Skateboarding video games had an enormous 2025, nevertheless it was the controversial Tony Hawk's Professional Skater 3 + 4 that I couldn't put down
Private Decide
Along with our essential Sport of the Yr Awards 2025, every member of the PC Gamer group is shining a highlight on a recreation they cherished this yr. We’ll submit new private picks every day all through the remainder of the month. You could find all of them right here.
I submit that there is not any larger feeling in videogames than lastly determining learn how to take pleasure in a collection that after eluded you. Liking video games is a ability which you could get higher at, and my massive ability examine of 2025 was studying to like Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3 + 4.
No, as a substitute I used to be an annoying Skate fan who most popular to kickflip with the suitable stick and insisted Tony Hawk was too arcadey or unrealistic. How’s it really feel to be a mega fallacious dummy, teen Morgan?
Permit me to catch up: Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater is divine. It is perhaps the right sports activities recreation and likewise the right driving recreation. You are a dude standing on plywood, however you are additionally an acrobatic car of depraved speeds who can soar, grind, slide, and activate a dime.
From the surface I assumed THPS was a senseless score-chaser, however that is as a result of I used to be too dumb to note it is also a scavenger hunt, a racing recreation, and a platformer multi functional. It is informal enjoyable that slowly bleeds right into a uncooked hunt for effectivity. And it does so whereas displaying simply as a lot reverence for the interest because the grounded Skate video games I obsessed over within the late 2000s.
Certain, THPS physics are exaggerated and one degree entails demolishing a Los Angeles freeway individuals are actively driving on, however the purpose by no means wavers from the pursuit of geographic mastery by means of two minute classes—the pure gratification of rolling right into a overseas place and unlocking its secrets and techniques by means of inconceivable flip methods and sickass grinds.
One good factor about leaping straight into the three + 4 remake having not performed a lot of the 1 + 2 remake from 2020 is experiencing this collection on the top of Neversoft’s powers. Each elevated curb, each excessive drop, each camouflaged line is so thoughtfully thought-about and nestled into the surroundings.
It will’ve been simpler to make X Video games-style skate parks with picket ramps and imported rails, however 3 + 4’s playgrounds—recreated by Iron Galaxy with a loving brush—are seamlessly carved into metropolis streets, a school campus, an airport, and literal Alcatraz Island. There is not a single map within the package deal I dislike, although I by no means returned to the “competitors” maps that commerce targets for less complicated rating chasing.
I do know this explicit remake chafed followers of the unique THPS 4 by tossing out its open world construction and screwing with outdated maps. I hear you and your complaints are legitimate: It’s bizarre that Iron Galaxy opted for compelled timers on maps that did not have them earlier than and removed interactable NPCs altogether in THPS 4. The reasons for the modifications have been kinda weak, and ultimately it was in all probability a name made to hurry up growth, however now I wish to choose up a replica of the unique THPS 4 to see what I am lacking.
I assumed THPS was a senseless score-chaser, however that is as a result of I used to be too dumb to note it is also a scavenger hunt, a racing recreation, and a platformer multi functional.
That stated, the reworked ranges play very effectively, and I notably love the brand new maps Iron Galaxy added to the package deal. Waterpark is so colourful and dynamic and dense that I assumed it was a Neversoft unique earlier than my pal set me straight, and the (minor spoiler) pinball machine degree unlocked on the finish of the THPS 4 profession is a delightfully absurd coda.
Contemplating the arrival of the Skate reboot and the standout indie Skate Story, 2025 was an unexpectedly triumphant yr for digital skating. But, Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3 + 4’s controversial alterations led to it getting largely ignored again in July.
That is a disgrace, as a result of it carried ahead the superb work Vicarious Visions began with the 1 + 2 remake in 2020—glorious animations, an excellent up to date soundtrack, and modernized graphics which might be extra involved with efficiency and vibes than realism. It is what Professional Skater would play and seem like in 2025 if Activision had by no means deserted the collection.
When you’re grumpy in regards to the modifications, I will not attempt to change your thoughts. However when you’re like me and missed out on the Tony Hawk enjoyable again within the day, this is a wonderful on ramp.