The Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise is all about going over the top. Despite this ridiculousness, it manages to be one of the most accurate and sincere portrayals of skateboarding culture. With this attitude comes a whole slew of things that don't make pro-skatersense.
Some of the entries below deal with some puzzling design decisions or absent features from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2, while others discuss other more playful facets of the recent remake. None of the latter entries do anything to diminish the game's quality, however. On the contrary, going against realism to such an extreme degree is exactly what fans have come to expect from the legendary long-running extreme sports franchise.
10 No Private Lobbies For Friends
The multiplayer experience is quick to jump into and streamlined. Players enter a lobby and a playlist circulates various game modes and switches maps after several rounds. Unfortunately, players are still unable to create a private lobby and invite friends.
It makes sense to disable modes like Horse when playing with strangers, but what about buddies who live across the world from each other and want to play the series stable?
9 Physics
Anybody who has ever jumped on a skateboard or even watched videos of the sport know that ninety nine percent of the antics performed in the game are virtually impossible.
Skating has become more daring in the decades since the first game's release, but even the most daredevil stunts barely touch the half craziest trick or gap players regularly accomplish in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
8 Bails
The older games featured extensive bail and recovery animations. Tony Hawk's Project 8 even featured Ragdoll Physics for moments when players wipe out. While the new game has animations for falling off the skateboard, the skater mysteriously does not stand up.
Instead, a strange filter covers the player as they go into the standing position without moving. While it does not make sense, it does help speed up the process of getting back into the action and makes bails less punishing.
7 Where Are The Cops?
Skateboarding and the law have not always seen eye to eye. Oftentimes people will find lines where they are not supposed to skate. In the game, however, law enforcement is mysterious absent.
One of the goals in single-player even tasks the player with grinding on five cop cars, an act of vandalism which would give anybody a serious prison sentence.
6 The Skaters Are Invincible
Anybody who successfully skateboards knows how important it is to not let fear take over the body. One has to realize they will hurt themselves and eventually break bones. The player's avatar obviously takes this advice to heart.
Curiously, though, they never seriously injure themselves no matter how serious of a drop they take. Their invincibility is definitely preferred to them limping around a skatepark after the first tumble, however.
5 Magical Transportation
Two levels, The Mall and Downhill Jam, are linear areas where players trick down a path until they reach the finish line. In the original game's career mode, the run ended after reaching this point.
In the remake the player is magically sent back to the beginning of the level to restart the line. While it does not make logical sense in the world, it is helpful when players can get to the bottom in about twenty seconds.
4 All The Environments Happen To Have These Perfect Combo Lines
This entry is not talking about levels which are actual skateparks, since it stands to reason they would be built with skateboarding lines in mind.
However, why do areas like a warehouse, school, and a hanger have ramps and rails so conveniently placed close to each other for epic combos? Most of these places are legally off limits to skaters, but security is just asking for trespassers with the sick lines in these areas.
3 Floating Items
Several of the goals in the career mode task the player with collecting five items scattered throughout the environment. These are usually thematically related to the level as well. What does not make sense is why they are floating in the air like someone is using telekinesis.
The hidden tape is also flying and bopping up and down. While on the topic of hidden tapes, why is it still a VHS and not a flash drive?
2 Players Are Glued To Their Boards
When going for collectibles players have to sometimes precisely line up their skateboard to roll into the item. Why don't they just get off the board and walk up to it. Tony Hawk's Underground let players get off their board and walk around.
Some loved this mechanic and the ability to make bigger combos with the Caveman trick, but others considered this the start of the series' downward trajectory. Regardless, it does not make sense for them to only ever ride the skateboard when walking for a bit would make life so much easier.
1 Players Do Not Interact With Each Other Online
One fun part of the older games' split-screen multiplayer was bashing into other players to ruin their combos. This is impossible in the current game's online multiplayer modes. Considering the size of some of the map, letting players smack into others would cause bails all over the place.
Eight people in the Warehouse is an extremely tight fit. While convenient, it simply does not make sense.