American Wasteland was my childhood. I used to play it every year on Christmas Eve and try to stay up and beat it before my parents woke up for presents. Definitely has its flaws but it just hooked me and the soundtrack is still in my rotation
For real TH:AW was goated, got it for Christmas the year it released. Had all the quality of life improvements of thug 1 and 2, and a better story than thug 2. I think I prefer thug 1, but american wasteland is so good.
AW is such a gem. One of my day one friends still got his PS2 and an old ahh TV stored in his apartment in case we need to settle a beef with some split screen competition.
American Wasteland is still one of my all time favs. I got into the series out of order, so I played THPS4 first in like 2004. Then got American Wasteland in 2005. (Got and played the previous games later on and enjoyed them). The whole story and aesthetic for AW was just incredible to my 10 year old self. Since I hadn't played Underground yet, all the gameplay additions were actually interesting and new to me. Story was hilarious, but endearing, and the soundtrack... MY GOD, the soundtrack. The fact that the majority were all covers of older songs by some of the most popular 2000s punk bands, and I never even knew it. Seriously, I thought all of them were original songs by those bands. Absolutely phenomenal stuff.
i played thug 2 at 3 years old. played the others here and there over the years but never finished them. just messed around. just played thug1 the other day and its easily better than 2 (story wise. at least). im downloading AW. cant wait. might update when im done with the story.
For a public, mass marketed product the level of quality in the rap portion of the soundtrack is unbelievable. Quas, public enemy, mr complex, nas, naughty by nature, anacron, qbert, busdriver, mr. Lif, aceyalone, etc. Pretty immaculate curation that showed a different side of rap music before the internet was really developed, when the mainstream was departing from the underground, and it wasnt as easy to access the styles presented in these OSTs.
Honestly every Tony Hawk game has a few decent tracks at least in HATED games like Ride and Shred and such the soundtracks are at least among the more redeeming qualities about them
What I love about Pro Skater 1+2 is that not only was it a “remaster”, all the pro skaters in game were their current age in IRL at the time of release, rather than them just remastering the character designs. Small detail that I genuinely appreciate
I agree, that game was a defining moment of my childhood. Even taught you valuable lessons ( To stay true to yourself and what you do despite the fake friends/company you keep )
i just loaded up underground 2 for the first time in well over ten years and got lost getting 100% in the first 2 levels. I didn't know how much i missed good clean fun games with no mtx and such
I've been working my way through the THPS1+2 remake and as someone who is a huge fan of the first four THPS games, and played all of them on release, they've done a great job. The controls are perfectly ported, it looks great, the majority of the soundtrack is intact, and it looks like how I remember the first 2 games looking through my nostalgia goggles, which is the sweetspot for remasters. They've even added new skaters and videos in a pretty unobtrusive way. They' e also added a whole bucketload of optional challenges, which is a fantastic touch, and shows a good understanding of the games audience.
Havent finished the vid yet (released 8 minutes ago), but good job so far brahhh. Also, I liked your interview vids, you put a lot of work into them in terms of time (filming, research, editing etc) and money (travel, accommodation), so very much appreciated.
As a 90s, kid who started skating when he was 6 and literally did an hour ago at work... I'm proud of you son. BlackLabel never be bought, never be sold. Mullen is god End of story
I remember always creating the same character in Underground. A guy with a backpack and a neon green skull for a head. Dunno why, it's not even that I thought it was hilarious, that was legitimately just the coolest looking character I could come up with.
Usually Canadians get stumped out of the limelight but I was super pumped to have Canada in the game as a stereotypical snowy map with the ploughed roads.. it’s exactly how growing up skating in winter was lol, hockey nets and all (which make for a good rail flipped over) and also having Vancouver too and the vans slam city jam.. it’s sweet to be included and have 3 maps! always loved that.
Project 8 and THPV were and still are my favorite tony hawk games.. really based of nostalgia.. but i can respect the opinion of both especially going back to them in a year like 2024 based off of the modern skate games now (Skate, Session, XL, etc.) With all being said, those games were their own identity as games. I've heard this a lot about those games but you have to understand why they made them like that and being they never had a core storyline, strictly focusing on the main characters journey in a serious manner. I just had to give my 2 cents. Love this content! Ps. i'm not a wasteland fan, just couldn't like it enough to play through it. So i understand his opinion
The musical intros going into the chapters for THPS1 and Project 8 reminded me of Lazy Eye by Silversun Pickups and hit me with a wave of nostalgia I didn't know I needed.
I just remember going to my Peepaw’s house and playing Tony Hawks Proving Grounds demo over and over again on his ps2 when I was younger. Great times man.
First stage Warehouse in first Tony Hawk back in 1998, i did 937k points with 367k single combo (record in my country at the time). Dont say there was no chance of "connecting" combos in first Tony. Maps were designed to find out and perform specific combos.
Tony Hawks American Wasteland was like a true vibe of skating especially ea skate 1 and 2 were just gold but tony hawks american wasteland was sick with unique tricks u can do that were just special about the game and the fact u could ride bmx was dope too😂, it was a true vibe giving us the prediction of the last tony hawk game will be THAW with little cartoon goofy but respectfully has just good graphics and textures thats when things started to feel depressing but more vibes playing alone when multiplayer died ;)❤ other than that THUG and THUG 2 was a true tony hawk street games too but many of them were good memory loving the fact it was about street og skating in tony hawk series 🔥
You listed American Wasteland as the beginning of the end, but really it was THUG2. If the player didn't enjoy Johnny Knoxville-style content, then the game was SUPER alienating.
Never thought of it that way and it seems very true. But for me as CKY and Jackass fanboy I can only say that I never had more fun playing a video game to this day
THAW is easier to appreciate for a niche audience which is west coast punks. I consider it a kid friendly love letter to the DIY scene in LA. A perfect wrap up for what i consider the attitude era (borrowing the term from wrestling) of American skateboarding
Me and my brother grew up playing THUG2 and it has always been our favorite game of all time, now we're pushing our 30s and thanks to thug pro we are able to relive those days growing up again!
I played Tony Hawk Project 8 on PSP for hundreds and hundreds of hours in 2+ years. Even now I can feel how I was crushing the sh*t out of that handheld. Definitely the most uderraeted version/game in the series.
THUG 1 was good, but i'll still be a fan of THPS 2. It was just a big improvement from the first one. THUG 1 had alot of hype on release with advertising.
3 was probably my favorite back in the day, just cause it had so much to do and so many skaters and tricks. And HORSE was the best multiplayer mode IMHO, so many fun evenings with friends with that one.
The best feeling I had was getting over 1000000 points on THPS 1's Warehouse stage. Finding a way on my own to get an almost unlimited combo back in the day was amazing. Been trying to recreate that combo, but it's so hard over 20 years later 🤣
I'm definitely a diehard fan of Underground 1 and American Wasteland, they're both really solid (if slightly janky) entries, although I have been going back and playing the PS1 Pro Skaters and I'm also having a lot of fun with them. After being spoiled for choice, the limited movesets in the earlier games force me to think and be more creative with how I approach the goals. On a random note, I was about 12 when American Wasteland came out and I remember so many advertisements toting 'no loading screens' as the next big thing for the game and, technically, they were correct but I love how they just slapped these liminal hallways in between each level. There was something weird about leaving Hollywood and going through a closed down and abandoned strip mall to get to Beverly Hills or going through the parking lot from Beverly Hills to Santa Monica. It was psuedo open world and looking back on it now I can appreciate the creativity the team had when dealing with the technical shortcoming of their engine. You can pinpoint when the previous level deloads and the next one loads because the icons in the compass just explode into different spots lmao
Thps2 to Tony hawks project 8 were all the goat in my opinion. each one brought at the very least a new innovation to the series but were all really enjoyable in their own way. I still remember getting a playstationUK magazine back in the day and the main story was about tony hawk's underground. the fact that you could now get off your board absolutely blew my little kid brain and is solidly one of the most nostalgic memories I have for video games of all time. Me and my friends still play thug2 once every couple of years and it truly is timeless. For every other game I definitely racked up hundreds of hours collectively playing the levels over and over again. It's a shame that it's gone but at least there won't be any more bad entries either.
Downhill Jam was really wearing its SSX3 influence on its sleeve lol, down to the boost meter based off doing tricks, being able to punch other racers, even the focus on speed and overall track design
Cool retrospective. I would have liked to see more of the other features in the games like the multiplayer/online and stage builder and trick maker, though i know those are more secondary content.
i remember back in the days, i 100% all tony hawk games from 4 to american wasteland without internet. did all the gaps and collectibles. managed to rack millions of points in one combos... played the shit out of them. good ol' days.
i think i was one of the few people who didnt play THPS2 at the time. when all my friends at school played it, i told my mom that i also want the skateboarding game, and she got me the first one instead of the second. i still had loads of fun, but later i wanted a new game and thats when THPS3 was already out so i skipped 2. I played all games until Project 8, which i didnt like so i didnt play any more thps games. My favorite over all was always THUG1, mostly because it had by far the best story. Loved THUG2 aswell, but the over-the-top story was not quiet the same.
Great video! THAW was my favorite actually. I can still pull up these famous lines in East L.A. and so on. It would also have been great if you had talked about THUGPro on the PC. Since some years before and even after the release of THPS1+2 it´s in my opinion the only "game" or rather mod worth playing if you aren´t looking for the storymode. It even has multiplayer and up until today you will be able to find a full lobby at most times a day. It also has maps, skaters, boards and so on from many entries.
Thps 1+2 just made insanely good sense. Remastering for modern hardware, and adding the super important manual and revert mechanics to fill in those rather large gaps that were missing. My only gripe isnt even really their fault, in that they couldnt license all the original songs for it, but thats easily fixed with a Playlist played separate from but simultaneously with the game. Not to mention, cashing in on the huge wave nostalgia, since the original dropped and was playing at 12 years old in 1999. I wonder if they're going to drop 3+4 someday
Project 8 was designed for 360, that's the version you should have played, none of the issues you mentioned applied to that version. The PS3 version was a rushed port, it only used 1 core and wasn't optimised for the PS3's memory architecture either so the graphics were downgraded to compensate. Also, you forgot to mention the best feature of the game, you can ragdoll on command by pressing all the shoulder buttons at once.
Yeah although I roll my eyes when I see purist say that the PS1 versions of Pro Skater 3 and 4 are the "true" versions when they weren't even the main versions developed by Neversoft like Shaba Games and Vicarious Visions literally just used the PS2, GC and Xbox versions as a base line to start and then downgrade them for the PS1 system
@@poleon2003Quite ironic, since THPS3 started development as a PS one game, but midway through development, the platform was changed to the PlayStation 2, causing Shaba games to continue working on the PS one port. What we got isn't bad to be honest. It may not have Cruise Ship and most of the bonus skaters and levels, but we were given a solid, quality port given the PlayStation's limitations, plus a Downhill level that would reappear in Project 8. It just shows that not all scaled-back ports are bad.
@@NewGabeOrder Yeah not to say that the PS1 versions were bad I was just pointing out that when people fondly remember Pro Skater 3 they usually talk about the PS2 version as that was the highest scoring version of Pro Skater 3 according to metacritic despite the PS1 version being remembered by those who just couldn't buy a PS2 when it was brand new just to play the new next gen Tony Hawk game and just stuck with PS1 for the time being
@@poleon2003 ...but what about the GameCube version? The game performs better on a GameCube, and it is one of the platform's launch titles. I not only have the N64 and Xbox versions, but I have a copy of the GameCube version of THPS3.
@@NewGabeOrder well yeah I was just referring to the 6th gen console versions as a whole as all 3 consoles were worked on by Neversoft but I find the Tony Hawk games and SSX games to an extent to feel much better to play with a PS2 controller to me personally although Xbox has the best graphics and performance and has a exclusive level and skater that the PS2 and GC versions didn't have but still
One thing that I think gets glossed over in THUG2 is how the graphics and physics changed in tandem to reflect the mood of the game. The characters look more arcadey instad of trying to have any degree of realism (which I think THUG touched on to make the story somewhat relateable). Similarly, you can get a manual that manifests motorized wheels on the back of your skateboard to get a crazy amount of speed which you can use while skating around an alien station that can teleport you to an aztec temple and literal hell. It's an insanely silly game, and I love it. It's flawed, but so much fun. Sticking with this style in THAW was the right move.....and then they lost focus and never got it back.
The Dreamcast version of THPS 1/2 are the best looking ones imo, that console was ahead of it's time. I gotta say, the first 3 entries are my favs, and THPS 1+2 being my fav remake
T.H.U.G. is my favorite hands down, even replayed and beat it last year. It also started a tradition with a cousin of mine of spending the nights beating these games when they came out. We did that for T.H.U.G, T.H.U.G. 2, and American Wasteland. We tried again with Project 8 and got bored within an hour, and that was the last entry I touched.
PS1-4, UG1&2, American Wasteland, and Project 8 were all pretty dope experiences. Project 8 was my personal fave growing up, no real...specific reason, i just like it a lot.
THUG1 & 2, American Wasteland and Project 8 feel super nostalgic to me and the games that i felt had the most meaning to me out of all the series. I was definitely the right audience for those 4 games and when Proving Ground came out, I played it but at that point it was all about the Skate series to me and a game that was a bit more realistic as opposed to arcade style. Shoutout to Downhill Jam tho, playing that with my friends was fun.
I liked Proving Ground and P8's introduction of the "Trick on all these items in sequence" challenges, those were fun. The checkpoint challenges (where you do one type of trick on the coloured stickers in increasingly large combos to get Am, Pro, Sick, like in the first level of PG where you have to grind around the block on the curb) were way too hard though, especially where you have to chain wallplants at weird angles I also consider American Wasteland to be Anti-punk which is fun, because you start off with the very punk "Destroy capitalist structures and repurpose them" but doing that makes the land that Iggy is squatting on suddenly valuable, and it's NOT his land. Which means now the real landowner is wanting to sell, and Iggy is facing jail time because of you. so you save up money with trick videos and crowdfunding and buy the land. You go from "Fuck the man" to "We must BECOME the Man... We must become... landowners."
As I was watching the video I just kept saying "that one's my favourite!" with each game 🥲 I played all the Tony Hawk games on PC (with a keyboard!) back in the day so it ended for me on American Wasteland. TPHS 1+2 was such a great remake and it makes me so sad that we won't get a 3+4. I replayed all the games in 2020 and damn, I might have to do it again!
American wasteland was the first video game I got when it was brand new. I beat the story on every difficulty so many times. It is my favorite game still today.
Love the video, although I had to turn it into a podcast halfway through THPS3. I couldn't take all the pop shuv-its and grind bails without balancing.
Ohe thing that is very much worth mentioning with regards to the humor of the series is this. Tony Hawk (IRL) is a good friend of the original creators of Jackass. So them having that humor in the games makes a lot of sense
The games I actually played were THPS3, Sk8land (the Gameboy version of Wasteland iirc), and Proving Grounds. A friend got me 1+2 for my birthday and it's alright, but I've definitely lost my skateboarding cred after 15+ years of not playing anything.
The Tony Hawk games I grew up with were THUG2 and American Wasteland. Some of the fondest memories I have with the Xbox 360 involves watching my brother playing wasteland and then letting me play whenever he would stack. We had thug2 on the OG Xbox and when my brother moved out he let me have the OG while he kept the 360, and thug2 was the only game I had for it. I’ve played probably thousands of hours worth of both of those games, good times
Whats your favorite Tony Hawk Game? 🛹
Tony Hawk 4, it's the first game in my life that I ever 100%'d. That soundtrack.... 😍😍😍
THUG
THUG 2
Tony hawk 3 and THUG1&2
Underground or the 1&2 remakes depending on my mood
American Wasteland was my childhood. I used to play it every year on Christmas Eve and try to stay up and beat it before my parents woke up for presents. Definitely has its flaws but it just hooked me and the soundtrack is still in my rotation
For real TH:AW was goated, got it for Christmas the year it released. Had all the quality of life improvements of thug 1 and 2, and a better story than thug 2. I think I prefer thug 1, but american wasteland is so good.
I'll die on this hill; THAW is one of the best games of the mid 2000's period, do not care.
That game that soundtrack was so Fun!
A Tony Hawk video that covers the entire series is a very _Saturday_ video. Feels good watching this.
Felt like a saturday kind of deal
Truly a series that has more to say than all of Metal Gear. Bam Margera is a poet and philosopher.
Westchester King 🤴
"I gotta give it to ya', that run was bullshit. No, in a good way though." - Bam Margera THUG
@@prettzx “mmmm tanks 🤩 we can’t go skate now look at all these tanks”
This is one of the few series where any mainline entry can be someone's favourite and I think, yeah, I can see that.
Except 5 I guess because they gave it a number so it has to be mainline :(
That's true. Except 5
@@lpnp9477it’s funny how this exact statement also applies to Halo lol
@@personnelprotonand the Rocky movies
@@lpnp9477 not mainline because it wasn't developed by Neversoft, it's not official.
1+2 is the tony hawk love letter that fans deserved. it’s so so good.
Underground 1&2 and American Wasteland was a massive part of my childhood. Project 8 was also good for what it was.
AW is such a gem. One of my day one friends still got his PS2 and an old ahh TV stored in his apartment in case we need to settle a beef with some split screen competition.
Spiderman on THPS2 was the greatest secret character of all time.
the biggest and saddest omission of the remake is the inability to play as spiderman.
The video you got for beating the game as Spidey was amazing, since it was Tony Hawk dressed up in a Spider Man costume
Skating as Spidey on that space level with low gravity on is a core memory of my childhood 🔥
bro tony hawk just confirmed he's working with activision on something "fans will really appreciate." !!!!!!!
All we need is a TH Underground 1 and 2 PROPER REMASTER
@@kylefaria8712 put in THAW please!
Tony hawk? I remember that name after all my last name is hawk too ahh this video takes me back to when I played these games too!
AW remaster would go hard
I'll readily admit these skateboarding games are not my cup of tea. But I'm here to support my son. You go kid.
We have to support our favorite son!
“ thanks dad” - your favorite son probably.
American Wasteland is the best only because they give you a punk skater waifu at the end. 10/10
Mindy's voice is more annoying than Marge Simpson.
@@Nitroh- is your job to shut it 😉
American Wasteland is still one of my all time favs. I got into the series out of order, so I played THPS4 first in like 2004. Then got American Wasteland in 2005. (Got and played the previous games later on and enjoyed them).
The whole story and aesthetic for AW was just incredible to my 10 year old self. Since I hadn't played Underground yet, all the gameplay additions were actually interesting and new to me. Story was hilarious, but endearing, and the soundtrack... MY GOD, the soundtrack. The fact that the majority were all covers of older songs by some of the most popular 2000s punk bands, and I never even knew it. Seriously, I thought all of them were original songs by those bands. Absolutely phenomenal stuff.
shaped a big part of who i became
i played thug 2 at 3 years old. played the others here and there over the years but never finished them. just messed around. just played thug1 the other day and its easily better than 2 (story wise. at least). im downloading AW. cant wait. might update when im done with the story.
God, and all the old skate videos of the pro skaters that were in the game were great
I like American Wasteland but it didn't end off strong. I'd put underground 2 as my favourite
@@lukan9293 thug2 is one of the easier ones w practice you can finish it in less than 30 minutes and you dont even have to be good at it
For a public, mass marketed product the level of quality in the rap portion of the soundtrack is unbelievable. Quas, public enemy, mr complex, nas, naughty by nature, anacron, qbert, busdriver, mr. Lif, aceyalone, etc. Pretty immaculate curation that showed a different side of rap music before the internet was really developed, when the mainstream was departing from the underground, and it wasnt as easy to access the styles presented in these OSTs.
Honestly every Tony Hawk game has a few decent tracks at least in HATED games like Ride and Shred and such the soundtracks are at least among the more redeeming qualities about them
Tony Hawk's Proving Ground was a solid game in my eyes. But i started the franchise with 4 being the first game i completed
THUG1 was peak Tony Hawk
No doubt
the story is amazing but THUG2 was so funny and unserious and i love it so much more
@@freshtodeath.9217 can’t hold you, THUG2 was mad wild, especially the New Orleans level 😂
@@Vani-w5c the whole game felt like one giant jackass episode about skateboarding
Objectively. It has all the mechanics. The best customization. And the story is so ridiculous it's absolutely perfect. Era defining.
What I love about Pro Skater 1+2 is that not only was it a “remaster”, all the pro skaters in game were their current age in IRL at the time of release, rather than them just remastering the character designs. Small detail that I genuinely appreciate
A shame about spiderman though
T.H.U.G. Is the game that really got me hooked on the Tony hawk series. Just such a fun experience
I agree, that game was a defining moment of my childhood. Even taught you valuable lessons ( To stay true to yourself and what you do despite the fake friends/company you keep )
THUG1 is my favorite, but I remember being psyched as hell finding the hidden Big Foot skater in THUG2.
i just loaded up underground 2 for the first time in well over ten years and got lost getting 100% in the first 2 levels. I didn't know how much i missed good clean fun games with no mtx and such
Honestly thug2 is goat material
So this is what you've been doing in your room all this time? Fair enough, carry on my wayward son.
I'm finally allowed to leave my cave
@@YourFavoriteSon1
GET OUTTA YA DAMN GOONCAVE BOY!
You also have to take in consideration that the marketing for THUG was some of the best game commercials of all time.
Definitely peaked at Thug 1, perfect balance of gameplay and grounded story telling
I've been working my way through the THPS1+2 remake and as someone who is a huge fan of the first four THPS games, and played all of them on release, they've done a great job. The controls are perfectly ported, it looks great, the majority of the soundtrack is intact, and it looks like how I remember the first 2 games looking through my nostalgia goggles, which is the sweetspot for remasters. They've even added new skaters and videos in a pretty unobtrusive way. They' e also added a whole bucketload of optional challenges, which is a fantastic touch, and shows a good understanding of the games audience.
Tony hawks Underground 2 also brought back a classic mode that brought back the 2 minute timer!!! It unlocked a bunch of unique levels c:
Havent finished the vid yet (released 8 minutes ago), but good job so far brahhh. Also, I liked your interview vids, you put a lot of work into them in terms of time (filming, research, editing etc) and money (travel, accommodation), so very much appreciated.
Glad you enjoyed it!
As a 90s, kid who started skating when he was 6 and literally did an hour ago at work... I'm proud of you son.
BlackLabel
never be bought, never be sold.
Mullen is god
End of story
I remember always creating the same character in Underground. A guy with a backpack and a neon green skull for a head. Dunno why, it's not even that I thought it was hilarious, that was legitimately just the coolest looking character I could come up with.
I refuse to take this senseless proving ground slander, that game is an underrated gem
frr bruh my favorite tony hawk game
Just commented this😂 as a 9 yr old i fucking loved that game,
Maybe if you don't play every game in the series they hold up better. Because I only owned Underground and Proving ground, so I loved them both.
Yeah, I was a little surprised by that. Sure, it's not perfect, but... Come on, it has a lot of good things going for it
Usually Canadians get stumped out of the limelight but I was super pumped to have Canada in the game as a stereotypical snowy map with the ploughed roads.. it’s exactly how growing up skating in winter was lol, hockey nets and all (which make for a good rail flipped over) and also having Vancouver too and the vans slam city jam.. it’s sweet to be included and have 3 maps! always loved that.
Project 8 and THPV were and still are my favorite tony hawk games.. really based of nostalgia.. but i can respect the opinion of both especially going back to them in a year like 2024 based off of the modern skate games now (Skate, Session, XL, etc.) With all being said, those games were their own identity as games. I've heard this a lot about those games but you have to understand why they made them like that and being they never had a core storyline, strictly focusing on the main characters journey in a serious manner. I just had to give my 2 cents. Love this content!
Ps. i'm not a wasteland fan, just couldn't like it enough to play through it. So i understand his opinion
The musical intros going into the chapters for THPS1 and Project 8 reminded me of Lazy Eye by Silversun Pickups and hit me with a wave of nostalgia I didn't know I needed.
Exactly what I thought of when I found the song
@@YourFavoriteSon1 what is it??
I just remember going to my Peepaw’s house and playing Tony Hawks Proving Grounds demo over and over again on his ps2 when I was younger. Great times man.
I appreciate this more than you know, Son. Thanks for providing me a bit of solace in a wold that isn't as..."SPECIAL" as it used to be❤
15:44, that cute little detail where the cahier is getting chokeheld in the background lmao
First stage Warehouse in first Tony Hawk back in 1998, i did 937k points with 367k single combo (record in my country at the time). Dont say there was no chance of "connecting" combos in first Tony. Maps were designed to find out and perform specific combos.
American Wasteland was my favorite. Replayed it many times
I thought it would be mentioned but Eric Sparrow was in Proving Ground too for a quick minute. Pretty funny.
I must say that, as a hip hop head, I was impressed with the double entendre Segway into Downhill Jam.
Nicely done Son.
THUG got me into Busdriver back when it came out, and still love Busdriver to this day. Hell yeah.
Tony Hawks American Wasteland was like a true vibe of skating especially ea skate 1 and 2 were just gold but tony hawks american wasteland was sick with unique tricks u can do that were just special about the game and the fact u could ride bmx was dope too😂, it was a true vibe giving us the prediction of the last tony hawk game will be THAW with little cartoon goofy but respectfully has just good graphics and textures thats when things started to feel depressing but more vibes playing alone when multiplayer died ;)❤ other than that THUG and THUG 2 was a true tony hawk street games too but many of them were good memory loving the fact it was about street og skating in tony hawk series 🔥
My favorite game series AND a CKY shout out? Hell yeah brother
CKY was peak
You listed American Wasteland as the beginning of the end, but really it was THUG2. If the player didn't enjoy Johnny Knoxville-style content, then the game was SUPER alienating.
That's a good point, just wasn't for everyone.
Yeah I was a huge Bam Margera/ jackals fan and even I realised what a step down it was
Never thought of it that way and it seems very true. But for me as CKY and Jackass fanboy I can only say that I never had more fun playing a video game to this day
Yeah THUG1 was the peak of the series, but in gameplay and community, THAW was the final game that was succesfull.
THAW is easier to appreciate for a niche audience which is west coast punks. I consider it a kid friendly love letter to the DIY scene in LA. A perfect wrap up for what i consider the attitude era (borrowing the term from wrestling) of American skateboarding
I’ve never clicked on a video so fast. The musical influence these games brought alone changed my life forever.
Me and my brother grew up playing THUG2 and it has always been our favorite game of all time, now we're pushing our 30s and thanks to thug pro we are able to relive those days growing up again!
So here I am....
DOING EVERYTHING I CAN
HOLDING ON TO WHAT I AM
pretending im a SUPERMAN!
I'm back at the crossroads again
I played Tony Hawk Project 8 on PSP for hundreds and hundreds of hours in 2+ years. Even now I can feel how I was crushing the sh*t out of that handheld. Definitely the most uderraeted version/game in the series.
THUG 1 was good, but i'll still be a fan of THPS 2. It was just a big improvement from the first one. THUG 1 had alot of hype on release with advertising.
3 was probably my favorite back in the day, just cause it had so much to do and so many skaters and tricks. And HORSE was the best multiplayer mode IMHO, so many fun evenings with friends with that one.
17:50 That was available in THPS2 as well, but much more hidden, or more minimal.
The best feeling I had was getting over 1000000 points on THPS 1's Warehouse stage. Finding a way on my own to get an almost unlimited combo back in the day was amazing. Been trying to recreate that combo, but it's so hard over 20 years later 🤣
project 8 was so good when it came out i remember running around that school and the neighborhood for hoooouuuurs dude.
25:41 I love Underground it is my favorite game in the series.
I'm definitely a diehard fan of Underground 1 and American Wasteland, they're both really solid (if slightly janky) entries, although I have been going back and playing the PS1 Pro Skaters and I'm also having a lot of fun with them. After being spoiled for choice, the limited movesets in the earlier games force me to think and be more creative with how I approach the goals.
On a random note, I was about 12 when American Wasteland came out and I remember so many advertisements toting 'no loading screens' as the next big thing for the game and, technically, they were correct but I love how they just slapped these liminal hallways in between each level. There was something weird about leaving Hollywood and going through a closed down and abandoned strip mall to get to Beverly Hills or going through the parking lot from Beverly Hills to Santa Monica.
It was psuedo open world and looking back on it now I can appreciate the creativity the team had when dealing with the technical shortcoming of their engine. You can pinpoint when the previous level deloads and the next one loads because the icons in the compass just explode into different spots lmao
Thps2 to Tony hawks project 8 were all the goat in my opinion. each one brought at the very least a new innovation to the series but were all really enjoyable in their own way. I still remember getting a playstationUK magazine back in the day and the main story was about tony hawk's underground. the fact that you could now get off your board absolutely blew my little kid brain and is solidly one of the most nostalgic memories I have for video games of all time. Me and my friends still play thug2 once every couple of years and it truly is timeless. For every other game I definitely racked up hundreds of hours collectively playing the levels over and over again. It's a shame that it's gone but at least there won't be any more bad entries either.
A huge part of my childhood, extreme nostalgia. Even now since becoming older, it is still great and playable online with thugpro. Great video!
Pro skater 2,3 and underground 1 and 2 are what I played the most of. Underground was crazy back in the really changed the game up and was so fun.
The fact that Downhill Jam doesn't have a manual function is absolutely mindboggling.
Downhill Jam was really wearing its SSX3 influence on its sleeve lol, down to the boost meter based off doing tricks, being able to punch other racers, even the focus on speed and overall track design
Your timing is impeccable, i just pulled out my wii (with gamecube ports) last week and have been jamming on THPS4 😂❤
Tony Hawks underground 3 dividing teams for the hottest video would be such a dream..
Yeah it happened in 2 but we need that remake
Damn this really hit the nostlagic strings. Used to play these games so much when i was younger
I've been playing the classic tony hawk nonstop for 25 years. I tapped this thumbnail so hard I nearly cracked my screen
"I now associate Eric Koston directly with pain"
Cool retrospective. I would have liked to see more of the other features in the games like the multiplayer/online and stage builder and trick maker, though i know those are more secondary content.
i remember back in the days, i 100% all tony hawk games from 4 to american wasteland without internet. did all the gaps and collectibles. managed to rack millions of points in one combos... played the shit out of them. good ol' days.
This is some good stuff, I remember skateboarding back in late middle school and high school and this really took my back. Keep up the good work Son
i think i was one of the few people who didnt play THPS2 at the time. when all my friends at school played it, i told my mom that i also want the skateboarding game, and she got me the first one instead of the second. i still had loads of fun, but later i wanted a new game and thats when THPS3 was already out so i skipped 2. I played all games until Project 8, which i didnt like so i didnt play any more thps games. My favorite over all was always THUG1, mostly because it had by far the best story. Loved THUG2 aswell, but the over-the-top story was not quiet the same.
really appreciating your updated intro~
i feel included now :3
Great video! THAW was my favorite actually. I can still pull up these famous lines in East L.A. and so on. It would also have been great if you had talked about THUGPro on the PC. Since some years before and even after the release of THPS1+2 it´s in my opinion the only "game" or rather mod worth playing if you aren´t looking for the storymode. It even has multiplayer and up until today you will be able to find a full lobby at most times a day. It also has maps, skaters, boards and so on from many entries.
Thps 1+2 just made insanely good sense. Remastering for modern hardware, and adding the super important manual and revert mechanics to fill in those rather large gaps that were missing. My only gripe isnt even really their fault, in that they couldnt license all the original songs for it, but thats easily fixed with a Playlist played separate from but simultaneously with the game. Not to mention, cashing in on the huge wave nostalgia, since the original dropped and was playing at 12 years old in 1999. I wonder if they're going to drop 3+4 someday
Project 8 was designed for 360, that's the version you should have played, none of the issues you mentioned applied to that version. The PS3 version was a rushed port, it only used 1 core and wasn't optimised for the PS3's memory architecture either so the graphics were downgraded to compensate. Also, you forgot to mention the best feature of the game, you can ragdoll on command by pressing all the shoulder buttons at once.
Yeah although I roll my eyes when I see purist say that the PS1 versions of Pro Skater 3 and 4 are the "true" versions when they weren't even the main versions developed by Neversoft like Shaba Games and Vicarious Visions literally just used the PS2, GC and Xbox versions as a base line to start and then downgrade them for the PS1 system
@@poleon2003Quite ironic, since THPS3 started development as a PS one game, but midway through development, the platform was changed to the PlayStation 2, causing Shaba games to continue working on the PS one port. What we got isn't bad to be honest. It may not have Cruise Ship and most of the bonus skaters and levels, but we were given a solid, quality port given the PlayStation's limitations, plus a Downhill level that would reappear in Project 8. It just shows that not all scaled-back ports are bad.
@@NewGabeOrder Yeah not to say that the PS1 versions were bad I was just pointing out that when people fondly remember Pro Skater 3 they usually talk about the PS2 version as that was the highest scoring version of Pro Skater 3 according to metacritic despite the PS1 version being remembered by those who just couldn't buy a PS2 when it was brand new just to play the new next gen Tony Hawk game and just stuck with PS1 for the time being
@@poleon2003 ...but what about the GameCube version? The game performs better on a GameCube, and it is one of the platform's launch titles. I not only have the N64 and Xbox versions, but I have a copy of the GameCube version of THPS3.
@@NewGabeOrder well yeah I was just referring to the 6th gen console versions as a whole as all 3 consoles were worked on by Neversoft but I find the Tony Hawk games and SSX games to an extent to feel much better to play with a PS2 controller to me personally although Xbox has the best graphics and performance and has a exclusive level and skater that the PS2 and GC versions didn't have but still
One thing that I think gets glossed over in THUG2 is how the graphics and physics changed in tandem to reflect the mood of the game. The characters look more arcadey instad of trying to have any degree of realism (which I think THUG touched on to make the story somewhat relateable). Similarly, you can get a manual that manifests motorized wheels on the back of your skateboard to get a crazy amount of speed which you can use while skating around an alien station that can teleport you to an aztec temple and literal hell.
It's an insanely silly game, and I love it. It's flawed, but so much fun. Sticking with this style in THAW was the right move.....and then they lost focus and never got it back.
The Dreamcast version of THPS 1/2 are the best looking ones imo, that console was ahead of it's time. I gotta say, the first 3 entries are my favs, and THPS 1+2 being my fav remake
Thanks, son. Your dad feels like a kid again. You know when I was young, I grinded a rail or two in the original THPS 1-3 myself. Good times.
That snippet going into thps2 was just enough for Google to ID. Technology is wild. Anyway, keep up the great work son.
T.H.U.G. is my favorite hands down, even replayed and beat it last year. It also started a tradition with a cousin of mine of spending the nights beating these games when they came out. We did that for T.H.U.G, T.H.U.G. 2, and American Wasteland. We tried again with Project 8 and got bored within an hour, and that was the last entry I touched.
This timing couldn't be better. Been binging the channel, and I just so happened go finish playing every TH game about a week ago too.
PS1-4, UG1&2, American Wasteland, and Project 8 were all pretty dope experiences. Project 8 was my personal fave growing up, no real...specific reason, i just like it a lot.
THUG1 & 2, American Wasteland and Project 8 feel super nostalgic to me and the games that i felt had the most meaning to me out of all the series. I was definitely the right audience for those 4 games and when Proving Ground came out, I played it but at that point it was all about the Skate series to me and a game that was a bit more realistic as opposed to arcade style.
Shoutout to Downhill Jam tho, playing that with my friends was fun.
Downhill Jam looks like a snowboarding game. I have never played a Tony Hawk game.
I liked Proving Ground and P8's introduction of the "Trick on all these items in sequence" challenges, those were fun. The checkpoint challenges (where you do one type of trick on the coloured stickers in increasingly large combos to get Am, Pro, Sick, like in the first level of PG where you have to grind around the block on the curb) were way too hard though, especially where you have to chain wallplants at weird angles
I also consider American Wasteland to be Anti-punk which is fun, because you start off with the very punk "Destroy capitalist structures and repurpose them" but doing that makes the land that Iggy is squatting on suddenly valuable, and it's NOT his land. Which means now the real landowner is wanting to sell, and Iggy is facing jail time because of you. so you save up money with trick videos and crowdfunding and buy the land. You go from "Fuck the man" to "We must BECOME the Man... We must become... landowners."
And now THUGPRO is probably the greatest collection of some of the best games in the series in one on PC.
ReThawed is better, check it out
What a great analysis. I dropped out after Project 8 so it was fascinating to see what I missed
I spent half my childhood in the world destruction tour and american wasteland. Time well spent.
american wasteland will forever be my all time favorite tony hawk game.
As I was watching the video I just kept saying "that one's my favourite!" with each game 🥲 I played all the Tony Hawk games on PC (with a keyboard!) back in the day so it ended for me on American Wasteland. TPHS 1+2 was such a great remake and it makes me so sad that we won't get a 3+4. I replayed all the games in 2020 and damn, I might have to do it again!
Ill always hold a special place in my heart for proving grounds for ps3, the skate check gave me so many laughs as a kid
American wasteland was the first video game I got when it was brand new. I beat the story on every difficulty so many times. It is my favorite game still today.
Underground 2 will always be my favorite
40 hours for TPS1+2 is crazy. You can beat the whole thing in 10 or less easily
Loved this video! Only thing I felt was missing was talking about the freak out meter where you could snap your board.
Love the video, although I had to turn it into a podcast halfway through THPS3. I couldn't take all the pop shuv-its and grind bails without balancing.
I love seeing everyone appreciate American wasteland. Definitely the one i played the most
Ohe thing that is very much worth mentioning with regards to the humor of the series is this. Tony Hawk (IRL) is a good friend of the original creators of Jackass. So them having that humor in the games makes a lot of sense
Great video, Son! Dad is very proud!
God if they could just make a brand new one with updated mechanics and using older developers would be awesome
The games I actually played were THPS3, Sk8land (the Gameboy version of Wasteland iirc), and Proving Grounds. A friend got me 1+2 for my birthday and it's alright, but I've definitely lost my skateboarding cred after 15+ years of not playing anything.
1:04 my copy was so scratched up that Mayor Jed would repeat himself several times per line, I can hear it with the audio off lol
The Tony Hawk games I grew up with were THUG2 and American Wasteland. Some of the fondest memories I have with the Xbox 360 involves watching my brother playing wasteland and then letting me play whenever he would stack. We had thug2 on the OG Xbox and when my brother moved out he let me have the OG while he kept the 360, and thug2 was the only game I had for it. I’ve played probably thousands of hours worth of both of those games, good times
A THUG remaster would probably get me and my brother talking again
Great video!! I personally only was able to play proving ground as a kid so I remember it really fondly! But now I want to play pro skater 1+2!