We got to ollie our way onto the beloved Warehouse level of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (hello, fellow kids.)
But how did it feel revisiting an iconic Tony Hawk level? And what does this level say about the potential for the full Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2 remake?
But how did it feel revisiting an iconic Tony Hawk level? And what does this level say about the potential for the full Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2 remake?
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00:00 I didn't think that the warehouse level in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater would be able to
00:16 capture my undivided attention.
00:19 Not again.
00:20 Not now that I'm a 30 year old equipped with bad knees, a million miles away from
00:23 the wannabe Rodney Mullen that spent many a night eating s*** on these same spots two
00:28 decades ago.
00:29 I expected to dip in, have a little fun, eventually get annoyed with the cadence of John Feldman's
00:34 voice and dip out.
00:35 So believe me when I tell you that I don't know what happened.
00:38 I sat down with a demo after work and the next thing I knew it was 1am.
00:42 Time erodes all things.
00:44 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is the one constant.
00:46 I honestly couldn't tell you if the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2 remake handles
00:50 exactly as it used to, but I can tell you that it handles exactly as I remember it did.
00:55 I don't have a Playstation, Dreamcast or N64 to hand, but if I had made a retro library
01:00 my priority for the pandemic, I wouldn't be surprised to find the conversion was close.
01:04 Truth be told, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2 remake looks and feels exactly as I
01:08 remember it did too.
01:09 There's something so strangely satisfying about stumbling upon all these special spots
01:13 from 20 years ago.
01:15 It's as if they've been preserved in a small cordoned off area of my brain for later
01:19 use - a dopamine hit released every time I hit one of those lines or gaps that is enshrined
01:23 in blue on the combo chain.
01:25 The warehouse demo is missing the glowing SKATE letters and the secret VHS tape, but
01:31 I already know where they'll be in the final game from instinct alone.
01:34 And in their absence I'm still having a bloody great time smashing past the 6 score
01:38 boundary and hitting a 5-0 on the big rail.
01:41 Some things never change.
01:42 That's because there's something to the speed and momentum here in Tony Hawk's
01:46 Pro Skater 1 and 2 remake.
01:48 It invites competition and escalation in a way few other games have been able to achieve.
01:52 The hang time is as satisfying as ever too, lingering long enough to tempt you into inserting
01:57 a faceplant through your combo.
01:58 The magnetic snap to rails and the drag of grip take across concrete, your weight shifting
02:03 in tandem with that of the balance meter.
02:05 Listen, I don't know how much you can ultimately divine from one demo, but if this is truly
02:09 representative of the wider experience, then this will be the Tony Hawk's game we've
02:13 been waiting a long time for.
02:15 And that's the tricky thing with nostalgia, because we have been waiting not for something
02:18 new necessarily, but for something old.
02:21 It's put the developer Vicarious Visions in the unenviable position of needing to recreate
02:25 a feeling rather than the experience itself.
02:28 And it has to do this while it works to both erase Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 from living memory
02:33 and establish a platform for the series to make an endearing return.
02:37 Thankfully, the studio charted this path once before as it revived Crash Bandicoot alongside
02:41 Toys for Bob in 2017.
02:44 The N. Sane Trilogy is a success story few could have predicted, although it has established
02:48 a precedent for retro revivals within Activision.
02:51 After an evening with the Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 and 2 remake warehouse demo, I can't wait
02:56 to drop into school too.
02:57 I can't wait to hit Downtown and Venice Beach and Hangar.
03:00 Vicarious Visions has made me want to play more Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and that's
03:04 something I never thought I'd find myself saying again.
03:06 There's enough in here that makes me wonder whether Vicarious Visions is actually capable
03:10 of picking up where Neversoft left off in its Pro Skater years, had it avoided an American
03:15 wasteland of its own design.
03:23 (chiming)