Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 review – a gnarly skating time capsule

PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2; Iron Galaxy Studios/Activision
This remake is a nostalgia fest of grabs, spins, flips and skids - and a stiff, even occasionally humiliating test of skill

It's almost insulting how easily this skating-game remake pushes my millennial nostalgia buttons. The second that Ace of Spades comes on over a montage of skaters on the title screen, I am forcefully yanked back to the early 00s, when I spent untold hours playing one Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game or another in the gross bedrooms of my teen-boy friends. More than 20 years later, I can almost smell the acrid lingering odour of Lynx body spray.

In 2020, the first couple of Tony Hawk's games were polished up and re-released as the first wave of Y2K nostalgia hit. The two games were packaged up as one, with consistent controls and a new look that preserved the grungy feel of the originals, and the same is true for 3+4: levels, skaters and parks from both 2001's THPS3 and 2002's THPS4 rock up here alongside newer stars of the sport (including Riley Hawk, son of the eponymous skating celebrity - I found this oddly touching).