Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4

The Tony Hawk games were really a staple of my early career as a gamer. Me and my mates played them a lot and embraced everything from the music, the Jackass culture, the clothing style and the attitude. Those were the days. Therefore, it is with an extra dose of nostalgia when you start Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 and hear the sweet tones of CKY and Motörhead. Then I realised how old I've become when it doesn't feel as obvious and smooth to trick around in one of the two tracks available. It feels alien even though it works in exactly the same way as it did then - back in the days.

I've been playing a little too much Skate, I think. A game that tried to approach the sport of skateboarding in a more realistic way. Tony Hawk is the exact opposite with full arcadey fun from the first second. You know what I mean, I think. If not, I mean that the slower pace of the Skate games (which are the only skateboarding games I've played in the last 15 years) has made me think that's how skateboarding games are supposed to work. I've forgotten how Tony Hawk works and was shocked at the frenetic pace and insane amount of practice I have to rub in to get the board rolling smoothly again.

Once it starts to settle down again and I'm not bailing over and over again but actually getting some decent scores together, I remember why we lived in these games when they first started. It's pure, albeit arcadey, brilliance. Putting together darkflips with a wallride and jumping over to a rail and grinding for fifteen metres, then jumping down and landing in the nose manual and topping it off with a good old kickflip brings out that teenage beast in me. I have to restrain myself from ordering a pair of Etnies, a DC Shoes Company hoodie and a skateboard that will end up collecting dust leaning against the hallway wall. I'm too old, but digitally I've aged backwards since I started the party that is Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4.

I'm happy to see that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 has also been polished up quite a bit. It's really nice. You can see that it's the same game but everything is dressed in fresh new clothes - as if it were a brand new title but not. Apart from the nostalgia, there's nothing to suggest that these are essentially games that are starting to verge on the antique. There's also a lot of new content, with new tricks, young talent in the form of pro skateboarders, and (unfortunately) new music. Not all the old favourites are included from the original soundtracks and that makes you shed the odd old tear but you can't have everything, after all.

The demo released by Activision is rather sparse but it definitely makes me thirst for more. There are two classic tracks we get the pleasure of playing - the industrial track Foundry and College (which logically takes place in a school). The old skating guru Tony Hawk, along with younger talent in the form of Brazilian Rayssa Leal, are the skaters we have to choose from - unless you pre-order the digital deluxe edition, because then you can kick around as Doom Slayer, the protagonist from the Doom games.

I'm looking forward to seeing the whole of what they've cooked up but so far it's really promising. No-one was disappointed when Tony Hawk and company were first remade and honestly, I think this version will get the same reception. There is nothing to suggest otherwise - nothing.