10 Best Gaming Remakes Of This Console Generation
4. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 & 2
"So here I am, doing everything I can/ Holding on to what I am/ Pretending I'm a Superman".
Hearing the opening bars of "Superman" on booting up Vicarious Visions seminal remake of the first two Tony Hawk games made us believers again.
If Crash Bandicoot felt like it had been left for dead prior to its return, then the Tony Hawk franchise had been double-tapped and dumped in the sea for the sharks. Years filled with atrocious spin-offs and lazy remakes culminated in the nadir that was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5, a buggy, hateful insult to the series and its fans. The franchise needed a miracle to return to prominence, and the geniuses at Vicarious Vision duly delivered.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 & 2 defied all expectations, instantly becoming one of the games of the generation. The updated graphics are gorgeous, the gameplay refinements from subsequent sequels fit perfectly into the older games' templates, and the games themselves are just so damn fun to play. Skating through iconic locales, from the Warehouse to the Bull Ring, is just as much a thrill as it ever was (even if our reactions have slowed somewhat in the intervening years).
"Getting older all the time... Feeling younger in my mind". You said it, Goldfinger.