A while ago I beat THPS 1+2 for the fifth time and it’s still as good of a game as the first time. I never played the originals when they released, but I did play a lot of Tony Hawk as a kid. THPS 3 was the first in the series I played, a cousin lent it to me after I had gotten hold of a used PlayStation 2. It was a great game, but I had heard that there were better Tony Hawk games. Underground 1 and 2, where it was possible to throw tomatoes, ride a bull and spray your own tag across the city. But most importantly, you didn’t need to ride ALL the time. If you wanted to aim for a specific jump or go for a certain rail, it was possible to get off the board and walk there. Eventually I got to play these games as well, at friends places and sometimes I even got to borrow them for short periods of time, but my first ever own Tony Hawk’s, was American Wasteland.
My family spend our summer in Norrland, at my grand parents, and I had gotten some cash to use during the summer. One day we entered a video game store and the first thing I noticed was a new Tony Hawk game, that I hadn’t heard of before. I really wanted to buy it, but it was 500 SEK. Which was fairly close to the amount of money I had and could spend during the summer. But my parents bought most of the things I needed anyway, this was mainly candy and toys money. So I bought it. I was very afraid I wouldn’t get to, since I was like 10-11 and the game said 16. But it was a young cashier in a small city in Norrland, and it was essentially a sports game. So I guess my fear was unnecessary. I bought the game and I played it ’til death. Story mode start to finish, I created lots of maps, I bought lots of clothes and customized boards. Character customizing was one of the most fun parts. Unlike other games, (except car games, and I wasn’t really big into cars) the clothes, boards and accessories were actually real brands. The game also contained videos of real skaters doing real tricks! The only thing I never really did, was to played the ‘Classic’ game mode, I never understood it’s purpose. It seemed like an old game mode that stemmed from the Pro Skater games, and why would you play that when, in story mode, you could go between places however you wanted.
Fast forward to now and I have THPS 1+2 on the Switch. It’s a phenomenal game. New skaters and new reels, same feel. Whenever you’ve beat the two-in-one game, you unlock a skate reel of the skater who’ve you’ve beat the game with. Despite beating the game five times, I only have four videos, as I was dumb enough to start out with a custom character. The four I’ve unlocked are as follows:
And of course, I’ve already began a new playthrough. This time, with Aori Nishimura.
When I got the game I thought I would miss the ability to jump off the board and walk up to places, but it has never really been an issue. I thought I would get tired of the 2 minute format, but with the Switch, on the go, it only makes the game more accessible. And after five times of playing through the game, making every single map challenge, I really thought I would’ve memorised where things like fire hydrants, school alarm bells and secret tapes are. But no. Not even that. It still feels fresh every time I unlock a new level with a new character.
Bonus. Here’s Rodney Mullens reel from THPS 3. I don’t know how many times I watched this as a kid. But it’s still crazy.