Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Remake | Warehouse Level Gameplay
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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GamingTranscript
00:00I didn't think that the warehouse level in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater would be able to
00:17capture my undivided attention.
00:19Not again.
00:20Not now that I'm a 30-year-old equipped with bad knees, a million miles away from
00:24the wannabe Rodney Mullen that spent many a night eating s*** on these same spots two
00:28decades ago.
00:29I expected to dip in, have a little fun, eventually get annoyed with the cadence of John Feldman's
00:34voice and dip out.
00:36So believe me when I tell you that I don't know what happened.
00:38I sat down with a demo after work and the next thing I knew it was 1am.
00:43Time erodes all things, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is the one constant.
00:47I honestly couldn't tell you if the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 & 2 remake handles exactly
00:51as it used to, but I can tell you that it handles exactly as I remember it did.
00:55I don't have a Playstation, Dreamcast or N64 to hand, but if I had made a retro library
01:00my priority for the pandemic, I wouldn't be surprised to find the conversion was close.
01:04Truth be told, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 & 2 remake looks and feels exactly as I remember
01:09it did too.
01:10There's something so strangely satisfying about stumbling upon all these special spots
01:14from 20 years ago.
01:15It's as if they've been preserved in a small, cordoned off area of my brain for later
01:19use.
01:20A dopamine hit released every time I hit one of those lines or gaps that is enshrined in
01:24blue on the combo chain.
01:25The warehouse demo is missing the glowing S-K-A-T-E letters and the secret VHS tape,
01:30but I already know where they'll be in the final game from instinct alone.
01:35And in their absence, I'm still having a bloody great time smashing past the 6 score
01:39boundary and hitting a 5-0 on the big rail.
01:41Some things never change.
01:43That's because there's something to the speed and momentum here in Tony Hawk's Pro
01:46Skater 1 & 2 remake.
01:48It invites competition and escalation in a way few other games have been able to achieve.
01:52The hang time is as satisfying as ever too, lingering long enough to tempt you into inserting
01:57a faceplant through your combo.
01:59The magnetic snap to rails and the drag of grip take across concrete, your weight shifting
02:03in tandem with that of the balance meter.
02:05Listen, I don't know how much you can ultimately divine from one demo, but if this is truly
02:09representative of the wider experience, then this will be the Tony Hawk's game we've
02:13been waiting a long time for.
02:15And that's the tricky thing with nostalgia, because we have been waiting not for something
02:19new necessarily, but for something old.
02:21It's put the developer Vicarious Visions in the unenviable position of needing to recreate
02:26a feeling, rather than the experience itself.
02:29And it has to do this while it works to both erase Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 from living memory,
02:34and establish a platform for the series to make an endearing return.
02:37Thankfully, the studio charted this path once before, as it revived Crash Bandicoot alongside
02:42Toys for Bob in 2017.
02:44The N. Sane trilogy is a success story few could have predicted, although it has established
02:48a precedent for retro revivals within Activision.
02:51After an evening with the Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 and 2 remake warehouse demo, I can't wait
02:56to drop into school too.
02:57I can't wait to hit Downtown, and Venice Beach, and Hangar.
03:00Vicarious Visions has made me want to play more Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and that's
03:04something I never thought I'd find myself saying again.
03:06There's enough in here that makes me wonder whether Vicarious Visions is actually capable
03:10of picking up where Neversoft left off in its Pro Skater years, had it avoided an American
03:15wasteland of its own design.