In new interviews, the devs behind Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 have explained why the popular career mode from the original THPS4 isn’t going to be included in the upcoming remake.
Announced in March after a bunch of rumors, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 looks to be a fantastic remake of two of the best skateboarding games ever made. THPS 3+4 is set to launch in July on consoles and PC, boasting improved visuals, quality-of-life features, and new levels. But the open world and the NPC quest givers found in THPS4's original career mode won’t be included. Instead, they have been replaced by the same two-minute runs and objectives found in the first three games. This upset a lot of hardcore players. And now Iron Galaxy, the team behind the remaster package, has explained why it cut the OG career mode.
Speaking to Game Informer, THPS 3+4 design director Mike Rossi said that the team looked at THPS 1+2 and thought it was a good representation of the essence of those OG games. So they looked back at 3 and 4 before developing this new remake.
“We looked at 3, and that was obviously another very highly regarded title in the franchise. So then it was, ‘Let’s look at 4. It’s quite different, but what, at its essence, is it?’ Our goal here is to make the ultimate package of 3 and 4. So ultimately, we felt that taking it into feeling more towards the 3 format, as opposed to what 4 did originally, was a better representation for a cohesive package that we were making.”
In a different interview with Gaming Bible, THPS 3+4 game director Kurt Tillmanns said that once they put the timer in THPS 4's levels, they knew that “this is totally going to work.”
“We recreated some of those classic goals that you remember [from THPS 4]; skitching the professor’s car, freeing the prisoner — in this new format all of those things still work.”
Speaking to Press Start, Rossi was asked if the inclusion of an option to extend the timer in THPS 3+4's career mode for up to an hour—as opposed to the hard and fast two minutes found in the old games—was a reaction to the negative feedback they received from fans who wanted the open-world career mode of THPS 4.
“No,” said Rossi. “We knew going into it that it was going to be tough and that people were going to be looking at it. But we felt this was the right way to approach it, and it made it a more cohesive package. We had already been thinking, you know, we’ve got the mods, which, in our eyes, is another way of putting accessibility things in.”
“And a lot of the feedback we were getting internally, plus we’d see online, was that people didn’t always love the two-minute timer. You know, they’d want just a little bit more time. ‘Oh, I was just about to figure that out, or finish this thing. If only I had one more minute.’ And so why not give them that extra minute, or whatever extra time they want? It doesn’t feel like that impacts the overall goal that we’re trying to accomplish; it doesn’t impact progression,” said Rossi.
“So we just threw that in, it’s a nice coincidence, and now, hopefully, we can point to that as a solution for those people who are looking for more time in those levels.”
I’m not sure these answers will calm fans who believe the open-world format of THPS4's levels was a big part of the game’s identity. But at this point we are just a few a months away from launch and the devs sound committed to the objective-based run format for THPS 4. It’s a shame for fans of the OG game, but at least the original game is still around for those who prefer it.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 launches July 11 on Xbox, Game Pass, PlayStation, Switch, and PC.
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