When Activision announced it would be bringing back Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 for Playstation and XBOX in 2020, who can say their hearts did not do a little backside 1080? Amongst all the chaos and unpredictability of 2020, diving into some unapologetically nostalgic gameplay is exactly what we all needed. It’s also looking likely that Switch players will also be able to get in on the action too sometime in the new year. Sick!
If you’re still struggling to unlock every deck and complete all of the secret challenges, we’ve put together this handy guide that will have you smashing combos like your younger self in no time.
Pay Attention to the Special Meter
Bit of a simple one to start but the special meter is super important not only for landing high scoring special tricks. Get it fully charged by doing a number of regular tricks without bailing and you’ll be able to jump higher and move faster which is useful for combos and airtime.
Hit Those Special Tricks
Once your special meter is fully loaded you can perform special tricks. These are normally two direction buttons plus a grab or kick and require a fair amount of airtime to pull off. You can actually set the buttons for these tricks so make sure to choose something you’re comfortable with pulling off.
Find the Stat Points
As you play through the game you’ll collect stat points which are hidden throughout each level. Use these points to upgrade your character to jump higher, move faster, or balance better on rails or lips. Stat points are distributed through each level in different locations depending on the specialties of your skater so if you’re using a vert, street, or park pro they’ll be hidden in different locations. Remember, each skater has to collect their own points so if you upgrade one you’ll have to do the same for all the rest too.
Use the Boneless
The boneless is basically a bigger ollie and it’s very simple to do. Holding A or X, double-tapping up, and then releasing it will make your skater grab their board and jump off the ground with it. Use this for bigger air and better kick tricks plus more combo points.
Try Some Assists
THPS has a pretty steep learning curve and it can be hard to get back into it when you’ve been away from the board for a while. When you’re starting out, you can modify gameplay to make it easier for yourself by using assists. Go into the options menu and look for ‘game mods’ where you can toggle things like perfect balance, always-full special meter, and no bails. Using assists will however mean you cannot upload your scores to leaderboards.
Use R2 to Save Yourself
If you’re ripping a big combo out of a ramp and you mistime your exit you’ll end up splatting on the ground and losing all of your points. Bummer. Use R2 or RB while you’re flying through the air and realise that you’re not going to land. It will straighten your skater out and they’ll land flat rather than sideways meaning you can save those combo points. R2 or RB is also useful for transferring a spine and for reverts as you hit the ramp again.
Don’t Grind the Same Rail
Your balance meter gets harder and harder to maintain if you keep grinding the same rail over and over. Hitting the same rail or lip twice in a row is fine but get to three times without grinding something else and the meter will become unbalanced and throw you off. The game sees a long connected rail with different sections as separate so you’re fine there but just make sure to keep moving if you don’t want to find yourself bailing out.