Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD

I went back to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD hoping it would scratch the itch that every thirty-something gamer carries around since the late nineties, and the honest answer is: sometimes it does, sometimes it really doesn't. Developed by Robomodo and published by Activision, this is a Unreal Engine 3 rebuild of cherry-picked levels from the first two Pro Skater games, released in 2012 first on consoles and then on PC. The core loop - chain grabs, flip tricks, grinds, and manuals together inside a two-minute run, hit your High Score, Pro Score, and Sick Score targets, collect the S-K-A-T-E letters, find the secret tape (now modernised to a DVD) - is as satisfying as it ever was. That two-minute structure is genuinely timeless, and levels like Warehouse and School II hold up because Neversoft's original course geometry was just that good. The problem is everything surrounding that core. You get seven levels total, drawn from THPS 1 and 2, and the selection feels thin even by remaster standards. Career mode lets you earn cash to upgrade stats, buy new decks, and unlock skaters, including a pixelated throwback version of Tony Hawk himself, but there is no custom skater creation, no park editor, and no split-screen multiplayer. The PC version goes a step further in the wrong direction: online play, which at least existed on console, is completely absent on PC. So what you have is a solo game with seven maps and a gap list. Post-launch DLC added THPS 3 content, including the revert mechanic across all levels, which does open up combo possibilities, but it is a thin sticking plaster over a lean base package. The PC port itself is a textbook example of a lazy console-to-PC conversion. Out of the box there are virtually no graphics options - no resolution picker, no anti-aliasing toggle, no V-sync setting. You can dig into.ini files to force a higher resolution, and third-party launchers exist that restore rebindable keys and other basic settings that should have shipped on day one. The game also does not dynamically display controller button prompts when you plug in a gamepad, defaulting to keyboard labels regardless. These are exactly the kinds of friction points that feel inexcusable even by 2012 standards, let alone now. Where the game earns its keep is in the moment-to-moment skating. Grabs, flip tricks, and grinds retain the exaggerated, arcade feel of the originals. The newer modes - Big Head Survival, where you keep scoring combos to stop your head literally exploding, and Hawkman, where you collect colour-coded pellets using specific moves like grinds for yellow and wall-rides for blue - are odd but entertaining diversions. The soundtrack mixes original classics with newer tracks and holds up well. Graffiti mode, which has players competing to claim objects by landing higher-scoring tricks on them, would be genuinely fun with a friend if the local multiplayer had not been cut entirely. Here is the context that matters most in 2024 and beyond: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, the 2020 remake by Vicarious Visions, exists and it does everything this game attempts but does it far better, with more levels, full create-a-skater, a park creator, and a proper PC release. THPS HD was delisted from all storefronts in 2017, so if you are seeing it anywhere it is through a third-party key seller. That alone should factor into your decision. If you are a pure completionist or a series historian who wants to see how the Robomodo era played out, there is something here. For anyone else, the better version of this nostalgia trip already exists.

Alex · Scout Team

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