For many, Tony Hawk Pro Skater is arguably one of the greatest games to come out of the 90’s. Encapsulating an entire era of youth culture as honestly and seamlessly as the Pokemon franchise, Tony Hawk Pro Skater reminds us of a simpler time, when skateboarding, punk, and sticking it to the man was a profound lifestyle choice. Like all good things from the past, our gaming overlords have decided to resurrect its commercial success in the hopes of reliving the glory of a bygone age. So here’s a few things that we hope the Tony Hawk Pro Skater Remaster keeps the same, because as we all know, a remaster is only as good as its respect to the originals.

1. Quick Play

As one of my favourite YouTuber’s “Dunky” has put it, one of the reasons why Tony Hawk Pro Skater was so great, was that you could turn the game on, select Career Mode, New Skate and you could immediately begin playing, with no restrictions and full access to the games mechanics and challenges. No tutorial, no unskippable cutscenes, just game. Tony Hawk doesn’t need a story, it most certainly doesn’t need cutscenes, so hopefully Activision remains true to the original, and let’s us load a quick match without all the fluff.

2. Keep It Simple

Part of the beauty of the original Tony Hawk was its mastery of the chore mechanics of gameplay. Stringing along combos while rolling through the map, though technically difficult, felt easy and fluid. Too often AAA titles fail to get the core mechanics of their games down-pat, and instead feel the need to over saturate with useless game modes and ridiculous micro-transactions. Tony Hawk was aware that at it’s epitome, it was simply a skating game, and so the developers at Treyarch focused their attention on perfecting the mechanics before they inserted any extra-curricular nonsense.

3. The Skate Parks

Anyone who has played enough of Tony Hawk Pro Skater has a favourite level. Whether it’s the simplicity of Warehouse, the half pipe style of the School’s pool, or grinding down the escalators at the Mall, the levels in the original Tony Hawk Pro Skater are some of the best in the entire series. They allowed for a massive amount of unique combo stringing while simultaneously feeling open and somewhat realistic. Though based on the trailer it seems as though the Tony Hawk Remaster will maintain the integrity of the levels as much as they can, it’s my hope that in the pursuit of realism they don’t ruin what made the original so great.

4. Blood on Impact

Though it’s a silly personal preference, some of my favourite memories from the original arouse from a catastrophic wipe out. Though I’ll admit that many years of video games may have actually heightened my thirst for violence, I’d feel reminisce if I didn’t mention my love for the face-scraping, blood squirting effect that arise from a poorly conceived combo. In my heart I know that the Tony Hawk Remaster will most likely be rated E for everyone, and will therefore drop this particular aspect from it’s recreation, but one can certainly hope.

5. The Soundtrack

It might be obvious, but the soundtrack for the first 2 installments of Tony Hawk were so insanely epic that they still get consistently downloaded today, these 21 years later. I assume that they’ll keep the Punk Rock/Ska as the primary genre for the remaster, however it would please me greatly to have some of the old songs placed in while also incorporating the best modern punk that can be found. Nothing will ruin Tony Hawk Pro Skater Remaster more than a poorly conceived soundtrack, so here’s hoping that they get this one particular aspect perfect, because in the end, who wants to pull off a kick-flip superman without Goldfingers-Superman narrating your skills. Be sure to check out our previous article on Ghost of Tsushima.