The next-gen version of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 is almost indistinguishable from the last-gen version. Outside of a few upgrades that most players won’t get to try anytime soon, it’s the same game with a very minor visual upgrade.
The biggest difference is in resolution – the game now runs at 4K native on PS5 and Xbox Series X, though the original game didn’t look half bad anyway, even if 4K was held back for this quick cash-grab, because let’s be honest, this is exactly what this is.
The resolution boost is nice, I’ll say that, and I did notice that shadows, in particular, were sometimes much sharper on the next-gen machines. Not always, mind you, and if you have a look at our comparison video on our sister channel (Xbox Series X, but it’s essentially the same) you’ll see what I mean. Some shadows are sharper, others are identical.
Nothing about this update screams “next-gen”, at least nothing that I can personally test. The next-gen upgrade brings support for 120FPS, but as I don’t have a TV capable of doing 120FPS I won’t be able to test this anytime soon. That puts me on the same page as most of you, because most players aren’t sitting on these super expensive 120FPS 4K TV sets, so that aspect of the upgrade is locked away for the fortunate few.
For the rest of us, it’s a simple resolution boost and improved “atmospherics” which means… the game is a little darker and moodier now. I don’t like this. The colour change is off-putting and takes what was a lovely game to begin with and makes it a bit too dark. Hardly a next-gen feature if I could have achieved the same by tweaking my TV’s settings.
As an added extra bonus feature, if you’re on Xbox Series X|S, you get to play the game offline if your game crashes. This is an issue myself and others have come across – the game, at least the “next-gen” version crashes within a few seconds of starting a level and the only way to play if this happens, is to set your console to offline mode. So forget about playing multiplayer until this has been fixed. Money well spent, right?
The PS5’s bonus extra feature is the DualSense support with enhanced rumblings and some resistance on the triggers when doing a revert. Worth a tenner? I don’t think so.
The game itself is unchanged, thankfully, so it’s still a ton of fun to play and I wholly recommend it. I just don’t recommend forking out the extra tenner for what is essentially a resolution boost and a colour change. If you really want to get that “next-gen” effect, sit a bit further away from your TV and tweak the colour settings on your TV. You’ll save a tenner that can be best spent elsewhere. Preferably on a game that doesn’t shaft its players with upgrades that other publishers give for free, deluxe edition owned or not. Like DARQ. Or DIRT 5. Or WRC 9. Or Spider-Man: Miles Morales. The list goes on, but Activision’s games aren’t on it.
