Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 Demo Is a Nostalgic Knockout

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I was pretty excited when Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 came out. I played those games to death on the N64 when I was a teenager, especially Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2. But I played that game so much that I never felt a need to play more skateboarding games. When Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 was announced, I was curious what it would be like, because I never played the originals. Activision released a demo for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 for anyone who’s preordered the game. While it seems like a bit of a strange practice to not have a demo for anyone to play, COGconnected got our hands on it, and want to give you our impressions a month before the full game releases July 11.

Right off the bat, I was impressed by the opening video. It’s an FMV introducing all the playable skaters in the game. It’s cut together to look like a 90s skate video, and had Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades” blasting overtop of it. And the first song I heard when the demo proper started was CKY’s “96 Quite Bitter Beings”. For those who might not know, CKY was a punk rock band, who made handheld skateboarding/ prank videos. Their content was extremely important to 90s skate culture. CKY made up a large portion of the foundation of Jackass, with Bam Margera being the breakout star. The opening video and first song made for an authentic nostalgia trip for me, and a great first impression.

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I wasn’t very excited when I saw the soundtrack that was announced for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4. But the six songs in the demo are all excellent, and represent the breadth of music found in 90s/ 00s skate culture. The other four songs are “Everything Turns Grey” by Agent Orange, “If You Must” by Del the Funky Homosapien, “Kick, Push” by Lupe Fiasco, and “yankee and the brave (ep. 4)” by Run the Jewels. So three hip hop tracks, two punk/ alt rock tracks, and one traditional heavy metal one. All bangers.

The only two skaters that are playable in the demo are Tony Hawk and Rayssa Leal, so one vert skater and one street skater. Something I noticed in the opening video is there was great representation of women in the cast of playable characters. I’m always proud of something for having proper representation without feeling like they need to shove it in the audience’s faces. There definitely weren’t this many women in the OG games. I looked at the rosters for them, and was surprised to find out I knew almost all the playable skaters. So Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 has added a lot of modern skaters. There were a lot of wacky video game cameo characters in the original games, and I hope most of them make it into THPS 3 + 4.

Entertainment news Celebrity gossip Movie and TV show updates Latest celebrity news Trending entertainment stories Unlockable Doom Slayer

If you preorder the deluxe version of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4, there is a third playable (wacky) character in the form of Doom Slayer from Doom: The Dark Ages. Unfortunately, they weren’t unlocked in our version of the demo. The inclusion of a chunky character like Doom Slayer gives me hope that there might be some improvements in the create-a-skater section of THPS 3 + 4. I love create-a-character modes in games, but I’m always sad when I can’t make someone who looks like me (a tall, large, tattooed, long-haired, bearded person). We didn’t get to play around with create-a-skater in the demo however.

The Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 demo has two levels: Foundry and College. They’re the first levels from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4, respectively. The PS5 background shows Tony Hawk jumping through an abandoned waterslide park, and I really hope that’s a level we get to play in the full version. Foundry is a metalwork plant, with open vats of molten metal, and decent verticality. College is an open outdoor college campus that’s flatter, and has more grinding options. The only available play mode in the demo is a 2 minute “Single Session”. There will obviously be loads more options in the full version of the game, but these single sessions give a great opportunity to see how THPS 3 + 4 looks and plays.

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Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 plays exactly how you’d hope if would. The board is always moving forward. Hold down the X button to gather momentum and jump. Press triangle to grind on rails and edges. The grind can be extended by pressing either direction on the left joystick, to balance the skater. While jumping, the player holds a direction and a face button to perform different tricks. This is the tried and true Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater gameplay, and it feels as great as it ever has. The framerate was rock solid the entire time. And while it won’t win any awards for its visuals, this is as great as the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series has every looked.

I was very impressed with the demo for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4. The game plays incredibly well, and the whole package perfectly captures the 90s/ 00s skate culture vibe I was hoping for. There’s not a lot to do in the demo, but if you want some assurance that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 is as good as the series gets, then breathe easy. If you’re jonesing for more Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, I couldn’t recommend this demo more.

***PS5 demo code provided by the publisher***

Thank you for keeping it locked on COGconnected.

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