Tony Hawk returns in a modern remake that embodies the sprit of nearly every title within the Tony Hawk library to bring out the absolute best of the best for the series. Play as Tony Hawk as well as other legendary (current year versions) and fairly new skateboarders such as Riley Hawk, Lizzie Armanto as you tear across half-pipes, ramps, and water dams for the best scores and challenges.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 is a 2020 compilation remake of the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater & Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 from 1999 & 2000 respectively, it is developed by Vicarious Visions and published by Activision. It is currently available on PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One.

Editor’s Note: A review copy of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 was provided by Activision in support of this review.

Ride to the skies in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2.

Following an unsuccessful direct sequel and surprisingly successful mobile game Tony Hawk is back on consoles & PC after a five year hiatus. Featuring elements from nearly all Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater entries ‘1+2’ packs the old with the new without doing too much to change up the formula. And while the mix of older changes with a lack of edits may be odd, it surprisingly works very well for this modern age take on the skateboarding classic.

Play as a skating lend both old and new or create your own in Tony Hawk.

THE GOOD: Tony Hawk is the man that will not die in real life and in video game form. It honestly feels like the Tony Hawk series will always have a strong demand no matter what era we live in and having grown up during the franchise’s legendary start I feel like I can personally attest to this. Having been regarded as being just as responsible for the rise in the now seen as a sport hobby of skateboarding as Hawk himself, I think we may possibly be seeing a second wave resurgence on our hands. With somewhat fresh talent like relative Riley Hawk and several others being looked at the future seems brighter than ever like the 90s before current year. The Tony Hawk video game franchise also seems to be taking an upturn. Many were left disappointed with the release of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 feels like Activision’s attempt at rectifying this while showing the series a proper amount of respect in the process.

Practice makes perfect for the sickest scores in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.

Most of the mechanics from the core THPS 1 & 2 experience remain intact, such as using the D-Pad for grinding balance and pressing the face buttons for actual tricks while airborne. But it has been tweaked to have modern tricks upwards to Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4, this may be seen as keeping Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 from being a pure experience. But I think it’s more so an effort to keep it feeling modern in addition to adding the spirit of the further games without the need of re-releasing them. Create-A-Skater returns with the RPG-like skill point system which you use to upgrade your skater. You can even upgrade the skills of the legends. There’s also Create-a-Park and and multiplayer for local split and online play. Complete new to the game is an in-game challenge mode where you complete certain tasks to unlock content from the in-game store. The original soundtrack has been shockingly preserved albeit with the omission of three songs likely due to difficulty with the licenses.

A lack of true additional content hurts the remake of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.

THE BAD: While it’s great to see Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater return to form, that’s kind of all we get for now. A simple yet needed remake of the original first two titles into one package. Sure it’s great to see the challenges and some DLC with the possibility of more being added later it kind of just feels like a barebones remake. There’s no campaign for the remake and granted campaign was added much into the THPS lifecycle a little extra effort would have still been nice here. I guess Vicarious Visions did this out of respect, but sometimes going a little “extra mile” is ok. It doesn’t have to insult the franchise or anything of the sort.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 is an excellent launchpad for the return of THPS in AAA form.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 is hopefully the start of the franchise returning to it’s faithful glory. As faithful as a remake of the two games can be it kind of sucks that there wasn’t a story mode of sorts, but at this point Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater being it’s instant classic self is probably the best we could hope for without a second attempt at an actual sequel. Here’s hoping Activision continues to see the value in their library of historic hits while planning modern day titles to satisfy their respective audiences. Lord knows the Tony Hawk series is more than deserving of it.