Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 Remake Review

It has been a long time since I last looked at any type of article like this, but as you can probably guess with the title - today is a special day. You see, today marks exactly 10 years to the very day that Skate or Die (as some would call it) was first released on the PlayStation 1. The game: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.

Here we are now with another remaster of this classic and, in my opinion, underrated series if I do say so myself! What better way to mark this occasion than by looking back at what made these games great in their original forms and how they hold up all these years later? I have spent just about half an hour thus far with the game before writing this article. So, with no further ado let's get into it!

The first thing I noticed when starting the game up was that there is not a single piece of music from any of the games in this pack, and while many fans have expressed their dislike for what Neversoft did with "new voice acting" and different soundtracks to previous games (which I disagree with by the way) this seems like an odd swap out. With the original game having such memorable tracks as 'I'm A Slave 4 U' or my personal favourite 'Constant Motion' by Dream Theater why would anyone think to replace these classic pieces of music? It may just be me but I feel that some good old fashioned rock tunes should have been implemented here instead. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 Remake on the other hand has a different problem - in that there is already music involved. The original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 saw the introduction of custom soundtracks but for whatever reason (I think it's because I have an allergy to change) I'm having difficulty getting used to not hearing 'Black Sunshine' by White Zombie being played during levels...

The only thing lacking from these two games however is the lack of additional game modes and content. This isn't necessarily negative, seeing as how these are remakes after all, it's just slightly disappointing when you compare them to later iterations in the series where such things were added in spades. But taking into consideration that this pack is merely a means of remastering the original two games, it's not that big of a deal. Perhaps in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 & 4 Remake we can see this rectified? Only time will tell...

One thing you should take note of is that upon first booting up these games you only get one save spot which is simply titled 'Tony'. This makes sense as well since each game sees you begin with "Level 0" and work your way up to Level 9, unlocking new levels and characters on the way. This can be slightly frustrating if like me you've recently returned to the game after many years away from it and have missed out on quite a few sweet boards along the way, but there are ways around this for those who are willing to take that extra step. Either way most of the content is still available and you can jump in right from the get-go without having to unlock it all first.

As mentioned at the start of this article, I have only spent a short time with these games so far but already I'm very impressed by how well they hold up despite being two Nintendo 64 titles. There were some initial teething problems such as me constantly plummeting off Rainbow Road at every opportunity, but after a quick check on Youtube for some tips on how to play them (turns out there's a reason why everyone doesn't go flying all over the place like that) things started getting easier... and faster!