The return of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise has been a thing that fans equally dreaded and were excited about. We’re far from the heyday of the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 that saw the original release of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and seeing a remaster come back into the fray is weird, but some fans remain hopeful. All the original levels, characters, tricks and everything else you remember are coming back with the release of a full remaster of the first two games.
The newly remastered collection, which includes both the original two games billed as Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+ 2, will include fully redone graphics and a more realistic physics engine. The new version will also include online play and a more robust course builder for players to goof around in. Check out the trailer showing some of this and more off down below.
The game is being developed by Vicarious Visions. Their biggest most recent project was Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, which gives them a decent pedigree for retro games. The company has worked on various handheld ports in the Tony Hawk series as well.
Their experience is pretty solid based on these remakes too, making them a solid choice. Vicarious Visions COO Simon Ebejer was rather eager to have the studio take on new tasks following the Crash remake, stating “I believe that makes us the ideal studio to faithfully remaster Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2.”
The studio will be working hard to “capture the original experience” and to deliver an experience that appeals to fans both new and old. We may be well past the explosion of skateboarding popularity of the early 2000’s, but there’s still some nostalgia from long-time fans. Seeing this game series come back in 2020 after the disastrous nightmare that was Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 is kind of bizarre.
And here’s where the bad news comes in, Activision still holds the rights to the franchise and are publishing this remaster. We can only hope that they don’t try to screw it up in the same way they obviously messed up Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+ 2 will release for PlayStation 4, the Epic Games Store, and Xbox One on September 4th. If you preorder the game, you will receive a playable demo of Warehouse, the very first level from the first game in the series.
