next few months), but it’s definitely a welcome roll down memory lane.