I initially had my reservations about Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 after the closure of Vicarious Visions, the developers of the excellent Pro Skater 1 + 2. Pro Skater 3, in particular, is my favourite game in the series so I approached the new remakes with a bit of caution – two beloved entries now being developed under Iron Galaxy. For the most part, my worries were unfounded as the Pro Skater 3 + 4 package is every bit as lovingly crafted as the Vicarious’ remakes, though with a few problems that hold it back from being perfect.



If you’re aware with the structure of the new Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater remakes by now, you should be fine jumping right into Pro Skater 3 + 4 and building up that multiplier. Every bit as addictive, charming and fun as the originals, the remakes are terrific slices of classic skateboarding titles brought into the modern era with a bunch of improvements, tweaks, and content additions. It still retains that same arcade-y fun factor of all the Pro Skater games – catching radical air, chaining together long combos and building up that multiplier meter for that sweet dopamine hit you get when the counter hits a million.



Catering to both newcomers and veteran fans, Iron Galaxy finds a pitch-perfect middle ground where pulling off tricks initially can be simple but it takes a while to learn how to string together tricks and combos without planting your face into the concrete. The controls see the biggest improvements, feeling much tighter and responsive on a modern controller compared to the original games’ looser controls on old hardware. Veterans of the series should have absolutely no problem hopping in and immediately start pulling off big tricks. Even if you’ve played the previous Pro Skater 1 + 2 remakes, it’s a breeze to pick up right where you left off.

Veterans of the series should have absolutely no problem hopping in and immediately start pulling off big tricks.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4, like its predecessor, reworks the campaigns of each game, where a two-minute timer is set to complete various objectives and activities around its faithfully recreated locations, parks and environments - objectives like collecting S-K-A-T-E letters, grinding pipes for extended periods of time, or completing tasks specific to that area or NPCs. It’s fairly straight-forward if you’ve ever played a Tony Hawk game and doesn’t really bring anything drastically different to the table but in this case, that’s alright. It keeps to the spirit of the original games as much as it can, mainly reflected in how well its gameplay still holds up today.



That said, these games aren’t walks in the park (no pun intended). Towards the latter sections of both Pro Skater 3 and 4, the challenges get more demanding and it may take multiple attempts to not only pass your objectives, but score high too. Whether it’s due to greater score thresholds to reach in two minutes or collectibles being spread further and further out in environments, you’re going to be sweating as you watch the timer tick down. By then, the games expect you to have learned most of their gameplay intricacies because a certain degree of mastery, not just in your combos but movement and traversal as well, is needed to take on its more daunting challenges.

Unfortunately, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 does feel like it loses a bit of the “soul” of the original games by making these slight changes, especially in the case of Pro Skater 4. It feels more streamlined and awfully condensed while losing some of its personality, though that doesn’t come at the expense of its content because there’s a lot here to dig into overall. Iron Galaxy doesn’t pull off the “new and old” balancing act as well as Vicarious Visions did, which might bother long-time fans. However, newcomers will still find plenty to love about the games and it certainly won’t short-change them on experiencing the joys of the older titles on new consoles.



Iron Galaxy injects the same level of broad customisation into Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 as the original games with plenty of character items, custom boards, and the ever-addictive process of creating your own park so you can torment your little siblings with designs inspired by M.C. Escher. It crams a wealth of content, both old and new, into a neat package deal that’s probably worth every penny you spend on it since you’re getting two juiced up remakes here.

Iron Galaxy doesn’t pull off the “new and old” balancing act as well as Vicarious Visions did, which might bother long-time fans.

If you’re a stickler for remakes or remasters preserving their original soundtracks like I am, then I have some very bad news. A huge part of the appeal of Tony Hawk’s games has always been its soundtrack. Due to copyright issues, sadly not every song from the original game successfully transitioned over to the remakes. In fact, a bunch of new songs were added to make up for the lack of that nostalgic tracklist. I miss hearing “All My Friends are Metalheads” by Less Than Jake while hitting half pipes, but the new OST – which delivers Motorhead, Alice in Chains, Kendrick Lamar, Lupe Fiasco and others – is good enough that I ended up looking up a few of the songs on Spotify. "Kick, Push" by Lupe Fiasco is a classic and it's baffling how it's never been used in a skateboarding game until now.



From a performance standpoint, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 looks fantastic. I can only speak from my experiences playing the game on PS5 Pro but judging by comparison videos, it really does pop on Sony’s upgraded hardware with detailed textures, great and expressive character models, and a rock-solid 60FPS. Since this is also a cross-gen release, you can probably expect the remakes to look slightly worse for wear on older consoles. However, it runs very well on PS5 and it’s polished to near-perfection, save for some minor texture pop-ins on occasion.



Iron Galaxy may not have the same deft touch as Vicarious Visions, but it successfully brings Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 to the modern era with equal care and consideration for the original experiences. It’s absolutely stacked to the brim with content, losing not an ounce of the addictive gameplay loop that defined our childhoods. In fact, I’d argue that it plays better today. While the remakes lose a bit of the soul of its original counterparts in the transition – the soundtrack omissions sting a little too – it’s a great package overall that keeps the spirit of Tony Hawk’s very much alive and well today.

PS5 Review code provided by Activision