I’m not sure heaven is real. But when I die, if there is a big oasis in the sky waiting for me, I’ll be happy to meet up with old family and friends. And then I’ll ask them where the room is that contains all the (good) Tony Hawk games. If heaven is truly paradise, a place where I’ll be happy forever, I expect Tony Hawk games. They are some of the best video games ever made, blending snappy controls, fun level design, and awesome music into an incredible skateboarding experience that I’ve always enjoyed since I was a young boy.
And Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4, the latest entry in the franchise, continues the franchise’s history of delivering pure, concentrated joy, one kickflip and combo at a time. Sure, some changes might ruffle feathers, and I ran into one too many bugs, but THPS 3+4 overcomes its mistakes and has become one of my favorite games of 2025.
What is Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4?
If you’ve never played a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game before, let me explain how these things work. You have a collection of levels and each has goals, like score a high number of points or collect a certain number of items. You have two minutes to complete these goals, but you can try as many times as you like. Completing enough goals unlocks new levels to skate. Do everything you can, and you unlock more goals that are harder.
And that’s basically it. It’s a shockingly simple formula, but it works because it adds just enough tension. Each two-minute run is a mad dash to complete a specific goal, reach a certain area, or find that last item you desperately need. Every crash or mistake in a two-minute run in THPS 3+4 feels painful as you lose some time.
However, the two-minute timer, which was a key part of the first three games, wasn’t a feature in THPS 4. Instead, that game used a semi-open world structure, letting players complete various goals as they saw fit in bigger levels than those in past games. All of that is gone in the new remake. As someone who didn’t play much Pro Skater 4, I don’t mind the remake taking levels from that game and remixing them into the classic two-minute format. But I also get that for some people, this is a huge change that ruins half of THPS 3+4’s package.
THPS 3+4 does offer the option to increase the run timer to as high as 60 minutes, which sort of recreates the laidback, open-world vibes of the original THPS 4, though it likely won’t be enough for people who consider the fourth entry in the skateboarding series their favorite.
It’s not just how you play the levels that has changed in the remake, as the very levels themselves have received big graphical updates, and here, the changes are almost all positive. All of the levels in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 are filled with new details, high-res textures, and improved models, making them feel more alive than in the old games. But developer Iron Galaxy (who worked on the PC port of THPS 1+2) was careful to make sure the classic levels still feel great to skate and aren’t too visually busy or messy. You can still clearly see ramps, rails, collectibles, and more.
This is key in a game where you are often moving very fast in the middle of some huge combo and have to make decisions with little time to think. I never experienced a moment in the remake where I was confused about a piece of the level or what was skateable.
Something new, please
Interestingly, Iron Galaxy has created three new levels in THPS 3+4. One is a large dilapidated waterpark, another a movie studio, and the other places you inside of a pinball machine played by Tony Hawk.
I was concerned that these levels might not be able to hold their own next to the classic parks. Thankfully, Iron Galaxy nailed it. The waterpark-themed area feels like something original THPS devs Neversoft (a studio killed by Activision) would have created back in the PS2 days. Likewise, the pinball level injects some more absurdity into the collection in a way I really appreciated and which is true to the series. I mean, the first game included an Area 51-like level with a UFO and an alien. Oh, and the pinball level includes a very nice nod to original devs Neversoft. Finally, the movie studio level feels so much like an original park that I forgot to include it in the first draft of this review.
Speaking of changes, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4’s soundtrack isn’t just the same songs from the old games. Again, like the changes made to THPS 4’s levels, some fans won’t like that most of the old songs are gone. But they’ve been replaced by a soundtrack filled with bangers, including new songs from artists featured in the original THPS 3 and THPS 4. It makes the package feel less like a nostalgic retread and more like a new game. It’s not. It’s still very much a remake, cashing in on nostalgia. But when I was playing one of the new parks, listening to new music, and playing as one of the many new skaters included in the game alongside old THPS vets, I found myself enjoying something I didn’t expect to have in 2025: A new Tony Hawk game. A good one, too. What a wonderful treat buried in this fantastic remake.
For fans who like to get creative, THPS 3+4 features a very powerful skatepark creator that lets you build basically any kind of level you want. And you can share them across all platforms, too. People are already recreating levels from other Tony Hawk games, and I’ve spotted at least one Mario-inspired track, too. If enough talented creators pick up THPS 3+4, I might have an endless number of new levels to skate, complete with custom goals and collectibles. The remake also supports online play. So you and a few friends can free skate together on a user-created remake of Doom’s E1M1. What a world we live in! There’s also a create-a-skater option, but these can’t be shared online.
Happiness is a skateboard
I’m realizing that I’m nearly done with this review, and I’ve not mentioned yet how skating feels in THPS 3+4. That’s because it’s just so perfect that I don’t have much to add beyond that. It takes what was created for THPS 1+2 and builds on it ever so slightly, but without breaking anything. Skating around a level, even in free skate mode with no goals or timers, is a joyful experience. It just feels so damn good. I always felt in control as I skated, and tricks felt snappy and responsive. Popping a random kickflip on my way to a goal never failed to make me feel a jolt of endorphins firing off in my brain. I have no notes to share about skating in THPS 3+4. It’s very good. It makes me happy. I love it.
What I don’t love are some of the bugs I encountered while playing THPS 3+4. None of them were game-breaking, but sometimes I’d have my screen go black or the camera get stuck in a weird spot. A quick level reset usually fixed these problems, but some screen tearing on Xbox continued to happen when booting up a level. Performance remained solid, but it was a small annoyance I spotted over and over. Hopefully, a future patch can fix some of these bugs and the tearing issue.
Even if the issues are never patched, THPS 3+4 is still a fantastic game. If you’ve enjoyed playing Tony Hawk games in the past, then you should check this thing out ASAP. While the changes to THPS 4’s levels might disappoint some, the new music and levels are rad, and the skating feels as perfect as ever. If that gaming room in heaven exists, it better have a copy of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4.
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