I would’ve never believed that skateboarding games would make a comeback after all these years with little to no attention to the genre. People seem to have forgotten how fun those games were. How rewarding it felt to nail a complicated trick, and then show it to all your skater friends. For us, the kids who could never pull a trick on a real skateboard, the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series was the place where we could express ourselves in a virtual skate park, leaving the fears of getting serious injuries behind us. What happens when you give a kid a skateboard and no real-life repercussions like broken hands and legs? Well, fun happens!

Of course, who says you can’t have fun as an adult too? Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 makes a full comeback with a remastered, retouched, ready to rock version in September. And because the developer wanted us to have a sneak peek on what’s to come, they released a tiny demo for those with pre-orders. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful to have a demo for a game in 2020 when demos are rare… but, why just one warehouse?

In the demo, you get to play on one of the most iconic skateparks in the series, the infamous Warehouse. It looks exactly how my brain remembers the original version was back in the day, right? No! My brain was fooling me, as comparing the two versions side by side showed me how much the game has improved graphically. You have around two minutes to complete a run with your skateboard. While there are no secret tapes to collect or any other bonuses, there’s still lots of fun stacking up combos.

It didn’t take long before my muscle memory came back and I was able to nail the old tricks. I must admit that I enjoyed it for the first couple of runs, but it gets old pretty fast. A bit more variety in the skateboarders would’ve been nice at the very least.

I managed to browse a bit of the locked menu, after which I realized how much more content will be available on release day. New challenges, a more elaborate create-a-park mode and kick-ass online and local multiplayer. It’s more than enough even for the most hardcore players. If you ever get bored, you can start building your own parks, test them with your friends and show them how it’s done.

Activision promises more new content, including a brand new skater roster and some other unrevealed surprises. With that in mind and how easy it felt to pick up and re-learn how to play, I can imagine that I will have a lot of fun in this remake. I hope I’m not jinxing it in any way right now, as many of us, long time fans, are really waiting for a true comeback for the series.

If you want to try it out, the demo is available right now if you pre-order the game. But I hope they will unlock the demo for everyone. It will surely convince people to buy the game after playing it. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 comes out on September 4th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Are you ready to become a pro skater again?