Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 is a skateboarding video game played in a third-person view with its gameplay oriented towards classic arcade games. The goal of most modes of the game is to achieve a high score or collect certain objects. The player must complete objectives to unlock levels to progress through the game. To score points, the player has to successfully perform and combine aerials, flips, grinds, lips, and manuals, with successful executions adding to the player's score. The point value of the trick is based on time maintained, degrees rotated, number of tricks performed in sequence, performing tricks on specific landmarks on the map, and the number of times the tricks have been used. Successful tricks add to the player's special meter, which, once full, allows for the execution of special tricks which are worth a great deal more than normal tricks. Bails (falling off the skateboard due to poor landing) attain no points for the attempted trick sequence and reset the special bar to empty.[6]

Even though the game is a remake of only the first two entries, Pro Skater 1 + 2 features tricks introduced in later games up to Tony Hawk's Underground such as reverts, spine transfers, wall plants, as well as the abilities to perform enhanced tricks such as double flips and to switch between certain trick types such as grinds, lips and manuals in one sequence.[7] It is possible to set the controls back to only featuring maneuvers possible in the original games.[6] The player can create their own skater and skate park with the Create-A-Skater and Create-A-Park modes. The game includes both local split screen and online multiplayer.[8] The game offers a progression system which allows players to complete specific challenges to reach a higher level and unlock new items in the game's store.[9]

Pro Skater 1 + 2 is a remake of the first two games of the Tony Hawk's series: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. Trying to capitalize on the growing popularity of skateboarding as a sport, the Tony Hawk's series of video games started in 1999 with Pro Skater, which was followed by Pro Skater 2 in 2000. Both games, especially Pro Skater 2, were extremely well received critically and commercially, spawning one of the most commercially successful video game franchises of the 2000s, releasing games on a yearly basis for over a decade. However, the original licensing deal between Tony Hawk and Activision expired in 2015 after the release of the poorly reviewed Pro Skater 5, abandoning the franchise for almost five years.[17] Pro Skater 1 + 2 is the first game released by Activision since the deal ended, while Hawk partnered with Maple Media to release the independent mobile game Tony Hawk's Skate Jam in 2018.[18]

In May 2020, Activision announced Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 which was developed by Vicarious Visions, who had previously worked on ports for several Tony Hawk games, using Unreal Engine 4.[19][20][21] According to Vicarious Visions' chief operating officer Simon Ebejer, the studio obtained Neversoft's original handling code and layered it to modernize the handling, as well as consulting with former employees. The team worked on the level geometry to make sure the player's skating lines were the same from the original games. Further, the team had redone all the art assets for the game's 19 levels to prepare it for 4K resolution but otherwise keep the game familiar to players.[12] Vicarious Visions studio head Jen Oneal confirmed that most of the licensed songs from the first two games would return.[22] Three tracks from the original two games are not present,[23][lower-alpha 3] while 37 new tracks have been added.[24]

The game is noted to be Vicarious Visions' final work as a subsidiary of Activision before being merged into Blizzard Entertainment in on January 22, 2021.[25] According to both Tony Hawk and former Vicarious developer Andy Gentile, there were plans to remaster the third and fourth game in the Tony Hawk series. However, when Vicarious was merged under Blizzard, Activision looked for other third-party developers to pursue the remasters, but found no one else was skilled as the Vicarous team, so these remasters were dropped.[26][27]

The game was released for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on March 26, 2021,[28] while a Nintendo Switch version was released on June 25 of that year.[29]

The game changes the name of the "mute grab" aerial trick to the "Weddle grab" so as to honor its original creator, Chris Weddle, according to Hawk.[30]

Since its announcement trailer on May 12, 2020, the game was extensively marketed by Activision.[19] To achieve this, Activision opened several social media accounts for the game on Instagram and YouTube, among others, where additional trailers and endorsement videos by the featured skaters were published until and after the game's release. Reminiscent of the first entry in the series, a new "Warehouse Demo" was released on August 14 for all people who had pre-ordered the game.[31]

The game was made available with several special editions, including the "Digital Deluxe Edition", which included additional skins, skateboards, clothing options, as well as an additional secret character, Ripper; whereas the "Collector's Edition" also offered an actual skateboard as well as other physical merchandise.[11]

• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x, a 2001 Xbox-exclusive enhanced re-release of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Pro Skater 2 by Treyarch
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD, a 2012 remake of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Pro Skater 2 and (via downloadable content) Pro Skater 3 by Robomodo

Notes

References

• Official website