I’m going to need to huddle everyone together here. We’re all video game friends, right? We’ve had some laughs. We’ve talked about some important social issues. But something has been troubling me lately. Something that’s been keeping me up at night and causing me to constantly check the news on my phone only to feel disappointed again. And I don’t want to touch a third rail topic that’s definitely going to cause a lot of passionate reactions from people in both good faith and bad. But for the love of god, please re-release the Game Boy Advance Tony Hawk games already.
Look, I’m as happy as anybody else that the Tony Hawk franchise is lurching back to life with the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 remaster. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 is one of the most fun games of all time and introduced me to a lot of music I’d annoy dates with for years. Really more ‘date’ singular because at the time I wasn’t really – you know what, it’s not important. I enjoyed the last remaster of the first two games and if this one is as good as that? Great. You have my buy-in. But that’s still not the Game Boy Advance Tony Hawk games.
THPS 2 Was A Peak GBA Game
tony hawk 2 GBA
I know that the GBA Tony Hawk games appear on a lot of best-of lists. And they should! But somehow we have yet to see a big, official re-release of them yet as far as I know. If I’m wrong, I’d be happy to be wrong about this and write a replacement column about Alpha Centauri being the best Sid Meier’s Civilization game of all time. Seriously, though, for a series that had so many entries on the Game Boy Advance – most of which were pretty well-liked at the time – they’ve kind of fallen off the map. Which is a shame, because, again, they are a blast and boil the game down to a smaller, slightly faster package.
If you haven’t played any of the Game Boy Advance Tony Hawk games, they’re mostly isometric-view versions of the same Tony Hawk games you know and love. The first game in this port-series, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, was a launch title. In my opinion, it was also one of the best-looking launch titles. It may have used a low-count polygonal skater on a somewhat static landscape, but it was something new for a portable.
Plus, it was one of the few games that had bright enough colors to see on the first GBA’s darkness hole of a screen. It was cool, and more importantly, it played just like the console games with somewhat simplified controls. Unlike the Game Boy Color ports, this was the same Tony Hawk’s we were playing on consoles, just from a different perspective and without licensed music.
And there’s more than enough precedent. Konami released a collection of the Castlevania GBA games and I’m not even going to check how well it sold, but I’m going to tell myself it did great. How many GBA game collections has Capcom released? Three? And they all have fun filters and whatnot and so forth and still look good on a big screen. Yes, even the wonky polygon characters of the Tony Hawk’s GBA games look good. I know, because I’ve played them on both my GameCube and my Analogue Pocket fed through a television. That’s right, I own over two consoles!
Tony Hawk’s GBA Games Deserve Another Chance
You might argue that since the Game Boy Advance Tony Hawk games are more or less ports of their console superiors, well, why not just remaster the originals alone? I’m glad you asked, strawman argument question. Perhaps ‘port’ is the wrong word. I’d say ‘de-make’. This isn’t like a fighting game being reduced in sprite size and capacity but replicating the same game from the same view on a handheld.
This is taking the same gameplay and applying it from another angle with a different approach. There’s something fun about it. Side note, everything I’ve said here also applies to Jet Set Radio for the Game Boy Advance. I don’t know. These games feel different enough that they’re worth preserving and selling to me, an idiot who owns them already.
I’d also add that the Game Boy Advance Tony Hawk games aren’t even always straight ports. American Sk8land was pretty much its own game, separate from the American Wasteland console counterpart. Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam is fascinating in its own right because it tries to be like the console version with full 3D graphics. On a Game Boy Advance. It looks wild, like an early ‘80s rendering of what they thought virtual reality would look like. Does it always work? No. Does it mostly work? Why so many questions? It’s a cool game that’s more interesting now than it was back then.
True, I own these games. And, true, these are all easy to find online and emulate. Anyone reading this article could be playing one of these games in minutes with zero effort on any device they own. But we shouldn’t have to always say “eh, check the back room of the internet” and that doesn’t really introduce these games to a new audience or give them a chance to breathe again in a new package. Or, in the ideal world, add extras and interviews and manuals and scans of original box art. I can’t promise you this collection will sell well. It probably wouldn’t! Who’s to say? I still believe these games are worth getting out there again. It would make me happy and I’m the main character of reality.
Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land
- Released
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October 15, 2005