We are on the heels of the release of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 and fans are already clamoring for a Tony Hawk’s Undergound 1+2 remake. A game that is one of my favorites of all time.

But why?

If you actually grew up and kept up with the Tony Hawk series from 1999-2005 and beyond, you would know that Neversoft was playing with fire when developing every entry. The balance between maintaining the unique roots in game design that made the Tony Hawk series so special and progressing the series in a fresh, interesting manner was a gradual high-wire grind which risked a faceplant the further it proceeded. Quality of life improvements were added to each annual installment like gameplay mechanics that can continue your combo, allowing for a more entertaining gameplay loop. Manuals, reverts, spine transfers, leveling yourself out in the air, wallplants, and even the ability to get off your board in the better effort to traverse the map were welcome additions over the years. It’s a testament to Neversoft that they were able to keep the series as beloved and innovative for as long as they were able to on a yearly basis.

However, many fans became increasingly aware of the potential shark-jumping the series was toying with, especially when the Jackass DNA became wilder and more prevalent with each installment (THUG 2 reaching the apex). Sure, skateboarding culture and MTV’s Jackass and Viva La Bam share a similar rebellious, punk, and daredevilish spirit so the marriage of the two entities was a natural direction for the series in many ways. But again, it’s all about the balance between skateboarding as a culture and the integrity of the sport, which up until Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 was always a trick Neversoft successfully landed.

Don’t get me wrong, I love THUG 2 and if the game ceased to exist from our reality, I would be incredibly upset. It’s one of the best products of its time, representing alot of the destructive, unbalanced hijinks of the early 2000s, and is a successful, off-the-rails experiment in the series overall, but it would lead the series down a direction that proved difficult to get back on track. It was already one thing that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 began introducing goals that mixed up the formula like skitching vehicles, luge, and slalom challenges. Bam’s pro challenge in particular was to ride a shopping cart down Alcatraz’s windy road avoiding obstacles. Not to mention THPS4’s mini-games like tennis, baseball, and betting on fights. By the original Tony Hawk’s Underground, the player is faced with driving different vehicles like cars, security carts, blimps and even lawn mowers. Seriously, as great as THUG 1 is, there’s a goal where you need to tediously mow piles of leaves in Vancouver. Thankfully, these were just one-offs that were marginal at best in comparison to the rest of the game that retained its focus to core skateboarding.

By THUG 2 though, you were required to take control of gimmick characters like Steve-O on a mechanical bull or an Australian native in a go-kart. Every level had a character like these that were essential to completing the game. These were humorous gags, but were forcing players into alternate game mechanics that distracted from the true skating game long-standing fans of the time were used to. You’re also tasked with tagging graffiti on buildings and were granted the ability to break your board in a rage when you bail.

By Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland, which is one of the last solid entries in the series, you were riding bikes and performing more parkour tricks off your board. All of this added to the immersion of the lifestyle that can be found around skating, but at this point, the series was taking on so many different things, it was losing focus…or playing with fire if you will. As a teenager, I loved every second of it (more fire!) but even I knew at the time that Neversoft was scraping the bottom of the barrel of how much crazier each sequential game can get. The ultimate result was the eventual decline in the series as development in the yearly Activision machine caused Neversoft to creatively stumble (especially during a transition to next-gen consoles), leaving other studios like Robomodo to pick up the pieces, and business choices like chasing trends inspired by Guitar Hero brought about the end of the Tony Hawk video game franchise altogether.

After the critical and commercial success of 2020’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 (fastest selling Tony Hawk title upon launch, 10 million+ sales total, and even winning significant awards/accolades), the series has the rare opportunity to reflect on the mistakes of the distant past and course correct the trajectory of where the Tony Hawk series can go. After Activision’s clumsy dismantling of Vicarious Visions upon this success, the current dev team Iron Galaxy were eventually assigned to take over for the development of 3+4. Whether Iron Galaxy chose to remove the free roam gameplay from the career mode of THPS4 in the upcoming remake as a cop-out due to constraints in development time or as a conscious creative decision, there is a silver lining here. By keeping 3+4 as a uniform experience with the 2 minute timer single session format, it leaves the next working title a chance to carefully consider how to evolve and continue the franchise while exercising discipline in how these games are presented. The cut content from 3+4 also leads me to my closing arguments of this article:

Do you really want to see a version of Tony Hawk’s Underground that’s not going to be a 1:1 faithful remake? If THPS3+4 is any indication, the dialogue in the story mode or what’s given by goal challenge NPCs is going to get tweaked or probably excluded. I’m not even talking about censorship. There’s scenes in the game that would make no sense today. Go back and actually play THUG 1 and tell me with a straight face that the off-the-cuff dialogue is something that won’t feel disingenuous replicating 20 years later. The entire story, while universal in its tale about the scrappy upstart and dealing with people who hold you back from achieving greatness, is still executed with a vibe and spontaneity that is owed only to the culture of the early 2000s. Out of respect to that era, it should honestly stay there.

Also think about how the original roster of the Tony Hawk games are playing their current aged selves in these remakes compared to the younger new school roster that share the same space. Does it seem relevant that a 50 year old Chad Muska would be cruising around the streets of suburban New Jersey to show off how his SUV sound system is louder than a Metallica concert? Do the kids today even know who Metallica is (joking), let alone a built-in DVD player? The lives of these pro skaters have likely changed immensely since the game’s release. You want to see them play a verison of themselves that they might not relate to anymore? Yes, Iron Galaxy technically can present a Tony Hawk’s Underground remake as a period piece, but then you’re secluding an entire new age roster that’s ready at your disposal from the last two recent titles. You can’t just shoe-horn Lizzie Armanto or Shane O’Neill in because they were little kids when this story existed. Either way, a remake of these games would feel weird and out of place, especially since the skateboarding landscape has changed dramatically since 2003-2005. Skateboarding is in the Olympics now for gosh darn sake! The culture has changed in some of the most exciting ways. Why not take advantage of developing something new that can reflect that?

If we already know that the Tony Hawk series can potentially end from one ill-advised decision coupled with the fact that the development of AAA games like these take significantly longer to make in today’s industry, then why waste it on a remake of a game featuring a story that was a product of its time (a great product, of course), but would plant the seeds for a path of no return? In my opinion, the best two options going forward is to either give us something in the form of a Pro Skater sequel or sequels where we can enjoy the maps+features from THUG 1+2 and THAW in a different perspective, and/or give us a completely new Underground story as a spinoff that reflects the current, expansive landscape in skating. Not to sound morbid, but imagine the legacy of this franchise if it were to continue as a celebration of skate culture long beyond Mr. Hawk’s, Mr. Mullen’s, or Mr. Campbell’s years. It’s not that I don’t want the series to take risks like it used to, but maybe fire can be played with again in a more controlled fashion like carrying the Olympic torch to kick off games for years to come.

Tony Hawk himself recently expressed his support to push for a Tony Hawk’s Underground remake. If this remake were to exist, of course I would play it. My only hope is that he, Iron Galaxy, and Activision give what I’m saying real consideration before just giving in to the loud vocal majority of fans who may be blinded by the overwhelming nostalgia for ‘that next remake’ in line. Maybe instead, strike while the iron’s hot, kill your darlings, and bring us something out of this world. But you know, keep it grounded in what works. Not all franchises get a second life.

If you want to check out my lets play of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, you can follow my channel on youtube KevPlays9490. You can also follow me on twitter @letswatchseries to keep up to date on the occasional upload. Thanks for reading!