When Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 was released at the tail end of the summer in 2000, it was quickly apparent that the game’s skating had been transformed. The introduction of manuals — balancing on the board’s front or back wheels — enabled players to link air and ground tricks into long combos.
Just as revolutionary was the soundtrack, a wellspring of classics with zero skips.
The game’s 15-song rotation is seared into the minds of a generation who kickflipped and nosegrabbed to nu-metal (“Blood Brothers” by Papa Roach), hip-hop (“B-Boy Document ’99” by the High & Mighty) and punk (“Five Lessons Learned” by Swingin’ Utters).
As I watched an in-game video of Tony Hawk pulling off the 900 and several of his other signature moves, Public Enemy’s collaboration with Anthrax on “Bring the Noise” blared through my television speakers. The aggressive rhymes and ad libs of Chuck D and Flavor Flav, paired with Scott Ian’s precise but aggressive work on the guitar, blurred any dissonance between hip-hop and heavy metal.
“I feel like the Anthrax and Public Enemy track was a beacon,” Hawk said over a recent video call, flanked by logos of the latest remake in the franchise bearing his name.
That remake, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4, revives two critically acclaimed titles with high-definition versions of famous skaters and cherished parks. But none of this happens without the original games.
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