Does anybody remember the first Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater back in 1999? Well, we sure do! Back then “extreme sports” were at an all-time high and Tony Hawk’s popularity was at it’s peak. So what does he do to bring skateboarding into the forefront? He teamed up with Activision and released “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.”
It brought skateboarding into everyone’s living room and inspired many to pick up a board and the streets were never the same since. Other than watching your skater fall face-down across the pavement from a failed nose-grind, what a lot of people remember the most about the ‘Pro Skater’ series was the music. The first one introduced people to the skateboarding culture and brought Goldfinger, The Dead Kennedy’s, Suicidal Tendencies, The Suicide Machines & The Vandals (among others) to many who might have never heard of them. It also introduced the idea that licensed music in video games could actually help sell records! (Something that everyone adopted years later and is now the norm.)
So with the announcement of the reissue of the classic Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game coming to our consoles again. One could only ask: will the soundtrack be the same? The answer: yes and no. Due to some licensing issues, the reissue would not have all of the songs featured in the first two Pro Skater titles due to licensing issues. so a new 16-song soundtrack was assembled! Ken Overbey, the project manager on the new games explained the challenges in a recent interview:
We definitely wanted to bring back some of the songs from the original soundtrack, but wanted new songs as well. The most difficulty we had was our budget, which was very small, and the scope and time frame; it was a lot of work to get it all lined up and get the songs in.
The end result was that a handful of the original games’ most iconic songs did make it in – including Goldfinger‘s “Superman” – but a lot of songs were left out. The original soundtracks included: Bad Religion, Consumed, Dead Kennedys, Goldfinger, Lagwagon, Millencolin, Primus, Rage Against the Machine, Suicidal Tendencies, Swingin’ Utters, The Suicide Machines, The Vandals, and Unsane.
The new ones will feature just 16 songs from Anthrax featuring Chuck D, Goldfinger, Consumed, Lagwagon, Millencolin, Bad Religion, Pegasuses-XL, and Middle Class Rut among others. A total of eight songs from the original soundtracks made the cut. The game itself is due out next month as a DLC for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.
- “Bring the Noise” Anthrax featuring Chuck D
- “Superman” Goldfinger
- “When Worlds Collide” Powerman 5000
- “Heavy Metal Winner” Consumed
- “May 16” Lagwagon
- “No Cigar” Millencolin
- “You” Bad Religion
- “The Bomb” Pigeon John
- “We the People” Lateef the Truthspeaker
- “Marathon Mansion!” Pegasuses-XL
- “Teenage Blood” Apex Manor
- “Please Ask for Help” Telekinesis
- “Flyentology (Cassettes Won’t Listen Remix)” El-P featuring Trent Reznor
- “USA” Middle Class Rut
neostar//media 