Nostalgia is only going to get you so far, when revisiting something from your youth. Sometimes it’ll get you too far, and as a critic, it’s important to be aware of those instances, so you’re not ignoring the faults in a game or product to the detriment of your work. Thankfully, that’s not something I had to worry about at all with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 when I sat down to begin playing it for my review.

I have practically no nostalgic love for the series. I was the right age to play them growing up, I had the right console with a PlayStation 2 that still works to this day, and yet the four titans of video game history that are the four Pro Skater games, missed me as I was growing up in my gamer youth.

My skateboarding video game journey didn’t begin until EA’s Skate games. A fact that I’m slightly regretting ahead of what’s sure to be a microtransaction-filled Skate 4 that might play the way I prefer, but I’m dreading will be ruined inch by inch with each monetization update that threatens to take all the fun out of just skating around and doing some sick tricks.

That’s why I’ve had so much fun playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4. It’s not a perfect remaster, but for the most part, it accomplishes what it sets out to do, which is to be a fun return to two classic skateboarding games. Some of the new maps don’t stand out as much as old classics, and I do wish that the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 half of the game was more of a faithful remaster to the original game, instead of the entire setup being changed, but it cannot be denied that these games are pure skateboarding fun.

All of my early interactions with the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series came from playing them at friends’ houses, so this is the first time I’ve gotten the chance to sit with games in this series for hours. I have fond memories of playing Tony Hawk games at friends’ houses, and that’s where the nostalgia kicks in the most for me. Ironically, a game published by Activision is making me nostalgic for a time when you weren’t chasing anything in a game beyond high scores and wacky characters, and you could unlock the full breadth of available options just through playing the game for hours.

Unfortunately, that’s where the reality of the video game industry in 2025 kicked in for me, as I saw the two deluxe edition-exclusive characters, DOOM Guy and Revenant, on the roster of skaters. At least Bam Magera is included and unlockable through in-game progress, but I also would have personally liked to see more special characters not within the Tony Hawk universe beyond DOOM Guy, Revenant, and Michelangelo.

That aside, this remaster, and the time I’ve been spending just getting on my board and running through Foundry, the Zoo, Alcatraz, or the Airport, has honestly made me feel like I was escaping the real world in a way that few other games are able to achieve. Part of this can be chalked up to the nostalgia of it all. Another part, I recognize, comes from my real-world experience of heading out on my longboard to get out of my own head when I’ve needed to take some time and not think about life for a while. Riding has always been a special kind of flow state for me that I’ve always felt to be distinct to what I experience when I get deep into a game.

Playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 was the closest I can remember a video game has come to getting me into that specific flow state. The gameplay gets me there, every time, and I just wish the soundtrack played a meaningful role. Your mileage may vary on the soundtrack, but the more than 50 songs featured in this remaster fail to do anything for me more often than not. I don’t dislike all of the songs, but I’ve found that I’d rather listen to my own music library when playing, which is a tad disappointing, considering how the soundtracks to these games have been recognized as a key part of the experience.

Only 10 of the songs on the soundtrack are from the original game, while the rest of the 50+ titles are new. As spotted by VGC, Tony Hawk himself claimed to have made a few decisions on the soundtrack and opted to change things up this time around, featuring newer or different songs from artists featured in the original games. Maybe if Tony Hawk could put some boygenius on the soundtrack, we’d have some more common musical ground.

Out of the new parks, Pinball is the standout, though most of the parks feel very new to me, since, as I’ve said before, this has been my first time really sitting with these parks and spending a lot of time with them. The only problem with that is that the new parks, save Pinball, negatively stand out compared to the original levels that made these games so famous in the first place. It’s not that they’re bad; they’re just not close to the same quality as the original parks.

Ultimately, my time playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 has been a much-needed break from the world. Setting my mind’s clock back to a time before generative AI tools threatened everyone’s jobs, before I had to worry about next month’s rent, and before I spent every day watching some new atrocity pop up on my timeline. It’s excellent, flowing gameplay that feeds into the kind of platforming challenges I can’t get enough of is enough to have anyone daydreaming about the days of their youth.

PS5 version tested. Review code provided by the publisher.

8.5

WCCFTECH RATING

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4