Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video game series is about to resonate with a new generation of fans.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 will be re-released on July 11th, nearly 25 years after the initial games were released. It’ll mark the first release in the video game series since the re-release of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 in 2020.
“I’m super excited,” Tony Hawk himself said in an exclusive interview with Esports Insider. “It’s been a long time in the making, and I can’t wait for people to get it in their hands, because I feel like they’re going to be extremely surprised. If they love the original series, they’re going to love this one.”
Old and New Skaters Join the Re-Make
The re-release will feature 21 skaters from the original games along with multiple new skaters from this current generation. Notable skaters such as Jamie Foy, Yuto Horigome, Nora Vasconcellos, Zion Wright, Chloe Covell, Rayssa Leal, Margielyn Didal and Aurelien Giraud are included in the legendary series.
Horigome is a two-time Olympic champion from Japan, having won the gold medal in the inaugural men’s street event in the 2020 Summer Olympics. Meanwhile, Hawk considers the 29-year-old Foy to be the ‘best street skater’ today.
“Jamie Foy is widely considered the best street skater these days,” says Hawk. “He’s not the most competitive, but any video that he drops, he sets new standards. When we first talked about doing a remaster and updating characters, he was my first choice. Thankfully he agreed.”
Hawk also had major props for Wright, a 26-year-old involved in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. The 57-year-old skateboarding legend also made sure to give major props to Australian skater Chloe Covell, a 15-year-old who participated in the women’s street event at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
“Zion Wright is just a machine in terms of overall skating ability,” said Hawk. “Cascading terrain is always on point, and he’s just a super effusive, fun guy to hang around with. I’m stoked to have them both in.
Other people, like Chloe Covell from Australia, I saw her when she was just kind of on the rise, and I just felt like she’s got something. I’m glad my instincts were correct, because now she just won the last street league.”
Tony Hawk: Bam Margera ‘In A Really Good Place’
While the addition of the new skaters obviously adds a new wrinkle to the game, the biggest inclusion is none other than skateboarding icon and television personality Bam Margera. Hawk had to fight for Margera to be included in the game.
“Bam is iconic and has been a huge part of the series,” says Hawk. “I just happened to skate with him not long ago, and I could tell that he was in a really good place. I could tell he was back to skating, and it just felt like he was highly motivated to make positive changes in his life.
“(We had) to scramble and get him scanned and put him in,” Hawk continued. “And it wasn’t just me. It was thanks to a team of people. They managed to get it in time. That was a big fire drill and I was really thankful that it worked out.”
Outside of the addition of the new skaters and Margera as a secret skater in the game, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 will also include new songs on the soundtrack. Hawk explained that he wanted to add new songs — in addition to some original ones — to resonate with this current generation.
“I feel like we don’t want to just repeat the original soundtracks,” Hawk explained. “The idea is that you might find new music thanks to these soundtracks, or you found a style of music you loved. I wanted to bring that into more of the new generation.”
The soundtrack includes roughly 60 songs, with Hawk singling out the acts, Idles and Gang of Four, as his ‘biggest additions’ to the re-release.
“I would say my biggest additions, personally, were Gang of Four and Idles,” says Hawk. “I feel like they’re right in line with the type of music that you’d expect from our games. Gang of Four is more classic, but we haven’t had Gang of Four yet, or we had it once, so I feel like that represents my taste in music.
“I was just thankful that the bands agreed to it, honestly, because licensing bands, especially the streaming rights now, is pretty tricky.”