Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 reminds me something about games I'd completely forgotten

Pulling off the most insane combo and racking up your highest score yet never loses that thrill in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4.

It's a faithful remaster bundle of two great skateboarding games with some new skaters added and a few quality of life improvements.

These games are the ones that returning players will know and love where the career mode is about hitting enough objectives on different skate parks to unlock the next one.

And it's that stripped back approach that makes Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 just an awesomely fun time.

Pulling off insane combos and scores in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 just never gets old / Activision

You have two minutes to achieve as many objectives as you can in each skate park.

There's usually three different tiers of points you'll need to score across the two minutes, as well a points target for hitting a certain combo, and loads of smaller things hidden around the map you need to find and work out how to achieve.

Achieving all of these objectives in one run is impossible, so achieving one objective carries over, meaning you don't need to do it again in the next run for it to count.

And with the controls being simple but hard to master, hitting these objectives becomes thoroughly addictive, especially as the more you play, the better you get.

Getting higher scores and combos never loses that thrill and while this was what I found most rewarding and chased the most, I always strayed off the beaten path to complete as many objectives as I could in each park despite only needing to fulfil a handful to unlock the next one.

It's this stripped back nature of it that really resonated with me. It's a case of: here’s a skate park, here are the objectives, go get 'em.

As I've said in previous articles before, I'm not a skater or anything like that or know too much about skate culture. Yet Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 is some of the most fun I've had playing a game all year - hitting combos and reaching higher scores had me grinning from ear to ear.

And whenever I fell off or didn't quite hit the combo I wanted to, you can bet I kept trying until I did it. Even if it did take ages on occasion... 'Just one more run.'

Tony Hawk's Pro Slater 3+4 is pure fun / Activision

In a time when games are becoming increasingly complex and larger in scale and scope, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 reminded me that they don't always need to be complex or push the boundaries.

They just need to be a damn good time.

Elsewhere from indy100:

• Tony Hawk reveals how much he earned from Pro Skater video games
• Tony Hawk makes surprise cameo at London gig where a band was playing songs from his video games

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.