Last Friday was a long 🍎day. A very long day that extended into the wee houཧrs of Saturday morning. You see, I happened to be one of the 2,000 lucky few who managed to snag one of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 Warehouse Demo codes having ordered the “Tony Hawk Burrito” for delivery from Chipotle earlier in the week. This meant that on Friday at 8am PST, I would be able to access the game’s website to snag my PlayStation 4 code for a weekend of warehouse wonder playing a title that I first started🎃 playing in middle school.
Unfortunately, my website experience was met with a massive javascript error that prevented me from ꦜacquiring my code until Saturday. Of course, after waiting nearly 15-years since the last (good) THPS game in American Wasteland, waiting another 24-hours wasn’t too bad of a deal, especially con🀅sidering howꦿ worthwhile the wait ended up being. The Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 Warehouse Demo provided me with everything I’ve been waiting for since the remaster was announced, bringing its incredible soundtrack and gameplay experience into the modern era. As an inaugural playe😼r and fan of the series that began in 1999, I c♒ouldn’t be more excited for the full experience when the game releases on September 4.
Do a Kickflip (Again)!
Droppi༒ng into (get it?) the remastered warehouse level o🍌f Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 felt immediately familiar, yet new at the same time. The overall vibe of the level felt the same as the original, but with an incredible coat of polish to modernize the experience. Instead of crashing through the blocky, pixelated wooden doors and half-pipe overhang, you splinter everything in a far smoother motion with a slightly more♉ weighted feel. That’s not to say the remaster’s physics are overtly realistic though. Far from it.
Part of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater’s charm is its over-the-top skating abilities that allow players to pull off insane, semi-unrealistic tricks and combos. That’s all very much still here in the Warehouse Demo. The demo itself is pretty bare-boned without any real objectives or challenges, but this allows players to just go crazy with the gravity-defying tricks that the series is known for. Controls feel identical to the original games - being eas🐟y to pick up yet difficult to master - and is a massive departure from more the more recent immersive and realistic skateboarding sims like Skater XL. Part of the reason why the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series was so successful initially was its access🌞ibility and ease of entry, allowing non-skaters to join in on the f💛un - a feature which makes its triumphant return in the demo.
The customization features ꦯwill also be returning in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2, as the demo allows players to assign special tricks and button assignments to their skater - who, in this case, is The Birdman himself. Players will also be able to unlock outfits, decks, other gear, and add skill points as they progress through the game, selecting from a massive collection of playable professional skateboarders - a roster that far excee🌸ds that of the original games with the addition of some current-day pro skaters.
Pretending I’m a Superman
Overall, the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 Warehouse Demo lives up to the hype. I had no major complaints while playing, although I can’t say I’m especially impressed with the intentional glitchy mechanic that occurs after wiping out, automatically resetting the skater back on their board. It mostly just seems unnecessary. That said, the audio design that comes with wiping out was a great design decision (th🌸e music becomes nearly muted until the player starts skating again).
If the demo is any indication of what to e🦹xpect from the full game, players have much to look forward to when Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 releases on September 4. The remaster will undoubtedly bring a nostalgic gameplay experience to those, like myself, who grew up♑ playing the series, while introducing one of the best skateboarding games to an entirely new generation of gamers (and soon-to-become skaters).