Yes, we all can’t wait for GTA 6. But this year, a few other games are also coming out. And MeinMMO author Max Handwerk can hardly wait for one of them: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4.
Of course, the big release this year is GTA 6. Everyone is looking forward to it, everyone is waiting for the release, no question. Or at least for a new trailer. But the waiting continues. In the meantime, other games are releasing new trailers. And the latest one for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 does a lot right. So much so that I almost believe: This will be my favorite game of 2025.
I must say: Tony Hawk games are just my games. I love this series, whether it’s the Pro Skater and Underground games, or something like American Wasteland (and we’ll just sweep Tony Hawk: Shred under the rug).
That’s why I was extremely hyped when “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2” released in 2020 as a remake of the old parts with beautiful graphics, great physics, and perfect sounds. What a fantastic journey into the past – and, I hoped back then, also a promise for the future.
But shortly after, things suddenly didn’t look good: Developer Vicarious Visions landed at Blizzard and worked on other projects. It seemed as if the new Tony Hawk era was gone after just one perfect remake. Until 2025, it was announced out of nowhere that Pro Skater 3 + 4 is indeed coming out because developer Iron Galaxy took over the project and Activision is publishing the sequel. So the hype train is rolling again.
But: I actually wanted to talk about the latest trailer. It comes from the Nintendo Direct for Switch 2, for which the game will also be released, and looks like this:
Tony Hawk is back, and a brief moment in the trailer shows: This is going to be good
What does the trailer show? Let’s keep it short: Everything I wish for from a Tony Hawk game. The game apparently picks up exactly where the last remake left off.
- The skate physics are spot on, everything looks as good as usual.
- The sounds are reminiscent of “back then”. A skateboard sliding over a rail or scraping the ground during a revert – these sounds have ingrained themselves in my brain 20 years ago and seem to be back here as well.
- The levels look damn good. Places like the cruise ship, the foundry, Tokyo – I can hardly wait to skate through them again.
However, we had already seen that much in the last footage released for the game. But this new trailer included a special gem: The last two seconds.
There we see Skate Island and a jump that aims for a lifebuoy in the sea. The skater flies through, and we see “A few moments later” – only to continue underwater with Squidward Tentacles’ house on the horizon. It seems there’s a little secret area in Bikini Bottom.
I’m not really concerned that we apparently have a Spongebob reference here, but that such nonsense is actually being done. Because that’s what characterized the earlier Tony Hawk games: Here a joke, there a secret, over there a small room that you had to unlock through unnecessarily complicated means – great!
I mean, back in the day, you could zoom around the cruise ship with Darth Maul and use the Force to spin your skateboard to beat the high score. The new remake doesn’t seem to shy away from such crazy ideas either. Skating through Bikini Bottom with Tony Hawk is just bizarre – but in a good way. Let’s see what else is to come!
In any case, I’m incredibly excited. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 is coming out in July. So I should have a few months to fully enjoy the game before GTA 6 comes out. Because, of course, I’m looking forward to that as well. But in terms of favorite games, THPS will really set the bar high. Now I just hope it meets expectations. What games are you looking forward to this year? Share in the comments! And if you’d rather read something about GTA 6: This is how other publishers are dealing with the release of GTA 6.
