notes on revisiting THPS3, THPS4, THUG, THUG2, and THAW
if you do not recognize these acronyms you may not need to open this lol
remember that joke in arrested development where as a kid, george michael would love going to playgrounds just to hang on a single monkey bar? well, during the exact period in my life in which i probably first laughed at that concept i was doing something very similar: my family had a gamecube, as i recently mentioned in a piece that was much more serious than this one will be, and instead of seeking out new titles, i spent a considerable chunk of my teenage years aimlessly skating around in the various tony hawk games i’d already beaten.
i would guess this is the reason why upon revisiting these games—pro skater 3, pro skater 4, underground 1, underground 2, and american wasteland, a.k.a. the only five ever to be released on gamecube—over the past few months 16 years later, it’s shocking to observe the chasm between which of these titles holds up and which ones are severely disappointing. as an adult, i play video games to beat them and move on with my life, not to just hang in the metaphorical jungle gyms i’ve unlocked for myself to dangle within for the foreseeable future. it doesn’t help that my now-overly-analytical brain has been trained to critique the clearly-designed-for-teens storylines developed in the later games. i guess all of that stuff just went over my head the first time around as i sped through the actual gameplay in order to be able to shred through the bermuda triangle for a whole ass hour with no real direction, no concerning letters from the illinois department of revenue to loom over me, etc.
one thing that was shocking to learn about these games while playing them over the past few months was that each of the successive titles listed above was released one year apart from its predecessor—which may have felt like a lifetime to my pre-pubescent brain, but now i realize that this doesn’t seem like nearly enough time to develop a decent video game in an era when we’re going on 15 years anticipating the latest GTA installment. on the one hand it makes it easier to forgive some of the glitches and lapses in logic, but i can’t help feeling a sense of disappointment at how timeless some of these games could’ve been if they’d been given a reasonably thought-out narrative and challenges as incrementally difficult as the original quadrilogy’s. or, more accurately, to remove the narrative completely and bring the games back to the simplicity and subtle weirdness of the THPS era.
as with any video game, spending enough time with it makes it pretty obvious whether the frustration it makes you feel is due to it being intentionally challenging—which ultimately results in a sense of satisfaction once you’ve beaten it—or due to it not being play-tested enough to work out all the bugs. it isn’t surprising to realize that the games that seem shoddy in most other ways are also the hardest due to impossibly vague instructions, overly complex controls, and inexplicable snags that prevent you from completing a seemingly easy task (e.g. rooftop ramps not lining up perfectly when you need to hit that gap as a pro challenge). i think across the board, the gameplay itself of these five titles improves pretty noticeably between each game, while other elements likely tied to improved graphics, an increased budget for music, and other technical details made them more impressive in my mind over the years. it’s funny that i don’t seem to recall the fact that this series slowly worked out anything resembling the skate-related challenges of the earliest games in favor of illogical chores and in-game advertisements for themselves and their increasing glut of sponsors entirely unrelated to skating (how many people went out and bought jeeps after playing THAW?).
coincidentally, in the midst of re-playing these games, the trailer dropped for redone versions of pro skaters 3 and 4, which don’t particularly appeal to me. through playing the original versions of those two games i began to realize that one of them felt oddly comforting to me—an avenue for re-treading mental space i hadn’t inhabited since teenhood that basically had nothing to do with the game itself, but rather the events in my life encircling it—while the other one felt completely alienating, as i’d largely forgotten it. as with any reboot, i think it may be appealing to me for the same surface-level pleasure i get out of any new video game, though it looks like it hacks off any tendrils leading to nostalgia with its nearly unrecognizable gameplay (and soundtrack). which is ironic to me, given all that stuff i said about nostalgia in the aforelinked essay.
lately i’ve noticed that i’ve become more attuned to my urban environment, processing what items in my familiar surroundings could be ollied over or ground upon and paying more attention to the graffiti tags littering seemingly impossible-to-access rooftops visible from chicago’s el tracks. it’s cool to be able to share this headspace with myself at a point in my life when i was being influenced to move to a city in the first place, and i don’t think anything else could’ve rewired my brain to make this possible. for that, i’m grateful. in fact, i’d go so far as to say that this alone makes up for the terrible time i had playing pro skater 3.
read on for some notes i jotted down on each of these titles. depending on how much they let you fuck around—truly the essence of this franchise—rather than being shepherded through boring tasks, we’ll see if i ever follow this newsletter up with notes on 3 + 4.
THPS3 (2001)
pretty sure this was the last one of these games i ever bought—i think i beat american wasteland and was eager to play more, and must’ve skipped this one between playing 1 and 2 on N64 and gameboy advance, respectively. that said, i likely only ever played it long enough to beat it in high school, and i certainly only played it long enough to beat it as an adult.
GAMEPLAY: absolutely miserable. i guess i didn’t play long enough to know for sure that i wasn’t just overlooking certain things, but the number of available tricks is severely limited—even beyond the fact that the controller doesn’t seem to respond when you move the joystick at a diagonal, not only making it impossible to christ air, but also to simply fucking turn around. moving your skater 180 degrees while at a stop on the ground is a complete nightmare. real caveman shit. and i mean the period of human history, not the skate move which we’re still two games away from being able to perform.
LEVELS: always thought the LA earthquake level was fun when you unlocked it in THUG2, but the rest are weirdly oblong and fairly awful (i think there are only six on the gamecube version, minus a few competition levels). maybe i’m just frustrated about everything else this game has to offer, but suburbia and canada in particular infuriate me, mostly because both involve goals that require you to climb structures and turn around in tight spaces, which, again, you cannot fucking do.
SOUNDTRACK: shockingly bad after the fairly iconic 2, though it does seem to lay the groundwork for the “few classic rock staples/slew of future riot fest punk fodder/handful of def jux universe tracks/bit of iconic ’90s hip-hop” balance they’ll achieve over the next few games (i swear “amoeba” is in every single one of these games, too). shoutout the japanese digital hardcore track, though.
NARRATIVE: none at all—and i like that after beating the game all you get is a blooper reel.
BAM-NESS: i forgot that at this point in the franchise, the cast of skaters they always tote only really represents which ones you can play as. i’d also forgotten that bam was even a part of this franchise this early on, though i will say that this game oddly precedes THUG2 in the amount of destructive cut scenes that take place. a.k.a. the bam effect.
THPS4 (2002)
this was the first tony hawk game i ever got on gamecube, though the fact that i remember every single corner of it speaks more to the fact that it may be my favorite (or is it the other way around?). i will never forget kareem campbell saying “what’s the dill, baby?” when you see him in san francisco, or that guy at the zoo saying “that wuh funny” after you kickflip over the mascot. every time N.W.A. comes on i remember hearing the bass to “express yourself” clearly through the ceiling as my brother was playing this upstairs.
GAMEPLAY: significantly less constricting than that of 3, though it can still be tough being glued to your board. collecting the cash in each level is more fun as a bonus activity than trying to hit all the gaps, even though there isn’t much in the game worth purchasing beyond the bonus levels. and maybe jango fett.
LEVELS: starts off very california-centric before moving to kona skatepark (in florida, evidently—i always assumed it was socal), the shipyard (which does not particularly look like san pedro), and london (assumed that was geoff rowley’s influence, but turns out he’s from liverpool?). i’d totally forgotten the carnival bonus level, and i was deeply insulted to replay the chicago level (originally from a mat hoffman game) for the first time since moving here. they got the bridge on the river that’s stuck in the upright position correct, but the picasso statue seems like it was recreated by someone who’d only ever heard of it. also, there’s no weird island across the river in the actual downtown chicago that’s just home to buckingham fountain (?) and merchandise mart (??).
SOUNDTRACK: honestly not as good as i’d built it up to be! pretty heavy on shitty aughts pop-punk and muskbeatz, while most of the rock music i remember being fun feels gimmicky (sorry, flogging molly fans). some cool classic hip-hop (i wouldn’t include aesop rock in that category, but “labor” is an all-timer), though, and i’ve grown to tolerate system of a down much more over the past 20 years.
NARRATIVE: none, thankfully. seems like you’re merely just a guy traveling to various skate destinations in eerily desolate cities, industrial spaces, and famous prisons doing very strange favors for very weird people. i guess it was a big deal that this was the first THPS game with a “career mode” on it, though that just means you get to free skate each level and approach individual challenges rather than endure the stress of time trials.
BAM-NESS: i’d forgotten he was in this one, too, but his very brief appearances are incredibly bammy. i do love his pro challenge where you have to navigate the switchbacks at alcatraz in a shopping cart—some serious foreshadowing with regard to where this franchise was heading.
THUG (2003)
in total opposition to THPS4, i somehow recalled almost nothing about any facet of this game until the moments i came across it. i guess it was mostly exciting at the time it came out due to the way it dramatically shook up the formula after four games that barely expanded upon the last, while the intrigue of cut scenes and an actual narrative arc seem like a big enough addition that nobody really noticed the subtractions that now feel glaring to me.
GAMEPLAY: another big development this game boasted was that it was the first one where you could hop off your board, though the walking controls were still pretty primitive. i don’t think they really considered that feature when they created most of the challenges, considering every new level is just you talking to people who say “go get me some stuff” and then you have to skate around and touch a few weird glowing squares in the sky which are meant to represent car parts or something (was this activision preparing millennials for the impending gig economy?). i did like the revamping of how stat boosts are achieved (e.g. “grind for 10 seconds”), which not only felt like a more compelling set of challenges than anything required to advance the game, but even kind of felt like maybe what this game should’ve been based around.
LEVELS: every new level unlocked here is head-spinningly weird: the new jersey slums where your rags-to-riches-without-selling-one’s-soul fairy tale begins (ok), manhattan (a reasonably place to start your skate career); tampa (seems to have some skate culture, but still weirdly specific), san diego (it’s socal, but easily the least distinct outdoor layout since hoffman’s chicago level), hawaii (just…generally), vancouver (apparently has a nice big skate facility, but i don’t recognize any landmarks from having spent a week there), moscow (ohh), and, once you beat the game, australia (simply listed as “down under”), where you get to skate around at a kiss concert.
SOUNDTRACK: plenty of lesuer-household classics solidified in their status by getting limewired into our shared library, though generally a huge step up in the punk and hip-hop departments (the “rock” category is pretty lacking again, though—the first thing i did when i booted this up was remove all three kiss songs from the in-game playlist). shocked to see mr. lif and refused on the soundtrack—got really into “i phantom” a little while after first playing this, but didn’t recognize it from this game, and i never knew where i knew the song from the bear from.
NARRATIVE: i’m kind of glad i didn’t remember the narrative because i was more able to appreciate how ludicrous (unintentionally, for the most part, i think) this game is. the anti-corporate angst is obviously commendable, but as i mentioned before, the narrative is strung along by the small tasks you’re asked to conduct (“go find some girls to bring to the party”), which generally feel forced into the plot and which ultimately result in you suddenly traveling to the last place on earth you’d expect to go.
BAM-NESS: apparently near-fatally low.
THUG2 (2004)
i remember this game being a sequel in the same way evil dead ii is a sequel, where it’s basically just an improved version of the original. but this feels like a 180 (or maybe a 720) stylistically, thematically, and tonally, all for the better. i’d forgotten that it even includes an entirely separate “classic mode,” which is a revisitation of all the levels (plus a handful of levels from the original games (mostly 3, unfortunately)) as timed runs where you need to collect SKATE and COMBO and all that stuff.
hard to ignore some of the problematic humor, given that it’s the mid-2000s and much of the game doesn’t take place in the US (i’d even go so far as to say that some of the american stuff is offensive, too, and i am not referring to the boston level). also, tons of fat jokes, and thanks to google i can finally confirm what the soundtrack song “awesome r***” is actually called.
GAMEPLAY: after THUG1 feeling incredibly rushed i like how well-paced this one is, beginning with the revival of the THPS2 training warehouse level where we quickly learn the controls and are shown all the updates (off-board functionality is way better, though i still can’t tell if the introduction of the focus button feels like cheating or not) so we can move on. my only complaint is about the unlockable characters in every city that you need to complete challenges with who all drive non-skateboard vehicles that move at one hundred miles per hour, no matter what you do.
LEVELS: again, pretty randomly chosen cities for a game that’s narrative-driven, but at least none of them are as unexpected as moscow or as bland as san diego—which is saying something, given that the final level is rural ohio.
SOUNDTRACK: i think this may have been the game that i limewired the most music from—it was definitely my intro to joy division, the stooges, X, violent femmes, atmosphere, and i think even jimmy eat world, for better or for worse. i don’t recall ministry’s “no,” which is a great iraq-war-era jam (it was apparently also used in need for speed: underground 2 with bush’s intro lopped off?). inclusion of sinatra is unforgivable.
NARRATIVE: pretty distinct tonal shift from the overly-serious THUG1, which is pretty well summed up in your character’s nemesis eric sparrow’s pivot from insufferable villain in 1 to screechy coward in 2. there’s a similar anti-corporate rage embedded in this one, but it’s overshadowed by the utter nihilism of the second half of fight club disguised as a sports video game. the cut scenes are all very stupid but also unobtrusive and entirely skippable. as much as i love wandering around these levels, i wish there was more skill-challenge stuff if only for the fact that i evidently will never forget where any of the “SPAT” tags are located.
BAM-NESS: this game feels like a coup attempt on tony’s franchise (bam even appears on the cover alongside him as tony playfully gestures for him to keep his distance) between the swapping in of the viva la bam cast for at least half the THPS squad (i think bob burnquist’s only dialogue is a pained exhale after getting hit in the nuts by a tennis ball and removed from the game after you beat the first level) and the entire game being based around jackass schemes instead of actual skating. later in the game, when you join team hawk, everything tony says to you lands somewhere between “proud father” and “ultimate skate fantasy dreamed up while lying concussed at the bottom of a half pipe,” creating a pretty clear angel/devil dichotomy. i also assume bam has something to do with all the conspiracy-theory stuff—when you beat the game you get to play on a spaceship which features a portal to a mesoamerican temple which in turn features a portal to hell, in addition to the similar bonus level that’s the bermuda triangle.
THAW (2005)
similar to THUG1 i’ve managed to memory-hole most of this game, and although i don’t think i realized it as a kid, it’s because this one’s equally undercooked outside of its updated gameplay. even though we manage to stay in the US, this one’s also way more culturally insensitive than THUG2—not only is there a consistent air of needing to impress professional skaters, but also evil caricatures of other ethnicities (your imaginary (?) sensei friend; “manual to impress the cholos”)—while the cut scenes are a combination of cringey dialog (“naked ladies are nice!”) and incredibly silly videos of the massive structure you’ve just dislodged from its concrete resting place being shot into space.
it’s also worth noting how aggressively this game leans into brand sponsorship, as its core focus seems to be straying from predatory corporations towards a more general idea inextricable to LA of an imbalance of wealth and power. as you slap siriusXM stickers all over the city and help ryan sheckler get his jeep liberty back, the game even begins to feel like an advertisement for the franchise itself as the NPCs invoke the THUGs and many facets of the game feel geared around making sure you’re aware of everything the franchise has long had to offer. which ultimately is all in service to its narrative of, uh, paying off the ultra-rich for their predatory behavior.
finally, i also just want to note that within a split second of being introduced to your character’s best friend, mindy, i recognized her voice from the PBS clifford series, in which she played cleo.
GAMEPLAY: between it being the first completely open-world tony hawk game and the fact that you can ditch your skateboard or attack people with it, i get the sense they were inspired by the popularity of GTA: san andreas the year prior. if anything the gameplay is too smooth, with your skater flying up the rails you’re grinding or your pedestrian double-jumping all over the place, though i do think they cracked this thing wide open when they invented the boned ollie. anyway, feels like they spent 90% of their time and resources on developing this and a fraction of the remaining 10% on creating challenges. nothing in this entire franchise feels more phoned-in than the stupidly easy cash challenges in each level, which become yet another chore when you need to spend hundreds of dollars on pushing the narrative forward.
LEVELS: despite all of these games feeling LA-centric in some way, this one’s actually entirely set in los angeles. each area feels fairly familiar to the real deal, and overall i think they did a pretty good job preparing me for living there. never did find that secret abandoned casino in east LA, though.
SOUNDTRACK: in some sense much more consistently enjoyable than those of the predecessors, but it’s at the cost of making this feel pretty far removed from the franchise. sure we get dead kennedys and a sick posse cut anchored by aesop rock, but this soundtrack (heavily sponsored by sirius—hence “holiday” by green day, probably) is largely defined by the dance-punk (bloc party, the faint, DFA79, scissor sisters) of most other sports games of the decade and its exclusive set of hot topic-core bands covering punk classics (most of which i enjoy more than the originals, to be honest, though i swear senses fail’s “institutionalized” plays at least twice as frequently as any other song on shuffle). is this game why i get hot snakes and high on fire mixed up to this day?
NARRATIVE: pretty serious shakeup from its predecessors, with a punk zine aesthetic animating many of the cut scenes (the comic-book sequences likely providing a way of cutting corners on animation) and a central plot for some reason questioning the structural integrity of LA. the premise of this game is essentially to rebuild a way worse version of the skatopia level of THUG2, but in order to do so you need to completely dismantle everything that’s fun to skate on in each level in order to repurpose it for what is basically a shitty advertisement for these games’ “create-a-park” feature, which has never really been a draw (there are also way too many challenges that require you to create your own trick, which is also very difficult in a not-fun way).
while the goals are all destruction-focused like those of THUG2, the way they all feel as much like non-sequiturs (“do a kickflip over a set of concrete stairs to loosen them”) as they do boring chores recalls the poorly-thought-out challenges of THUG1, not to mention the repeated conclusion of making a skate tape with the pros to deus-ex-machina yourself out of an impossible situation. also, despite explicit references to fight club within this game, it seems to tie in suspiciously well with the locals-only attitude of the alva-centric lords of dogtown, which came out the same year.
BAM-NESS: bam curiously only appears at the very end for one (admittedly very bam-like, and presented incredibly bam-ily) challenge, though his voice acting makes it sound like he has a gun to his head as he sticks to the script he clearly wrote. i guess maybe the bam coup is what this franchise really needed.