We Played Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4! - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast: We Played Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4! – Episode Summary

Release Date: May 16, 2025

Hosts and Guests:

• Tim Gettys – Host of the Kinda Funny Gamescast.
• Jake Baldino – Known from Gameranx and Friends Per Second podcast.
• Stu Kimball – Editor of Skill Up and Friends for Seconds podcast.

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Introduction and Guest Welcome

The episode kicks off with Tim Gettys welcoming listeners and introducing his guests:

• [00:29] Jake Baldino: "Hello boys. What's up? Thanks for having me."
• [00:45] Stu Kimball: "Thank you so much. Happy to be here."

Tim expresses his enthusiasm for having Jake and Stu on the show, highlighting their shared passion for gaming and specifically, the Tony Hawk franchise.

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Brief Mention of AR Glasses

Before delving into the main topic, Tim and Jake share their newfound appreciation for AR glasses:

• [03:06] Jake Baldino: "It's literally just Ray Ban glasses with a display. Plug into your device, and you have a giant screen straight ahead."
• [06:54] Stu Kimball: "They figured it out. The form factor is getting better, and the price might come down."

Tim shares his transition from skepticism to becoming a convert, praising the ease of use and immersive experience provided by the latest AR glasses.

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Main Topic: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 Remakes

The core of the episode revolves around the gameplay experience of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4 remakes developed by Iron Galaxy.

Personal Histories with the Franchise

• Jake Baldino shares his journey starting with the Nintendo 64 version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and his progression through the series.

  • [09:06] Jake Baldino: "I started with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 on the N64 and have played every single one since."

• Tim Gettys echoes Jake's sentiments, reminiscing about his own experiences and challenges with the franchise.

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Gameplay Impressions and Features

The hosts discuss their initial impressions after playing the remakes:

• Graphics and Level Design:

  • [12:05] Jake Baldino: "The levels are recreated well, with more particle effects and crazy shit going on."

  • [16:00] Tim Gettys: "It's surprisingly gorgeous. 120 frames per second, HDR, and all the effects run smoothly."

• Career Mode Absence:

  • [13:44] Stu Kimball: "I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. The two-minute timer is streamlined, and you can now set it up to 60 minutes."

  • [08:23] Stu Kimball: "I started with Tony Hawk's Underground 2... They tried to match Tony Hawk 4 to feel like three as a cohesive package."

• New Levels and Secret Areas:

  • [35:33] Stu Kimball: "Looking at secret levels from the past, places you can't go or are shut down, carries the same philosophy."

  • [36:01] Jake Baldino: "Water Park has that whimsical feel, going down a million slides with goofy fun factors."

• Soundtrack Enhancements:

  • [24:55] Tim Gettys: "The soundtrack feels fresh, with new songs from returning artists, giving a new take while honoring the originals."

  • [27:56] Stu Kimball: "They took deep cuts from tracks, making us fans of albums we might not have explored otherwise."

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THPS Fest: A Celebration of the Franchise

The trio attended Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Fest, an event celebrating the game's cultural impact.

Event Highlights:

• Live Performances and Guests:

  • [40:25] Jake Baldino: "It was a small, intimate concert with fans, journalists, influencers, and legends like Bones Brigade."

  • [42:44] Stu Kimball: "Danny Brown was grateful to Tony Hawk for inspiring his music."

• Interactions with Tony Hawk and Celebrities:

  • Meeting Tony Hawk:

    • [47:56] Stu Kimball: "I met Tony Hawk, shook hands, and thanked him for the games that shaped my childhood."

  • Bam Margera Encounter:

    • [43:11] Jake Baldino: "Tim approached Bam Margera with a beer in hand, which led to an amusing and memorable interaction."

• Unique Experiences:

  • [49:32] Tim Gettys: "We encountered a man in a giant Tony the Tiger costume, leading to humorous interactions."

  • [50:43] Tim Gettys: "Despite some audio issues and loud environments, it was an unforgettable experience."

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Soundtrack and Streaming Features

The hosts delve deeper into the game's music and streaming functionalities:

• Enhanced Soundtrack:

  • [25:14] Stu Kimball: "The soundtrack includes deeper cuts, introducing players to new music and fostering a connection with the culture."

• Streamer Mode Challenges:

  • [25:18] Jake Baldino: "Streamer mode replaces music with generic tracks, which was frustrating, prompting us to disable it to enjoy the original soundtrack."

• Quotes on Soundtrack:

  • [26:17] Tim Gettys: "Half of the songs returning from the originals are different, giving a fresh take while retaining familiar vibes."

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Final Thoughts and Future Expectations

As the episode wraps up, the hosts share their excitement and expectations for the game's full release:

• Anticipation for New Features:

  • [54:24] Jake Baldino: "Looking forward to more career goals, multiplayer cross-play, and seamless performance from Iron Galaxy."

• Commitment to the Franchise:

  • [55:58] Jake Baldino: "I'm a sucker for buying it on all my devices. It's a testament to how much I love these games."

• Upcoming Content:

  • [56:30] Tim Gettys: "Stay tuned for our Andor screencast and the Nvidia-sponsored Doom stream featuring gameplay from Nick and Andy."

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Conclusion and Where to Find the Hosts

The episode concludes with information on where listeners can connect with the hosts and guests:

• Stu Kimball:

  • [55:36] Stu Kimball: "Find me on the Skill Up YouTube channel and Friends Per Second podcast."

• Jake Baldino:

  • [55:58] Jake Baldino: "Search Jake Baldino or visit YouTube.com/jakebaldino for more content."

• Tim Gettys: Encourages listeners to follow their various shows and stay tuned for future episodes.

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Notable Quotes:

• Jake Baldino [03:06]: "They look like Ray Ban glasses but have a screen that gives you a giant TV view."
• Stu Kimball [14:55]: "Water Park feels like a secret level ripped from the source code of the original games."
• Tim Gettys [16:00]: "Seeing the game run at 120 frames per second with HDR and all the effects just looks and feels awesome."

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Summary:

In this episode of the Kinda Funny Gamescast, Tim Gettys, alongside guests Jake Baldino and Stu Kimball, dives deep into their experiences with the remastered versions of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4 by Iron Galaxy. They discuss the enhanced graphics, streamlined gameplay, and the thoughtful preservation of the original game's essence. The conversation also highlights their attendance at the exclusive THPS Fest, where they celebrated the franchise's legacy with live performances and interactions with key personalities like Tony Hawk and Bam Margera. Additionally, the hosts explore the game's refreshed soundtrack and express their excitement for future updates and features. Concluding the episode, listeners are provided with ways to connect with the hosts and stay engaged with upcoming content. This episode is a nostalgic yet fresh exploration of a beloved gaming series, perfect for both longtime fans and newcomers alike.

Transcript

[Tim Gettys]

Foreign what's up? And welcome back to the Kinda Funny Games cast for Friday May 16, 2025. Of course, I am your host Tim Gettys. I am joined today by you know him from game ranks and before you buy and the Friends per second podcast and just being one of my favorite people on the Internet, it's Jake before Baldino.

[Jake Baldino]

Hello boys. What's up? Thanks for having me.

[Tim Gettys]

Very excited to have you here, dude. And I'm also very excited to have for the very first time in the studio we have Stu Kimball who is the editor of Skill up and the editor of the Friends for Seconds podcast.

[Stu Kimball]

Thank you so much. Happy to be here.

[Tim Gettys]

Very happy to be here with you. I met you last week. I've met Jake a million times. I know Jake very very well. But I met you for the first time in Los Angeles and immediately I'm like I fucking love this guy.

[Stu Kimball]

This is my guy. This is absolutely guy. I feel the exact same way.

[Tim Gettys]

Born and raised Bay area kid. Love that you love Tony Hawk. I'm like what? What more. What more could you do to win me over? And then yesterday I'm at the the ribbon cutting ceremony of the Nintendo Store and who do I see? Stu?

[Stu Kimball]

It's literally been the week of Tim. That's exactly it. I love it. I'm so excited.

[Tim Gettys]

I'm very excited to have this group of gentlemen here to talk about one of my favorite things in life. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. The three of us as well as a handful of other people got to go down to Los Angeles and play Tony hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4 remake by Iron Gal. We got to play for a couple hours and then in addition to that we just had a kind of wild week. They, they get gave us tickets to THPS Fest which was essentially a insane concert of a bunch of the the bands and artists featured in the Tony Hawk game. So we're going to be talking about all of that stuff because this is the kind of funny games cast where each and every weekday we get together to talk about video games. All the things that we love about them. If you like that should get the kind of funny membership. It gets you the shows ad free. You can get the daily exclusive Greg Way normally done by Greg but today done by Andy because Greg is out. What's Andy going to talk about? I'm not sure but I'm sure it's going to be hilarious because he's a very funny guy. Little housekeeping for you. We're an 11 person business all about Live talk shows. You already got an episode of Games Daily. Now you're getting the Games cast. After this, you are getting our Star wars andor Finale review spoiler cast. I cannot wait for you to see that. I don't want it to be over, Stew. The show's too good.

[Stu Kimball]

I haven't started yet and I'm, like, scared because I don't want it to be over. I haven't started.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, it's fantastic stuff. But get our details later on that. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney Twining. Today we're brought to you by Shady Rays, Aura Frames and Rocket Money. But we'll tell you all about that later. We got to get into the topic of the show. Before we get into Tony Hawk, though, there's something else I want to bring up. This is not sponsored. We have in the past been sponsored by X real AR glasses. But me and Jake both had this moment last week when we were in LA where we both realized we had the same epiphany. Is that correct?

[Jake Baldino]

Oh, straight up. Straight up. Like it changed our lives. I'm using the competitor one, the Vitcher glasses, essentially. Either way, they are glasses. They look like, I guess you call them like Ray Bans, Like Wayfarers. Right. Pretty standard sunglass model, but it has a screen in it, and that screen technically acts as a display. So an external display to anything. You plug it into USB C, into your phone, your laptop, your switch, or most importantly, a Roger Ally or a Steam Deck, which really changes the game, man. Right. Like, I feel like now all of a sudden I can, like, on a train, on a plane, anywhere, I can get gaming really good. Because I mean, like, handheld portable gaming, we all do it, it's great. But after a while you get fatigued. And I know this sounds like an ad, but I swear to God it's not.

[Tim Gettys]

It's real.

[Jake Baldino]

It's literally just old men complaining. You get fatigued. And now, like on an airplane, you can have a coach seat, like the shittiest, worst seat, next to a baby in the back of the plane, right by the bathroom. But if you have these things on your face, you can have it plugged into your Steam deck and you just look straight ahead and you have a giant TV screen. So I've been able to just like completely go balls deep on flights into games. And that's probably not the right phrase. Sorry.

[Tim Gettys]

Hey, it's right though, man. No real talk, though. This is one of those things where for years we've had X Real. I've used many of the different iterations as they've kind of advanced and you know, infamously the Kevin stories of him being addicted to these things. But that made sense because Kevin loves the pushing tech further than it's supposed to be going. I like tech where it is, where it's supposed to be at, you know what I mean? So for me, it's like I wanted to wait till it had less of a gimmick need and more of an actual use case need for me personally. And I've been going on a lot of trips recently, whether it was to New York for the Switch 2 events or WrestleMania or down to LA for this Tony Hawk thing. And a lot of those times I was trying to play games for review. So I was trying to play Expedition 33. I forget what the other ones were, but I was like, I'm on the Steam deck. I want to give these things a shot. Because why not? I'm going to be on like eight hour flight or whatever it was to New York on the way back. So we're see what this is all about. And I tried it out and I was immediately blown away where I'm like, all the things that I thought were a problem with these before are gone. I thought, oh, I'm gonna have to connect it to like a, a power brick or like something to then connect. There's just gonna be too many cables and dongles and stuff. I also thought that it was going to just not look that good or whatever. And here I am now blown. I am a convert full on for these things. Like, I just want to show you guys how easy this is. It is one USB C cable. Not even proprietary. It's just a USB C cable that goes onto these glasses and it plugs in to whatever device you want. It could be your phone, it could be your Steam deck, like anything that has USB C and you plug it in and it powers from the device. So you don't even need to power the glasses themselves. And it gives you a insanely large screen. Like from 117 inches up to like. I forgot what it was. Like 200 inches. And it's OLED. Like there's an OLED screen in there. And like, do these look like perfectly Ray Ban glasses? No, but they're pretty damn close.

[Jake Baldino]

It's so cool.

[Tim Gettys]

To the point. To the point that for me, I like that they don't clearly look just like real glasses because when I'm sitting on the plane, I don't want to be like a weirdo that's sitting there like, you know, like, first off, I don't want the big ass headset. Yeah, right. Because then you're too weird. But this, at least there's a cable coming down. They know something's going on. Also, I can see you right now while there's a big screen in front of me. Here's the thing. I'm, I'm saying this sounds like an ad. This is a, a legitimate ad from Tim Gettys of saying these, These are something that forever more now the tech is there. They're going to be my backpack, always. I am blown away by how amazing they are. And they, they're just, they. It's here, guys. Like, the time is now. These things are awesome.

[Stu Kimball]

We've arrived.

[Jake Baldino]

It's at a good point. They figured it out. Like, I feel like now the fun stuff happens where it's like, over time, the form factor will only get better. The price will start to go down because I think the price is still a little high.

[Tim Gettys]

But it is.

[Jake Baldino]

I just think, like, if you're someone that sits around a lot or you travel a lot or, or anything, it's good because it's like you fit it in a sunglass case, throw it in your bag, and then you're good. I've used them. I did sponsors for them and I was like, this is very cool. But it was until exactly like what Tim said where I was like, oh, man, this might work for this. And you try it and it clicks. It's good. Yeah, good. And as someone who also uses like, or used the Apple Vision Pro like a goofus, this is just so much better. So much better than having a giant $3,000 computer strapped to your face made out of glass.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

You can just wear cool sunglasses that make you look cool.

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

And then you can get.

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah, that's like looking at them in person, it's baffling. How sleek.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, man. I am so damn impressed with these things. And yeah, the reason I'm bringing up now is because me and Jake were having breakfast and we're just talking about it and talking about traveling a lot. And I was like, dude, I have a device that's going to change your life. And he was just like, are they like AR glasses? I'm like, what the hell? Are we the same person?

[Jake Baldino]

Like, I was going to pitch you on it.

[Tim Gettys]

So anyways, I, I highly recommend them. I think they're awesome. Check them out. But that's not what we're talking about today. We're talking about Tony Hawk's Pro Skater three plus four. We all got to play so much of it. I want top level thoughts, actually. First off, what's your history with the Tony Hawk franchise? Stuff?

[Stu Kimball]

I started with Tony Hawk's Underground 2, actually. So probably the zaniest entry in the franchise claps for that. Thank you. And then actually went back and have played all of them and up to 1 and 2 remake, and now 3 and 4 remake. And I love them. They're some of my favorite game series of all time.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, Jake.

[Jake Baldino]

I started with Tony hawk's Pro Skater 1. I believe I first touched it. I think I first touched the Nintendo 64 version.

[Tim Gettys]

We're the same person, Jake. This keeps getting weirder and weirder, man. Also, by the way, it's the person that officiated your wedding. Can I talk about that?

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, Josh. Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Josh McCuga officiated his wedding. This makes no sense. The most small world. How did this happen? Shit I've ever experienced. What?

[Jake Baldino]

It's insane. It's like. It's also the fact that you're wearing a Metal Gear shirt and for once I'm not. Yeah, it's like crazy. We're just like time warping. This is weird.

[Tim Gettys]

So funny. So, okay, you started with Tony Hawk 1 on the N64, that beautiful cartridge.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. And I. Then I loved it, so I got it. I was a PlayStation gamer. PlayStation kid. So I got Tony Hawk one. And from there I've played every single one. They are all my children, the ones that people talk shit about, but it's not deserved. Like. Like Project 8, proving ground. Like Proving Ground, the one where everybody finally lost interest. Everybody fell off. But Proving Ground, I was there for it, man. The Game Boy ones, which were like, what you play them, the gba, the.

[Tim Gettys]

Isometric stuff, Those are great.

[Jake Baldino]

It was pretty, you know. Yeah. To be fair, it was kind of cool. But yeah, I've been there from the beginning and I've really enjoyed all of them because it's like the one game I'm capable at. I wouldn't say I'm like pro level at, but it's the one game where, like, I feel like I can sit down and like, maybe beat my friends, you know, and that, that's. That's been something. But also just in terms of like, right time, right place, right. You've heard it all before. But like the culture, as a cultural movement for skateboarding, but also getting into different types of music, influencing, introducing me to a lot of hip hop that I otherwise wouldn't have been exposed to. It's just. It's such an important franchise to me for so many reasons. Like right up there with Metal Gear and Max Payne. But this is just a random sports game dropped in there.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, I mean I'm right there with you. I don't need to go too long. The people listening know my history with this. But I also started with Tony Hak1 on the N64. Became absolutely addicted after that and would 100% each and every entry after. I'm right there with Jake where I played far too long past the quality of the original. Never saw titles kind of dipping, but still find a lot of love. Even if, you know Project 8 was like 30 frames per second and not great. Like all that stuff. It's like I pushed through. I still found the fun. Five was the only one that broke me. Like Tony hawk Pro Skater 5 was like absolutely. Even Tony Hawk Remastered or whatever it was HD that they put out in 360. The shitty downloadable one that was like mostly my brain. Yeah, it wasn't great. It really wasn't great, but it wasn't the worst thing ever. And then five really was the worst thing of all time. So when 1 and 2 came out, it kind of blew my mind. Like I didn't think it was possible for Tony Hawk games to still be good and like for a new one to come out and or even a remake and to feel correct. And not only did it, it added all of the moveset that you need from 3 and 4 back into the 1 and 2 levels. Which I just think was like that's. That's my dream. Tony Hawk. Right. And so to continue that with 3 and 4, I've been incredibly excited to play through this stuff. So now I want to get into initial impressions of what we got to play. Jake, let's start with you.

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. I think top level really, really enjoyed it. It plays exactly like I expected it to. The levels are recreated well like in 1 and 2, but actually feel like a little bit more. Like a lot more particle effects, a lot more like just crazy shit going on. So they like. It feels like more effort even put into recreating the levels. The new level we got to experience, the water park is really cool. All that stuff you expect is here. The only thing is I still kind of have questions about the career mode. The lack of career mode is something that I think is a point of contention. You look at comments, right? Everybody's talking about it. And I do find myself going back and forth having played original 4 so much there are a lot of duds within that career mode and what they've done here is kind of tried to just match four to feel like three as a cohesive package. I get it from a philosophy standpoint, sometimes some people think it's them cutting corners. I don't know if it is, but I do think I miss some of the objectives from career mode more than the career mode structure itself. Some of the objectives and like the, the rapid pace, weird stuff I am going to miss. There is some of that like flavor wise, right? Like some of the objectives or the goals are, are things from like, you know, San Francisco, like you're still knocking the boulder over and hitting the shark, but all of that is now condensed into a two minute mode. And I'm still kind of 50, 50 on whether or not I like that specifically because. What is this called? This is called. These are called Tony Hawk three and four remastered techniques.

[Tim Gettys]

It's just three plus four.

[Stu Kimball]

Three plus four.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. So I still look at it as like a representation or a preservation or of the originals. And I do feel like for the sake of it being complete, I think I would have ultimately liked more career stuff. I don't, I don't know if I'm the only one, but yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Stu, what are your top level thoughts on it all?

[Stu Kimball]

I just to go into that, I playing it, I didn't, I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. I do personally love the two minute timer and how the goals are more streamlined to fit that two minute timer. And you can now set the timer up to 60 minutes, which I think is a good compromise for people to be able to take, you know, the levels at their own pace, see what's happening, complete the goals as they will, but not have the career modus specifically, which I understand is a point of contention. Again, like NPC dialogue is so iconic like all of that stuff, but I didn't find myself missing it that much. And yeah, that was my impression of the changes to Tony hawk's Pro Skater 4. But I really do want to talk about this new level to Water Park. Water Park?

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, man.

[Stu Kimball]

They like I was. I described it as being like ripped out of the source code of one of those original games as some secret level that they never used. And it just feels so right like as a, as a place you're, you know, all those old levels are like places you're not really allowed to skate in real life. And that's the fun of it, kind of the absurdity of it. And Waterpark Taps into that so well. And I had a blast. Just like cannons firing, pipes bursting, like doing combos and tricks in the pools and all of that stuff. I absolutely loved it. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I took away was I'm excited for their new levels.

[Tim Gettys]

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I. Going into this, I almost didn't even need to get my hands on the sticks for this game because just looking at it, you can tell, oh, it's one and two, but three and four, and that's really all that I needed. I remember leading into Tony Hawk 5, every time I'd see gameplay of it, I'm like, I need to get my hands on the controller. Like, that will be the moment I can tell is this good or not? That's literally all I need to know, so. And it wasn't. But here it's like getting our hands on the game. And unfortunately for me, we had to play on Xbox controllers.

[Stu Kimball]

I know you guys were.

[Tim Gettys]

Which. Which is like. I mean, the PlayStation controller and Tony Hawk is like the GameCube controller in Smash Brothers. It's like. It's just the D pad and the way it all feels. It's like it is perfect. And that, again, come from someone that played on N64 back in the day. Like, the PlayStation show was like a godsend, but not that bad. Honestly, the playing on the Xbox controller, like, it totally, totally worked. And everything I thought going in was correct. This game, in my opinion, is perfect. From a gameplay level, this feels exactly like I would want it to feel. And Jake was saying this, but, like, it's surprisingly gorgeous. Like, 1 and 2 ran incredibly well and they kept. Once the next gen came out, and then even PS5 Pro and all that stuff, like, once the enhancer started coming out, like, they just kept going back and being like. And now there's 120 frames per second and now there's HDR and now there's all this stuff. Seeing what they have here kind of from the jump is just so impressive. There's so many particles and things going around. Like in the college level, the. The parade floats going by, and there's just confetti everywhere in the foundry. There's just fire and just like all of these effects, smoke and stuff. And it. It just looks and feels awesome. And it doesn't hinder the performance of the game at all.

[Stu Kimball]

No, not at all.

[Tim Gettys]

So, yeah, I was very, very impressed with all that stuff. And the thing for me about the career mode is I love all of these games. I love all of the bullshit. I Love the good and the bad. And in Tony Hawk 4 it's like real talk. At certain points in my life I would have said that was my favorite of the Tony Hawk games. Then as I got older and played them more and more I realized like, oh, it's definitely not. There's things. I think it's my favorite move set of the games and that's why I'm happy that they're continuing to use that from 1 and 2 onwards here. But I recently played through the entire career again in four and I personally am not going to miss it at all whatsoever. I've always been a fan of the two minute timer stuff and the fact that they can change it up to 60 and all that. It's like that seems like a, a concession. I don't think it's really going to make the people that are upset happy. But I was worried they were going to get rid of the character of these goals and the little cut scenes and the, the, the weird dialogue and stuff, the actually entertaining stuff. And they didn't. It's at least so far a lot of it's there, maybe not every single thing. Right. But I've been, I feel very served in terms of having these levels have interesting things for me to do and not just have more stuff, just to have more stuff. I do think in Tony Hawk 4 Some of the things were just, hey, this is content for content sake. Having said that, I do think it's a valid criticism and I am a little concerned. There are a bunch of goals that we didn't get to play through. I don't think we did any of the combo stuff. I don't know if that's in the game.

[Jake Baldino]

Oh yeah, I hope it is and.

[Tim Gettys]

I hope it is. And I think that there's a lot of different goals that can't work within a two minute structure. So we're just not going to have based on like where they're trying to take you around all the level they could change it up. We saw a couple examples of that already in the college level with how the professor's car skitching goal works. But I, I have full faith in it. I believe in it. And on top of that they had to be cagey about stuff and they, you know, we interviewed the developers in different ways and talked to them and I've read like every single interview I've seen from any of the people that we were there with and I, I'm getting the vibes that there's goals that are like Tony Hawk 4 one of my favorite things was it had pro goals, like pro objectives tied to each of the characters. And that's kind of like in my opinion what we're thinking about when we're like oh man, we're going to miss out on these like bigger events type things. And I'm getting the vibe that while we may not get pro individual goals back, I think that there was. There's going to be a second series of goals after like a new game plus type thing.

[Stu Kimball]

Oh, interesting.

[Tim Gettys]

I'm just saying that I don't know that that's going to be true. I don't need it one way or another, but I think it's going to be there. And I know I'm rambling, but real quick I want to say this because I think that I haven't seen anybody talk about this enough. I. 1 and 2. One of my favorite games of all time and I platinumed it recently. That was a grind that took me years and the majority of it was fun. And then it got really, really, really not fun because some of the final trophies were just get to that level 100 which is just grindy. Yeah, it felt very Battle Passy in a way. That was not fun. All that stuff's gone. All the battle pass stuff is gone. You're not leveling up anymore. Instead it's all challenge based. The challenges from the limited that we could see. I'm like this seems like the perfect experience for this game.

[Stu Kimball]

Yes, I agree. They've, they've stripped back that, that Battle Passy because I was just playing one and two yesterday and I was like the, the pro. The, the pro challenges in that one are think linked to that kind of battle pass too. And if they get rid of that and just bring in them as like an actual challenge mode, perfect. I think that's going to be the best balance of the two games. Exactly.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, I think there's definitely some potential there. I feel like I've seen a lot of like, like running theories on like the subreddit and stuff that there's going to be more stuff that they haven't shown. But what we did see I did really enjoy in terms of I was happy to see. It's like a silly thing but I was happy to see the maps and see money floating in the air.

[Tim Gettys]

Yes.

[Jake Baldino]

And collecting those currency. I was like, okay, cool. Because I like the currency system from 4 and we didn't get to see too much of like what that shop entails and like what you're going to be purchasing. But the Fact that there is that extra stuff to collect and like, you know that is persistent over the two minute modes. Like, you know, you miss one, try the mode again. Get it. There's a lot of that. There's also the collectible skate decks that you can find.

[Tim Gettys]

Super cool.

[Jake Baldino]

They pinpointed this out to me first. But the art on the decks is really cool, right?

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. The art on the. Each level has a hidden deck in it somewhere. And the deck is the original kind of like level select art from the original three or the original four. So on four it kind of looks like a film strip San Francisco or Alcatraz or whatever on the deck. And I'm like, that's just. That's awesome, right?

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah. And I think that speaks to the level of detail that Iron Galaxy is going for and like the level of respect that they have because like we all interviewed again the game's director and just talking to him was just like, you know, the maps themselves are taken, even like collisions are taken directly from the original games and put back in. They've added Tony Hawk's Froggy Grind, which wasn't in the 1 and 2 remake. Like little things that they are trying to hone in on that keeps this fresh and also like the ultimate experience.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. And you know, something that I really loved about one and two remake was how much they clearly cared about the original games, but didn't just want to be like, I cool, we're just remaking it and here's the skaters, the ones we can get back and whatever. The skaters from the original games were older now. Like they're. They're like time appropriate of like the ages they are. But then there's also this entire new generation of the later the skaters of today.

[Stu Kimball]

Right.

[Tim Gettys]

And I feel like that's so important for the culture of this game and skateboarding that we all care about so much. And even the music choices and all that stuff, it reflects like the new and the old. And the levels I feel like did that as well. Like the, the mall being this like abandoned mall, which it wasn't abandoned in the first game. I thought that little take was so interesting. And I feel like 3 and 4 are really doubling down on that where showing a lot of love to what came before. But the skater roster in this game is kind of wild.

[Stu Kimball]

It's crazy.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. Yeah. Can we talk about how it looks like a fighter select screen? It does.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

There are so many skaters that you see all these tiles of every character portrait. And I was like, whoa, holy shit. I. I'VE never felt that in a Tony Hawk. I mean, it's cool. Yeah, they really understand that, like, new and old and the music choices really are the biggest thing. And I think they did that so well in one and two. The music was so perfectly curated, adding in new stuff. And it feels like with 3 and 4, that's the approach again. But this time they're doubling down on that with the skaters themselves and the skate culture, which is really cool to see.

[Stu Kimball]

I want to talk about the music just for a second, because the second night we got to see a bunch of the bands, rappers and bands play. And I think it was really special for me because I found out about Lupe Fiasco from Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, my God.

[Stu Kimball]

When Kick Push was in that originally, and I was like, this is such a full circle moment. And then I was standing with Jake, and Jake had not heard Danny Brown before and was freaking out. I'm like, oh, my God, this is so cool. And I was like, this is awesome. This is what these games sort of are for in a lot of ways, is such an introduction to that culture like we've been talking about in such a. Just such a lovely celebration of that. And I feel like the music selection and the skate selection, like you said, is such a celebration. It really felt like a celebration.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. And we didn't get to experience the entire soundtrack in our game. There was a lot of songs the day that we played the game. There was a lot of embargoes of, like, different information was dropped throughout the day. It was a little bizarre, if I'm being honest. But it was like wave three of the soundtrack was announced, and then it was, all right, cool. Bam Margera is in the game that was announced. And a couple different things, one after another. But now that we know the entire soundtrack, it's officially posted, at the very least. And from playing the game, there's a streamer mode which they. They wanted to have us in for a recording that Jake was in. And then I wasn't in that. I was just, like, recording it just normally.

[Stu Kimball]

Right.

[Tim Gettys]

And so I just got to hear all the songs. Jake, you want to talk about the streamer mode for a second?

[Jake Baldino]

So miserable. Yeah, like, I understand why it exists, but essentially it was like, you know, for streamer mode, for copyright reasons, like, it will just play generic music that, like, kind of sounds like, here's kind of a rap song. Here's kind of like a punk, like a pop punk song. Here's kind of a ska song. So I Was just, like, skating to, like, the most generic SK I've ever heard. And I'm like, oh, man, this sucks. And then I was like, oh, I could turn this off. So halfway through, I turned it off and I was able to experience the soundtrack. But I went over to Tim and I was like, do you have the stream remote on? This is. This is killing me. And he's like, no, I just have it off. I was like, oh, okay. So I switched mine off way better.

[Tim Gettys]

And yeah, the soundtrack, it's awesome. It's good old Tony Hawk classic stuff where I do think that compared to 1 and 2, there's more of a shift towards newer songs than that, because any. Even just not necessarily new, as in coming out in 2025, but new and as in not in Tony Hawk. Previously, many of the songs from 1 and 2 were directly in 1 and 2 remake.

[Stu Kimball]

Right. Right.

[Tim Gettys]

For this, I would say that half of the songs that are returning or artists returning from the original 3 and 4, the artists are there, but it's a different song, which I love. It's kind of. Yeah, it's a fresh, new, new take on it, which is. Is interesting. And, like, there's certain groups that, like, man, I don't even. I'm blanking on their name right now, but they had that song, oh, Toy Toy Doll, I think is the name of the band. And they have that song Dig that Groove baby, in Tony Hawk 4 original. And now they have this, like, a new song. But it's identifiably them just from the voice and sound and style. And I'm like. I love that. Like, I'm getting this feeling of playing Tony Hawk 4 for the first time again.

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Like, so cool.

[Stu Kimball]

And re. Rediscovering it in that way. And what I love about those games is, is they usually take kind of deep cuts from those tracks, maybe because they're cheaper, maybe easier to license, I don't know. But then I really become fans of, like, those albums, you know, like, you were like, oh, this is track number seven on this. You know, it's not the A side or whatever of. Of whatever album you're listening to. And I think the new soundtrack does a really good job of that as well with those kind of deeper cuts.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, I think it was the right move because Tony hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2, like, the soundtrack for that is like a temple. I don't know. There's something about that that's like. You can only fuck with it so much that with three and four and then and so on and so on. I think there's a little more wiggle room, but I think like what you said, they're absolutely doing it right with like oh well, like how about you know this artist and here try a different song. The only question is if they ever do Thug, are they gonna keep Kiss?

[Tim Gettys]

They need the level, right?

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah, exactly.

[Tim Gettys]

Integral to the ending of that game. It is.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh man, I love it. I want to keep talking about Tony Hawk 3 and 4 and our adventures in Los Angeles, but we're going to do that right after a quick word from our sponsors.

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[Tim Gettys]

I want to talk more about our actual gameplay experience here. We got to play a handful of levels from both three and four. We got Foundry, Canada, Rio, Los Angeles and Suburbia from three.

[Jake Baldino]

And we have off the Dome.

[Tim Gettys]

Yes, impressive. And let's see if I can keep it up for four. We had College San Francisco.

[Stu Kimball]

Come on now.

[Tim Gettys]

Did we. Now that he's on the spot, we did play Alcatraz. That's it?

[Stu Kimball]

No, no, the new one. The new one.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, and then Water Park. Water park, which I guess they are putting into. Into the four. That was it though, right?

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah, from before.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, yeah. Interesting. We also did see. Just going around the menus and stuff, Jake and I noticed like you could see the zoo and you can see London and you can see Tokyo. So like most levels are in some way confirmed to be back. It seems like the only ones that we're probably not going to get our Chicago, which was in four. But technically that was a level from Matt Hoffman's. Pro BMX 2. So we're not getting that. We're not getting. Carnival was 4, correct? Was that Thug?

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, Yeah, I believe that was.

[Stu Kimball]

No, it was four.

[Tim Gettys]

Okay, then.

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

We have not seen Carnival yet.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, it was only on certain platforms.

[Stu Kimball]

I think, something like that.

[Tim Gettys]

But what would you. What do you think about Jake? I know you're a big suburbia guy. What was it like playing Suburbia in full hd?

[Jake Baldino]

It was crazy. It was weird. It's a level that actually, like, it felt very weird to see that level, like, fleshed out. That and Canada, just because, like, they were so vague in the old one. Because. Because of the visuals and everything like that, to see it fully fleshed out was pretty wild. And I actually. With Suburbia, I had a harder time, like, connecting some of my lines, I guess, because I'm, like, so rusty. But, you know, having the Thin man there and, like, doing all that stuff and smashing the pumpkins, it totally, totally hit, like, exactly like, how I was hoping the Thin man, like, when you help him, he gets, like, a cut scene and he's like, yeah, like, he, like, explodes or whatever. It was cool.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. The charm still being there is, like, to me, really what, like, matters. And that's why I was like, all right, cool. Like, I'm. I. They easily could have took that stuff out because, like, I don't think we got any of that in 1 and 2. But that's because 1 and 2 didn't have those things. Like, we had a couple little. Little moments of, like, oh, if you hit this thing, it'll, like, create a new, like, line or whatever. But there's a lot more of that in four, specifically.

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah, four was huge on that. Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

What were some of your highlights, dude?

[Stu Kimball]

Alcatraz is one of my favorite levels in the entire series. Yeah. And. And, like, you can still sketch the. The tour guide and, you know, they give the whole, like, spiel and everything. The prisoner, like, let out. The prisoner is there. All the secret entrances that, like, link you to the. And combining your lines that way. Foghorn. And it just, like, it really. I mean, as Bay Area people. Four is such a, like, celebration of Bay Area skateboarding because, like, colleges in Berkeley.

[Tim Gettys]

Bizarre. Yeah. College is Berkeley. There's a San Francisco level again, which is like, yeah, San Francisco before and one. It's a completely different level. There's Alcatraz, and then the shipyard is, like, debatably, Hunter's Point.

[Stu Kimball]

Could be. Yeah, exactly.

[Tim Gettys]

Kind of weird, man.

[Stu Kimball]

Oh, it's great. And I just loved that. And to see Alcatraz and, like, the sun is setting and, like, you know, the beautiful. The bridges and the city. And I was like, this is awesome. The biased for me, but just awesome. It was so good.

[Tim Gettys]

Very, very cool stuff. Yeah. You mentioned the kind of all the little entrances and hidden things on Alcatraz, which some Tony Hawk levels do it. But I do feel like Alcatraz is the shining star example of it. We have a new competitor in Water Park.

[Stu Kimball]

Yes.

[Tim Gettys]

Water park is so Alcatraz coated. And, like, that is the greatest compliment I can give it.

[Stu Kimball]

Absolutely.

[Tim Gettys]

But it also has a bit more of a kind of condensed, like, obstacle park of, like, more like, traditional, I'd say. It kind of feels like a perfect blend of a Tony Hawk 3 level and a Tony Hawk 4 level.

[Stu Kimball]

Yes, I completely agree. Yeah, it's the finding those secret entrances that lead to the top of the water slides and then, like, going down the water slide to. To link to, you know, the pipes in the pools and all of that stuff. It does feel like I'm trying to think of a lot. It kind of feels like. Like Tokyo or the Japan level in three with all the flashy, like, lines and links and stuff. And then Alcatraz on four for. That's a perfect combination.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, yeah, It's. It's got that, like, whimsy to it that I really appreciate, where it's like, you're going down a million slides and you're like, whoa. But then also there's a couple spots where you can hit and a water spout will, like, blast you up into the air. So it kind of has that, like, goofy fun factor to it. And I also like that it still carries over a little bit of, like, the transformative stuff if you complete certain objectives. Like, very much like the downhill level from Tony Hawk 1, where you got to grind all the little nozzle hoses or whatever.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

You do that here around the park, and then it lowers the water in this, like, pool, and then you have access to more ramps. So stuff like that. I just. I always appreciate from this game and the fact that they took that. The fact that it has, like, the Alcatraz entrances, that style, I just made me feel really good. I was like, I feel very confident now about the new levels, because when this was announced, they were like, oh, and introducing. We're putting new levels in it. And it's, like, exciting, but it's also like, well, who are you? You know? Yeah, exactly.

[Tim Gettys]

That's.

[Jake Baldino]

So after playing this, I immediately.

[Tim Gettys]

I.

[Jake Baldino]

So I played Water park and Then I got to interview the developers and I, like, walked in and I was like, dude, you guys are fucking cooking with this. Like, holy shit. Yeah, I love it.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. And the Water park was definitely. I'm right there with you. Like, I was surprised at how great of a level it was, and it does get me excited. We know we're getting three new levels. They haven't officially talk talks about the ones besides Water park, but there was a leaked image of a pinball machine where you're, like, skating in. I'm like, how have we not done that before? That sounds perfect. Like a giant pinball machine just grinding around everything. Like, that's gonna be awesome.

[Stu Kimball]

And that's what.

[Jake Baldino]

I tried to get some hints, too. I tried to get like. I was like, hey, can you just, like, tell me, like, can you tell me a little bit, like, about, like, can you give me a hint? Or some other levels didn't get anything. But what. What. What they did say was that the philosophy was kind of like looking at level. Looking at secret levels and just levels from the past. And like, what are they? Right. A lot of the times they're places you can't go, or they're places that are shut down. So they're kind of carrying that same philosophy over, which is good. They're not just like, let's do this because it's cool, right?

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah. I love how kind of absurd they are. Like a pinball machine. Like, it's kind of crazy, but you're like, of course. That works so perfectly within everything. Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. We didn't get to play as the Doom characters, but I do like that to some extent, we are getting secret skaters back. Like, that was something. Or like secret skaters that aren't just like Tony Hawk originals back. Because 1 and 2. I'd say 1 of the bigger letdowns is that we got Officer Dick and we got the. The Skeleton. But, like, we. We didn't get any of the. We didn't get Spider Man. We didn't get, like, a lot of the. The classics from those games. But beyond that, I thought that it was going to be a slam dunk of. Sure, we might not get what we got before because of licensing. I thought we were going to get Crash Bandicoot, it being made by Activision, like, all that. Like, we didn't get any of that stuff. So now Microsoft's involved getting Doom Slayer, I think is good. And we know that Bam and Andy Anderson are also secret skaters. I wonder if we'll get more.

[Stu Kimball]

I know where's Django at. You know what I mean?

[Tim Gettys]

Where's Django?

[Stu Kimball]

Come on time, though.

[Jake Baldino]

That they were. They just had. They were just like, hey, Django, Fetz in the game now. I could never even imagine that.

[Stu Kimball]

Oh, no.

[Jake Baldino]

I've never thought about Crash Bandicoot being in, but that would have made total sense.

[Tim Gettys]

It made too much sense now.

[Jake Baldino]

Like, no one specifically had.

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah, they're the new one coming out. Yeah, that's exactly it.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, my God, Dude. And then Thug, we had Iron Man.

[Stu Kimball]

Iron man, yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Which is crazy to think about.

[Stu Kimball]

And like, pre before the new Iron Man. Yeah. Such a weird thing, but yeah, it really was in those two, three and four were the Star wars ones because it was Darth Maul right in three.

[Tim Gettys]

And Wolverine too, though. Like, it wasn't just Star wars or Marvel. We got both.

[Stu Kimball]

So awesome. Yeah, I hope.

[Tim Gettys]

God, what a time, man.

[Jake Baldino]

Doom Guy's a good compromise. Doom Guy, I think, is a good fit. You know that. That totally works.

[Tim Gettys]

I think it's. And also we're getting doom music and doom tricks and a doom deck. Like, that stuff's cool.

[Stu Kimball]

I was gonna say. Yeah, isn't Doom Guy. Yeah, it is. Returning from.

[Tim Gettys]

From the PC version of Tony Hawk 3.

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

So I did not know that. That's awesome.

[Jake Baldino]

I didn't know that either. Yeah.

[Stu Kimball]

Because he's playable in Thug Pro. So I was like, oh, they must have either added him in or modded or whatever. But yeah, yeah, he was in the PC version.

[Tim Gettys]

That's cool. So then moving on from our gameplay experience, we had. We went to THPS fest. Jake, what was that like for you?

[Jake Baldino]

That was cool. I. You know, there was a stream. There was a live stream, so people got to see it. Essentially, it was a pretty small, intimate concert with, like, fans, some, like journalists and influencers, and then just like legends walking around. Just like skaters walk around. Like a lot of people from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, like the various games, like Bones Brigade, guys. Like, really cool. And then a good concert to boot. Also, it was catered by Taco Bell, which. That's just cool. Like, it was literally like you walk past, like, buffet stations with the trays open, and it was just stacks and stacks and stacks of soft tacos and. And, you know, Supremes and stuff like that. It was. It was something else.

[Tim Gettys]

It was. It was quite the event. This is definitely old school game marketing events taken to the N degree. But it also came from a place of love of, like, if we're going to celebrate a Tony Hawk game, like, let's celebrate it culturally. And in a weird way, Taco Bell's part of the culture, right?

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Like, the music and all that stuff. Like, it. It was fun. And it was at the El Rey Theater, which is a location from the Los Angeles level of Tony Hawk 3, which I'm like, that's kind of. We had to skate by that earlier in the day.

[Stu Kimball]

Exactly. Yeah. It's also.

[Jake Baldino]

There's like a good. There was a good thing the whole time, like, of like every. Everybody who was on stage, presenting or performing, like, everybody kind of had this thankfulness to be there. And almost like a thankfulness direct, like a gratefulness directly to Tony Hawk. Every single person was like, thank you, Tony Hawk, for putting me in the game. Or that's crazy.

[Stu Kimball]

Danny Brown was like, thank you, Tony Hawk, for inspiring me to be a musician.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Stu Kimball]

I was like, that's awesome. He was like, yeah, I listen to Aesop Rock on. On Tony hawk's Pro Skater 4. And that, you know, this weird rap that I do is directly from that. And so I thought that was such a cool connection.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. And you alluded to this earlier, Stu, but, like, I also am not a. I don't know Danny Brown that well. I know him from features on certain songs. I've always enjoyed it, but I've never heard enough to be like, I'm going to do a deep dive on this guy.

[Stu Kimball]

Right.

[Tim Gettys]

And hearing him here in the context of he's a Tony Hawk guy. Guess what I've been listening to all week. Right? It's just like, that's. It's very cool. And that is the power of putting these things all together where just, like, it introduces you to, like, entirely new things. I can't believe that's still happening 25 years later. Still getting new music from Tony Hawk. Right.

[Stu Kimball]

Honestly, it was. As someone who's listened to Danny Brown for a long time now, it was really awesome to stand next to Jake. And with each song that came on, Jake was like, what? Yeah, this is awesome. And I was like, yeah. Yes. This is what it's all about. Like, it felt really nice. It was really cool.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. I mean, we got to see Steve Caballero's band, see Steve Caballero on stage wearing his outfit from Tony Hawk. Yeah, this is this. It was so, so cool.

[Jake Baldino]

The Freddy Krueger drip.

[Tim Gettys]

And yeah, Jake, you're saying it, but, like, everyone was just so excited to be part of this. And, like, it really did feel like, hey, like, there's a history here. Right? So I loved that. And yeah, Being around all the skaters was cool. We got to see Bam Margera. We got to meet him, which was wild.

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

You know, that's obviously some like, lifetime, legendary childhood. Like, I can't believe. I mean, bizarre.

[Jake Baldino]

So weird. I. The way it worked is Tim clocked him and he's like, he's there. He's just there. Like, we should just go talk to him. He's just standing there. And I was like, okay. And I literally was like, okay, Tim, Mr. Kind of funny talking to celebrities. I was like, you can take the lead. I'm nervous. And then Tim was like, I have no fucking idea what I'm doing. Oh, no, dude, can't do it.

[Tim Gettys]

Me and Jake both together, we literally just like, let's do it together. Let's do it together. We started like Muppet shuffling over. And as I'm going, I have this giant beer in my hand. This group walks towards me, knocks it out. And like, I'm literally about to say hi to Bam Margera. Beer fucking everywhere. And I'm just like, Jake, hold on.

[Jake Baldino]

It's like you're running into battle and it's like the soldier next to you gets, like, taken out, man, I gotta keep going. It was cool. He was very nice. He was very gracious. I just told him, I was like, hey, big fan. Glad you're in the game. He's like, oh, yeah, Am I like a secret character? I was like, I don't know, dude. He's like, am I hard to unlock? I was like, I don't know, but you should be because you're worth it.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, you saved that for sure. Save of the conversation. But that was great. Like, Tony Hawk's walking around. Like, a lot of our kind of like industry friends were there too. Like, just good vibes. But, like, what was crazy is we were all front row of this concert.

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Stu Kimball]

We were up against the barricade. It was awesome.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. It's like, I am an old ass man. I have not been front row to a concert in.

[Stu Kimball]

Oh, my God.

[Jake Baldino]

Next to what looks like Jesse.

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

And Geo. A ton of great people there. Yeah. I'm like front row to Lupe Fiasco, which was like, absolutely just insane. Like, I am a Lupe fanboy. Yep, I've seen him. This is my tenth time now.

[Jake Baldino]

Oh, my God.

[Tim Gettys]

And that was a fun surprise. So anyway, never saw him front row. Incredible, incredible stuff. And like a very, very, very cool experience. But I definitely regret a couple things. I am a 35 year old man and I don't got it. Like, I used to. Even when it. They make it easy. Even when there's not hella people pushing against you. This was kind of like a nice, relatively chill environment, but, like, the first couple songs that Steve Caballero's band, which I. My ears were blown out within 20 seconds of them. And we were so close to the stage that the speakers playing the vocals were behind us. So all we heard was the music and no vocals at all. And it was kind of a weird experience. They fix that throughout the night. At a certain point, the two of you were like, hey, we're going to go enjoy the rap portion of this show up in seats like adults. And I was like, you know what? I'm rocking. I'm standing here the whole time. I still hear. I still hear. Yeah, it was horrible. You got to bring it to those, you know, the earbuds. You know, Brian Shea had AirPods in the time he was. What we'll do is we'll get you to some smaller shows, some smaller really loud punk shows, and we'll kind of.

[Jake Baldino]

We'll.

[Tim Gettys]

We'll build you back up, Tim, to be prepared for moments like these. I just don't know, man. My ears are on. I think my. They're gone. Like, I think what happened to me that night changed me forever.

[Stu Kimball]

You were not the same after this.

[Jake Baldino]

He's broken. I was happy. There was a pit, though. So the Adolescents came out and they played and they were like. They were like an old, like, legacy, like, like California skate punk band, like, and it was great. And then when they. When they got into Amoeba, the big song from, you know, the original Tony Hawk games, kind of a pit.

[Stu Kimball]

It was like a swimming pool.

[Tim Gettys]

Honestly, it was more. It was like 15 people. Yeah, okay. All right. It was kind of popping off a little bit. Yeah, you were right next to it. I was like, yeah, I was right next to it. And then I got a lot of. For not actually, like, joining, which I understand, but I also was like, hey, I'm trying to, like, I wanted to support them doing their thing. It's always that weird thing where I'm like, God, I really am an old ass man. I would have been. You got to pick and choose. Like, sometimes you got to help people out, sometimes you got to join. And, you know, that was just your moment to help people out.

[Stu Kimball]

I didn't. I didn't join either, but I really enjoyed watching it because it was kind of like, you know, when you get in, like, a hot tub or a swimming pool and they all do the, you know, make a whirlpool. That's kind of what it was. It was great. It was awesome.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. But, yeah, Tony Hawk's THPS fest. Definitely an experience I will never forget.

[Jake Baldino]

Wait a minute. We, we did bury the lead here. Stu talked about this on the Skill up weekly news show, but Stu, you know, got to at least briefly meet the man himself.

[Stu Kimball]

Yes, I did meet Tony Hawk. It was, I, I. And it was really just me shaking hands and, you know, being like, thank you for your service. I love your games. Here's my copy of Tony hawk's Pro Skater 4. Could you sign that? And he's like, yeah, man, of course. Like, I'm, I'm fine. Like, whatever. And then other people were mobbing him to come in, so I had to, I had to back away. But it was kind of a once in a lifetime thing of like, yeah, thank you for my childhood and my introduction to games and skateboarding and, like, all that. I wanted to say all that to him, but all I could say was thank you, and then walked away.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean, you got your game sign.

[Jake Baldino]

I did.

[Tim Gettys]

I got my Pro Skater 4 Platinum hits on Xbox side that you may.

[Stu Kimball]

Or may not have bought that day.

[Jake Baldino]

But that's okay.

[Stu Kimball]

I had another copy of it. Yeah. But it was really, I mean, he was, he was kind of sick. I felt like he, I felt bad. He was coughing a little bit and people were mobbing him. But I think he got his time in. Everybody got to see him. And then he, you know, went up and introduced all the bands and stuff, so it was cool.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. Jake, I thought you were leading into the most important lead that we buried here. We didn't just meet Tony Hawk. We also met Tony the Tiger. Oh. Because apparently there's some cross marketing thing going on with Kellogg's.

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

And, like, when we left, they gave us skate decks, which was super cool. But then they also gave us, like, a box of Frosted Flakes. There was like a Tony Cross Tony thing. And I'm like, what's going on here?

[Stu Kimball]

I'm not gonna lie. That was all I ate for, like, the three days I was there. I was like, I'm not trying to spend money. Let me just dig into my Frosted likes.

[Tim Gettys]

We walk into the THPS fest, into the theater. Like, the first thing we see is this man in a giant Tony the Tiger costume.

[Stu Kimball]

Incredible.

[Tim Gettys]

And, like, you could just tell this guy was jacked. You know what I mean?

[Jake Baldino]

Like, this guy was immediately intimidated by his alpha male energy. Just like oh, man, that's a big boy right there.

[Tim Gettys]

We have this whole group of games journalists just. Or media, whatever the you want to call us losers. We're just all standing in a circle next to this giant Tony.

[Stu Kimball]

Oh my God.

[Tim Gettys]

And all of us, of course, he's just mugging.

[Jake Baldino]

He's just doing all those.

[Tim Gettys]

Flexing on us. And we're all joking about him. Just thought it was so funny. His handler. Because he needed a handler. Right. Eventually Tony was getting a little hot in there, so he had to go like, cool off. I don't know what he did, but he walked away. And like the way that this woman talked about Tony. Yes.

[Jake Baldino]

She just.

[Tim Gettys]

How would you describe.

[Jake Baldino]

Talk about it? She came over, she was literally the same vibe as have some more sloppy Joes, but about Tony the Tiger. She was like, he was real hot in there. How about boys? Yeah, that's crazy. She's like, yeah, she's like slapping us on the back.

[Tim Gettys]

And then did one of your replies. Stop it, lady. You're scared. That was. It was very, very funny. But yeah. God, we just had such a such.

[Stu Kimball]

It was awesome. Gio had a Captain Crunch jacket on. I was worried they were gonna get in a fight or something.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, there was definitely some worries there, but everything ended up okay.

[Jake Baldino]

I also got some extra game time in because like on the other upstairs balcony they just had stations set up. So I was like, oh, shit, I'm just gonna go get some more game time in. So it's good. It was good to spend a lot of time with the game, even if it was like a work in progress version of the game. See, a lot of it was good. Also, I want to give props where props are. Tim and I both kind of like cleared out all the objectives during the, during the play session pretty easily. And then we were kind of hanging around talking and then we played past the controller. We just did two minute high scores. Like we just, just ran it and Tim beat me. Good job, Tim.

[Tim Gettys]

But it was just, it was just because you started the show saying that Tony Hawk is like the only game that you're like, good at. And I'm right there with you. It's the only game that I'm like, good at. And the same way you said where I'm like, I am not saying I'm the best, but if I had to play choose a game that I'm like, there's a good chance I might beat you. It's Tony Hawk.

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

And so we, we had a nice little back and forth though, and I feel like both of us.

[Jake Baldino]

I could tell you were. I was. I kept looking at your screen and I was like, he's definitely like, we're like at the same time at the.

[Tim Gettys]

Same level, you know, which is you could watch someone see their style, and you're like, okay, cool, I get it. I get where we're at here.

[Stu Kimball]

But do you remember. Do you remember the scores? Do you remember what?

[Tim Gettys]

I didn't even like, yeah, it was sub a million, almost a million. I was at like 900 something. But, like, I didn't hit that million.

[Jake Baldino]

I was in the 700s.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, we were close. Controller, Xbox controller. Stats weren't fully updated at all. We had limited specials. Like, there was a lot of factors around. But anyway, it was definitely a fun time. And I got to meet Andy Thps, which was a very big deal to me because he was there just to play the game and kind of talk about it because now he. He streams. If you're into Tony Hawk, you should definitely follow him. He does awesome stuff.

[Jake Baldino]

Imagine. In the community.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, debatably. The greatest Tony Hawk player of all time. And like, I don't even think it's a debate. Like, I think he is. Like, I used to download his gameplay videos just to try to learn from him back on, like, Kazan, Limewire back in the day when, like, the videos were like the smallest things in the world.

[Stu Kimball]

That's awesome.

[Tim Gettys]

But I mean, he's. He's incredible. And he was so good at the games back in the day. Neversoft ended up hiring him. So he ended up working on most of the games in some way. So it was cool. Cool to actually meet him. And he's a super cool guy and, like, getting his takes on everything was also, like, very fun. But yeah, he. He's legit.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, he's doing.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah to his. His coverage too. It's. It's very in depth. Like, he gets very granular. So if you're so into Tony Hawk where you. You care about the extremely minute details, he's done a lot of good coverage that's really kind of taken off in the community. And big, big props to him for that. His interviews were great too. So, yeah, if you want more, highly recommend his stuff.

[Stu Kimball]

Absolutely.

[Tim Gettys]

Very, very, very cool. Andy Thps. Check that out. Stake sticks. Animation says. Do we know more about the secret SpongeBob area? Oh, yes. And no, we didn't. We didn't get to play the Skater island level in the. The preview we did, but we did see that it's there. Like, there There was a image that clearly was Skater Island. The spongebob secret area isn't going to be a secret area like that. Like what we saw in that Switch trailer. That's gonna be it. Like, if you remember in the Original Tony Hawk 3, you could jump off the pirate ship and you kind of go into this, like, area, but it kind of just resets you back. Like, it's like just a quick little Easter egg. But now the Easter egg. Spongebob instead of like whatever the hell it was before.

[Jake Baldino]

Like a shark.

[Stu Kimball]

Yeah. Davy Jones Locker or whatever.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We're about to wrap up here. Is there any final things you guys want to say about our experience?

[Stu Kimball]

No, I just had a great time. I was really not. I was expecting something baseline good, but it came away with it. Much more excited than I expected to be, I think. And yeah, I'm excited to play when it comes out in July.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, Jake.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, I think I'm excited to see, you know, if there are more career goals, like stuff like that kind of addressed. But. But otherwise, like, I love going into a game preview where I'm like, oh, okay, this is exactly what I was expecting. This is good. Still looking for the conclusion of the multiplayer and how that's all going to work, but it is going to be cross play now and they're really excited about that. And I think that's good in terms of keeping a player pool tight for a longer period of time, hopefully. And then it's just launch Iron Galaxy. Iron Galaxy has had a couple of little fumbles in the past, so I hope that doesn't happen with this. But so far, all signs are pointing to it being a pretty good representation of the original game, despite a couple little complaints here and there. So honestly, it's gonna be the same thing. I'm a sucker. I'm gonna buy it on my PlayStation and then I'm gonna be like, oh, I want it on Steam Deck. And I'm gonna buy it there. And then it's gonna go on sale on Nintendo Switch or something and I'm gonna buy it there a couple months later. I'm a sucker. It's just how it goes. But it's my testament to, like, me loving these games and the fact that it feels like 3 and 4 and I'm already predicting that I'm going to have it on all my devices. That's a win.

[Tim Gettys]

Hey, man, I am right there with everything you just said. Thank you, boys, so much for joining me. Stu, where can people find you?

[Stu Kimball]

You can find me. On the Skill Up YouTube channel. I'm not my voice, but I'm editing most of the time. And editing the Friends Per Second podcast where I get to listen to Jake's lovely voice bi weekly. And that's it.

[Jake Baldino]

He edits out all my slurs that I say.

[Tim Gettys]

God, Jake, no, not you. Not you.

[Jake Baldino]

Horrible, horrible words.

[Tim Gettys]

Jake. Where can people find you?

[Jake Baldino]

People can find me everywhere by searching Jake Baldino. B A L D I N O. And I'm also on Gameranx. I'm on the Friday news show there. I've never missed a Friday in like 10 years. The before you buy videos. I do. And YouTube.com/jake baldino. Yeah, I'm all over the place. Of course, Friends Per second as well. The thing that Stu works very hard. I talk with my friends and we have a great time on that podcast.

[Tim Gettys]

They already know frames per second, but check it out if you don't. Of course we're talking about Skillet. We're talking about Jake, we're talking about Lucy goddamn James.

[Stu Kimball]

Yes.

[Tim Gettys]

Legends. All right, Legends. We all already knew that. Thank you boys so much for hanging out with us. Thank you everyone for watching and allowing us to get so nerdy and nerd the hell out about something that we love so much in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. I can't believe it's back. I can't believe we're still talking about it and that it's still this damn good. Stay tuned for our andor screencast that's not going to start for another 15 minute because we have to wait for Carboni and Sage to join, but it's going to be a lot of fun. And then after that will be the Nvidia sponsored Doom stream. Check out Nick and Andy playing Doom the Dark Ages. But until next time, love you all. Goodbye.