Tony Hawk is back! Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 announced

Let's face it, the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise is one of the saddest stories in gaming history. The franchise started out strong. I'm sure we all had fond memories of the game from our youth. I could write an entire 300 page book about my memories of those games, with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 being my absolute favorite. Then unfortunately, the series fell from grace.

In my opinion, once Tony Hawk's Underground came along and started adding in story modes and the ability to get off the board, the game started to lose what made it so memorable in the first place. Then things went REALLY downhill when we got the atrocious Tony Hawk's Underground 2, which was nothing more than an episode of Jackass. They tried to revive the series with games like Tony Hawk's Project 8 but it just didn't have the charm that the original games had. It seemed like they were just trying to compete with EA's Skate franchise. The final nail in the coffin was with the absolutely atrocious Tony Hawk's Ride game. The less said about that the better.

It seemed like the franchise had been dead an buried until earlier this year when Tony Hawk started sending out cryptic tweets. Could a new Tony Hawk game be on the way? Today we got our answer, and the answer is yes. 

Game Informer broke the news that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 is official and will bring the series back to its roots like the first four games. The June issue of Game Informer will have a 6 page spread about the game but they have dropped some details for us today. The game will feature the classic arcade style gameplay we all remember but will bring some new elements into the game as well including power-ups and the ability to shoot projectiles during some missions. The game will also feature a new set of levels and objectives which can be completed solo or with a co-op partner online. They also confirmed that the create a skate park feature will return and you have the ability to upload and share your parks with players around the world. 

Finally, it wouldnt be a Tony Hawk game without skaters of course and the game will bring back some familiar favorites and will also include a new generation of skaters as well. Characters include Nyjah Huston, Aaron Homoki, Ishod Wair, Riley Hawk, Lizzie Armanto, Chris Cole, David Gonzalez, Leticia Bufoni, and Andrew Reynolds.

The game is scheduled to be released later this year on PS4 and Xbox One with last gen versions to follow after. 

I am extremely excited for this and I can only hope that the game will feature an epic soundtrack as well because that is also one of the other things that I have loved about the Tony Hawk game. Playing Tony Hawk 3 in my friends basement at 3AM with Ace of Spades blasting from the TV... good times.