Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4

Genre: Compilation / Sports (Skateboarding)

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Split-Screen), 2 Competitive (Local Wireless), 2-8 Competitive (Online), Online Content Sharing

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Review:

When Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 was released in 2020 to strong sales and critical acclaim, it seemed like an obvious next step to take the same remake/remaster formula and use it for the next two games in the famed Skateboarding series, 2001’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 2002’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, both originally released across multiple platforms and widely seen as excellent sequels to the beloved first two games in the series. However, when Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2’s developer Vicarious Visions was inexplicably folded into Blizzard Entertainment and renamed Blizzard Albany by parent company Activision Blizzard, it seemed anyone’s guess whether Activision Blizzard had any interest in pursuing what seemed to many like a sure thing with a sequel.

However, in 2025 we would end up seeing the release of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2, this time developed by Iron Galaxy Studios, who had assisted with the Windows port of the previous game.

While this game has been released on both Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, this review is solely for the Nintendo Switch 2 release of the game. Activision Blizzard reputedly allows those who bought the digital version of the Nintendo Switch game to get the digital version of the Nintendo Switch 2 game discounted to zero cost, but this information was only very quietly revealed just prior to launch, and I wasn’t made aware of it until after buying the Nintendo Switch 2 version.

There’s no similar discount for those who bought the Nintendo Switch 2 version looking to download the original Nintendo Switch version, nor is there a similar upgrade path for anyone who bought the physical game on Nintendo Switch. Honestly, I’m pretty frustrated that not only has this game’s upgrade situation on Nintendo platforms been made so convoluted, but so secretive as well.

I should also note that each version of the game has two releases – a Standard Edition, and a Digital Deluxe Edition that includes extra skaters, boards, music, and other content all based on the Doom franchise. I’ll say now that while this content is nice to have, I don’t think it’s worth the $20 extra that this version costs.

Now, before talking about the game itself, let me take a moment to discuss the two titles it is remaking and compiling.

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Reverting Back to the Classics

I’ve previously said that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4 are my two favorite entries in the series – the third game introduced the revert move that tied together high-flying vert tricks and ground-based manual tricks to empower players to extend their combos potentially anywhere, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 introduced a spine transfer move that enabled players to more smoothly transfer from one half-pipe to another, as well as skitching, the ability to grab onto the rear of a moving vehicle to pull yourself along and gain speed. In addition, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 changed the game’s format so you no longer approached the game’s levels with a two-minute timer but could freely roam as long as you want and take on various goals assigned to you by characters within the level.

Some of these features would remain vital parts of the series moving forward – the revert and spine transfer have both been included in nearly every later game in the series, even retroactively brought back to the earlier games in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2. Others have been less successful – skitching was often thrown in for variety, but was never easy to pull off mid-combo, and while the free-roaming gameplay of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 was initially beloved, some celebrated the return to the series’ more arcade-style roots in games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2.

It’s also worth noting that many point to these games as the last time that the Tony Hawk videogame series was at the top of its game. The series’ next game, Tony Hawk’s Underground, wasn’t seen as adding much to the gameplay (the big new feature here was the ability to get off your skateboard and walk) and instead making an ill-advised shift in focus to a story. Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 made the skateboarding share the stage with absurd antics clearly inspired by the Jackass TV series. While both these games were loved by some, they didn’t receive the near-unanimous praise as the previous games, and over time the series would increasingly struggle to find its footing, arguably right up until the series was reinvigorated with the remake/compilation Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2.

And now that we’ve come full-circle, let’s finally talk about Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4.

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A Three-peat and Four-peat?

In many ways, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 is exactly what series fans wanted out of this game – a full, modern remake of these two classic Skateboarding games much like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 was for the previous two games. While the series’ recent history prior to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 was dark and littered with absolute dumpster fire cash grab games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5, I can safely say that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 proves that 1 + 2 wasn’t a one-off, and even with a sorta’-new developer taking the lead, the quality is still present in this release.

Once again, this takes the great gameplay of the original games, adds in a few modern touches like a full interactive tutorial, updates the graphics to modern standards, and includes a bit of additional content… as well as some removed content (but more on this later). This is, for the most part, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4 polished up in fine form for modern platforms, just like playing a better version of the original game. Well… at least that’s the case for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3.

Okay, time to start addressing some elephants in the room, and there are quite a few here.

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Faceplant

First, this re-release ditches the signature feature of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, the open-ended level design. While players who prefer the arcade-style two-minute goal system of the prior games will love this change, those who remember Pro Skater 4 fondly for its open-ended design will be perplexed and disappointed at this massive change. Some of the original game’s goals have been reworked to fit this different style of play, but it definitely feels like something that made this game unique and special has been lost here.

Another thing missing here are two of Pro Skater 4’s levels, Chicago and Carnival. I was particularly fond of Carnival myself, so this was another disappointing loss… however, it’s not all bad, because in their place are three new levels: Movie Studio, Waterpark, and Pinball. Movie Studio is okay but not great, and Pinball is a fun gimmicky stage… but Waterpark may well be one of the best stages the series has ever seen, taking the common practice of skateboarding in an empty pool and extending it out to an extreme by having players skating around in an empty water park, basically giving players a massive playground of lines to grind, half-pipes to vert into and out of, and water slides to speed down in whichever way you like. This stage actually gives me confidence that Iron Galaxy understands the Tony Hawk formula well enough that they could probably take on a wholly new game, if given the chance.

Finally, there’s one other thing this game gets very wrong, and that’s the soundtrack. This game features a mix of returning tracks from the original games and new tracks added to this version, but that mix is heavily slanted in favor of new tracks, and the tradeoff is not a good one. You still have absolute must-have tracks like Motörhead’s Ace of Spades and Bodyjar’s Not the Same, but we’re missing some other staples like Blitzkrieg Bop, TNT, Drunken Lullabies, and Express Yourself. Of the 60 or so songs here, only 10 return from the original games, making for a remake that doesn’t sound like the original games.

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50-50 Grind

I also have mixed opinions on the visuals and performance on Nintendo Switch 2. The game overall looks good and runs at a respectable framerate, but it’s not without its issues. For one thing, the framerate drops noticeably at times, especially in each level’s intro as it’s showing players the remaining tasks to be accomplished. This isn’t so terrible that it affects the gameplay, but it is disheartening to see this still being an issue on Nintendo’s brand-new hardware.

The graphics overall look good, but hardly impressive – this doesn’t feel like a generational leap over what we had in the Nintendo Switch version of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 (and I can only assume the Nintendo Switch version of this game too). The resolution and overall framerate is better, and there are some nice reflection effects, but the character models are ugly and the environments don’t exactly look stunning. To be sure, this is absolutely the best-looking Tony Hawk game ever to release on a Nintendo platform, but to some extent that’s only by default.

There is one other graphical element here that might irritate fans of the original games, and that is the changes in art direction that some levels have received, particularly changes in lighting. Overall, I think these changes are an improvement – Pro Skater 3’s suburbia just makes more sense taking place at sunset given the Halloween theming of that level, and the raging nighttime storm outside of the windows at the end of Pro Skater 3’s airport level is a wonderful visual touch that adds some eye candy into what was otherwise one of the more bland parts of that level. However, these sorts of visual changes may disappoint purists who were hoping for these levels to be reproduced faithfully to look like the original games. Plus, the greater detail and added environmental elements may make it harder to locate level goals you’re looking for.

Finally, I need to mention one other problem this game has, and it’s one I haven’t noticed in any other Nintendo Switch 2 game I’ve reviewed thus far – this game crashes quite a bit. I think in my time playing this game that it’s crashed at a rate of about once per hour or so, give or take. This has thus far only happened in menus or at the end of a level, so it thankfully hasn’t interrupted the gameplay, but it’s still frustrating, especially since this game does have some not-insubstantial loading times for players hopping back into the game.

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McTwist

Up until this point it may seem like I dislike Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4, but I felt like it was important to put everything into a proper context – this is far from a perfect remake, and it’s definitely not a fully-faithful remake. However, despite all of that, it’s still a very good remake.

I’ve already mentioned it, but I’ll say again, the gameplay here is excellent. I don’t know if this game was just copy-pasting Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2’s gameplay and adding a few things like skitching, but whatever the case, it works quite well.

Players will also be able to take the role of a massive roster of real-life professional skaters including nearly all real-life skaters from the old games (Mike Vallely from Pro Skater 4 is the only one cut), as well as a roughly equal number of new pro skaters, such as Olympic gold medalist Yuto Horigome. In addition, there’s also a small handful of new and returning unlockable bonus characters (though some bonus characters like Wolverine, Darth Maul, and Ollie the Magic Bum are no longer present).

There’s also another element here I haven’t touched on yet, and that’s the create-a-park mode, which has made one change that’s both small and massive at the same time – it has added the ability to place goals in your custom-made skate parks. It’s such an obvious thing I can’t help but wonder why it hasn’t been done before, yet it’s absolutely transformative, enabling players to create their own fully-functional levels that work exactly the same as standard levels. And as if to prove that, naturally the first create-a-park level I encountered was a recreation of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater’s Warehouse level, complete with all of the original level’s goals. The game keeps tracks of which goals you’ve completed too, much in the same way it does with the game’s standard levels.

Even if you’re not the sort of player who wants to get creative with a level builder, this new create-a-park mode promises to extend out the life of the game considerably, and I’m delighted to see what players come up with.

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Airwalk

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 isn’t the roaring success its predecessor was. It’s surrounded with confusion and restrictions over the game’s upgrade path on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, it lacks some pretty important content from the original games, it makes drastic changes to the structure of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 that many fans will find disheartening, and while its graphics and performance aren’t bad, it’s underwhelming on Nintendo Switch 2 compared to what we know the platform is capable of.

Having said that, the core gameplay is as good as ever here, the new levels that have been added range from decent to outstanding, and the additions to the create-a-park mode make that game mode absolutely explode with potential. If you’re a Nintendo Switch 2 player craving a Tony Hawk game that will make use of Nintendo’s new hardware, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 won’t be the game of your dreams, but I think it will satisfy you.

tl;dr – Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 follows in the footsteps of 2020’s Remake / Compilation of the first two games by bringing together and modernizing the next pair of games in the Skateboarding franchise in much the same way. This release unfortunately lacks content from the original games and drops the open-ended gameplay of Pro Skater 4. And the graphics and performance on Nintendo Switch 2, while good, are underwhelming. That said, the core gameplay is still excellent, the three new levels are very good, and the addition of custom goals to the create-a-park mode is potentially huge. The result is an uneven and at times disappointing game that is nevertheless overall excellent, and an absolute must-have for Tony Hawk fans on the go.

Grade: B+

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