Grinding Through the Years...and the Glow-Up of a Classic
In the early 2000s, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4 weren’t just games — they were snapshots of skateboarding culture at its loudest and most rebellious. Revisiting them today through the remastered versions feels like cracking open a time capsule filled with burned CDs, scuffed skate shoes, and a few questionable fashion choices. What makes these classics shine again isn’t just the gameplay, but also how clearly they show the contrast between life then and now.
The Mixtape in Your Console
Soundtracks once served as gateways to new bands. Booting up a level meant discovering tracks from AFI, Alien Ant Farm, or CKY, almost like stumbling onto a hidden mixtape burned straight into your PlayStation. Music discovery today looks nothing like that, with playlists curated by algorithms and viral songs spreading on TikTok before they ever hit the radio. Games still have great soundtracks, but they no longer feel like secret treasure chests of music.
Discs Over Downloads
Launching a game in 2002 meant sliding a disc into the tray and diving right in. No installs, no storage alerts, and certainly no multi-gigabyte patches keeping you hostage on release day. If the game shipped with a bug, you were stuck with it permanently — a little blemish that became part of the experience. By contrast, modern releases demand patience before you can even press start, reminding players that convenience once lived in plastic cases.
Baggy Jeans and Belt Buckles
Clothing trends from the old games looked like they’d been ripped straight from a Hot Topic rack. Oversized jeans, studded belts, and gravity-defying hair gel defined the skater look. Today’s scene favors slimmer cuts, technical fabrics, and high-end streetwear collaborations that sometimes cost more than the board itself. The style hasn’t disappeared, but the vibe shifted from mall corridors to curated Instagram grids.
Landing a million-point combo two decades ago felt like magic — no achievements, no pop-ups, just pure satisfaction.
Skateboard Celebrities
Names like Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen, Bam Margera, and Elissa Steamer carried serious weight at the time. These pros weren’t just athletes — they were mainstream icons splashed across magazine covers and MTV specials. In 2025, the biggest names often come from YouTube or Instagram, where quick clips reach millions of viewers. The spotlight still burns bright, but the stage moved from television sets to smartphone screens.
Trash Talk on the Couch
Multiplayer used to mean sharing a couch, splitting the TV screen, and hurling insults while your friend sat two feet away. The tension in those sessions was tangible, and the laughter (or rage quits) unforgettable. Online matchmaking today offers convenience and variety, yet no amount of headset chatter can recreate the feeling of watching someone toss their controller in defeat beside you.
Combos Without Trophies
Landing a million-point combo two decades ago felt like magic. No achievements appeared, no digital trophies chimed — the victory existed solely between you and the controller. Success was measured in cramped thumbs and personal satisfaction. Modern systems reward everything with badges, points, and notifications, which can be motivating but rarely feel as raw or intimate as those unrecorded triumphs.
Phones Were Barely Smart
Mobile technology barely factored into gaming during the PlayStation 2 era. The best you could hope for was Snake on a Nokia, where a pixelated line devoured dots on a tiny monochrome screen. Sharing clips of your best runs was impossible unless someone happened to be watching. Today, recording and posting gameplay takes seconds, giving players instant bragging rights that once felt like science fiction.
Skate Culture in Slow Motion
News in the skate world traveled slowly. Fresh tricks spread through VHS tapes, printed magazines, or word-of-mouth at the park. The X Games offered a glimpse of the cutting edge, but only if you caught them on TV at the right time. Now, culture moves at hyper-speed, with viral clips crossing the globe overnight. It’s exhilarating but also dizzying, like skating a park that never actually closes.
Pop Culture Backdrop
The cultural stage surrounding these games looked completely different. Jackass ruled MTV, Shrek and Harry Potter filled movie theaters, and the Xbox had just entered the console war. Fast-forward to today and entertainment is shaped by streaming, blockbuster franchises run for decades, and skateboarding itself has gone Olympic. The atmosphere has shifted, but the chaotic energy of the early 2000s still echoes through the games.
Legends That Last
Few could have guessed that THPS3 and 4 would remain relevant two decades later. At launch, they felt like solid sequels rather than lasting icons. Their remasters prove that timeless design can endure even as fashion, tech, and culture reinvent themselves. Chaining together tricks still delivers the same thrill it always did, reminding players that skateboarding joy doesn’t age — though ankles and controllers certainly do.
Sci-Fi 3D Team
Jason Messer | Editor-in-Chief
Luna Gray | Contributing Writer
