Dylan's Top 25 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Level Ranking | Hawktober

In honour of Octony Hawktober, Dylan ranks his top 25 Tony Hawk'r Pro Skater levels. 

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Links
Dylan on Twitter @DylanMuss
Dylan on Backloggd backloggd.com/u/Rapatika/
Dylan's games https://rapatika.itch.io/

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome back to side Quest with another solo
bonus episode from yours truly, Dylan Musk, here to share
my top twenty five Tony Hawk levels of all time.
I've been playing so much Tony Hawk last couple months,
and I thought this would be a good time to
do it because it's October. But it's not just any October.

(00:22):
It is ok Tony October, which is something I've seen
many other content creators celebrate over the years, where in
the month of October really go all in on some
Tony Hawk things, whether that's level rankings, you know, live streams,
other content about these games. And it's perfect time because
I've been playing Tonyx three plus four four and then
one plus two and then many other games which I'll

(00:43):
talk about in a minute, and Yeah, this feels like
a good time to do this. I have a lot
of juice, a lot of things to talk about here,
so let's just get right into it with a couple
things some preamble, of course, as any ranking needs and requires.
First off is my history with this series. So the
first Tony Hawk game I owned and played was TONYACKX
pro Skater two on the N sixty four. I feel

(01:06):
like the most memorable thing about this game for me though,
back in the day is the fact that it had
a yellow cartridge. It was that in Downkhawks before the
yellow cartridge, and then I had Majora's Mask with the
gold cartridge, and that's honestly maybe the most memorable part
about the game for me as a kid. I was
not into it. I could not figure it out. It
was too hard, you know, I think, honestly, looking back,
it was probably just the fact that the N sixty

(01:27):
four controller is so bad, and I feel like Tony
Hawk is such a precise game that requires so many inputs.
That's maybe why I could never really get deep into
the game. So I don't think I got very deep,
maybe just three or four levels in and then I
just couldn't make it past that. But after that it
was it was on the game Pube, and that's where
I had my big moment with Tony Hawk and falling

(01:48):
in love with the series.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
And that is of course, first.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Off with Tony Hawk's Underground, which is a game that
I played for just over and over again, played it
with friends in multiplayer. I just played solo, put through
the store multiple times, just spending hours in the map
creator going through the story over and over again, just exploring,
finding all the secrets, doing all the stuff in it.
And then you know, jumping from that right into Tonia

(02:13):
Hawk's American Wastelines skipping Thug two, not even a game
I knew existed until I was a little bit older,
but Tony Hawk's Underground or sorry, Tonyhawks American Wasteline after that,
which is another game that I really love, you know,
building up the skate park as kind of the main
story there, going to these different locations, more story focused,
which was interesting, and I think, you know, I bring
up all these details because I think it is really important.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Though.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
This is kind of where my Tony Hawk story really starts.
You know, I did have pro Skater two on the
N sixty four, but it wasn't super into it. And
so for a lot of people, you know, they started
with either one, two, three, or four and that's kind
of where they cut their teeth. But for me, it
was different. It was Thug, and it was Thaw and
Thug you know, had cars. Every mission at every level
had a car you could drive around in, you could

(02:55):
get off your board, you could climb up things, and
American Wasteline added like more parkers stuff, you could ride
a bike, and so I think for me, like these
games are more than just skateboarding games, and especially Underground
is a game since I had these pretty open levels,
I would just spend hours running around, roaming around doing
random stuff, maybe not even skateboarding. So of course that
was always the primary verb of the games, but I

(03:16):
feel like they were so much more for me than that,
and so it's been interesting to jump back to some
of the older games in the series now where you
can't get off your board, where there is no driving,
where there's no bikes, where there's no parkour really and
so it's fun to see the differences, and I've found
that I really love both flavors, even if they are
quite different. But this series overall has a lot of
different flavors to it, which we'll talk about, and I

(03:37):
think primarily the next game that I played after those
two GameCube ones was Downhill Jam, and this was a
game I played a lot, and it was a very different style.
Of course, the downhill maps which the previous games. You know,
there was like Airport and Mall which had the and
the original Downhill Jam, which are kind of downhill maps.
These were never really my favorite, but Downhill Jam is
a game obviously focusing on those mechanics and going all

(03:59):
in on them. It was a game that I really loved,
really enjoyed, And I think part of that too was
because when I first got my Wii. I might be
misremembering in the timeline here, but I think the first
games I had was of course We Sports. I had
Excite Truck, and I had Downhill Jam. I think those
were like the launch games I had when I got
my Wii a few months late, and so all of
those games because of that, got so much play time

(04:19):
because that's all I had, and so I played a
ton of Downhill Jam, but it was not really a
game I revisited much. It wasn't when I come back
to and it's not when I've played in quite some time.
And so I feel like after Downhill Jam, I would
kind of revisit Thug. That was kind of when I'd
revisit pretty often. But I think around that time is
when I would jump over and really get into the
skate franchise one, two, but primarily three. I think those

(04:42):
three was the only one that I owned, and I
played a lot of it back in the day, and
I think it was like, oh yeah, the more grounded
game played to it, the flick it controls as I
think they called it, and that was that was kind
of where my love kind of converted over to skate
and just kind of wanted to get super into that.
And I did play that for quite a few years,
and whenever I wanted to play a skateboarding game, I
would usually revisit skate And then I think there's just

(05:05):
a big empty space, empty point on the resume where
I really just wasn't playing any skateboarding game for many,
many years, and I think it's more recently just the
last you know, I think it was last year's twenty
four hour stream. We played a little bit of Tony Hawk,
and then with some of these remakes and these last
few months is just when I've kind of been getting
back into skateboarding games. And it feels kind of perfect
because I feel like there's a lot of indie skateboarding

(05:27):
games now. I played Skateboard a little bit. I think
I played a bit of Sessions. Skate Stories another one
that I'm looking forward to that's coming out soon, and
then twenty twenty five on top of all that stuff,
Like you know, skate got a new release this year,
it's an early access, so I'm kind of waiting for
one point oh to play that, and then three plus
four with the Tony Hawk remake, and of course the
one plus two one back in twenty twenty, so obviously
a big time for skateboarding games kind of coming back

(05:48):
in all different shapes and forms. And because of that,
I've been getting really back into these games too, And
so that kind of kicked off a little bit with
three plus four that was on game Pass, So I
played that kind of my first time any of those levels,
and I know there's a lot of changes that they
made to four from the original version, but you know,
I didn't play the original version, so to me, it
was just a so totally solid Tony Hawk game and

(06:11):
wasn't kind of devoid of some of the more openness
that the original game had from what I understand. And
I've been waiting to play one plus two, waiting for
it to go on a good sale, waiting for it
to join game Pass because it is owned to buy
Microsoft now, but it still hasn't, And I was just
loving three plus four so much, so I said fitt
I'm finally just gonna buy this game.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
I don't care.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
It had a little bit of a nice discount there
on PlayStation at the time, so you know, pretty much
for a few weeks there are just three plus four,
one plus two, jumping back and forth playing those games.
What am I feeling today, I'm feeling I want to
go knock some more challenges out in two, and then
I want to go over to four and get some
more completion do these challenges in one.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
So kind of just flip into.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Between these four different games, playing these levels over and
over again, kind of discovering everything I can about them.
And then from there I went to the Classic Used
Game Store pick up some older games that I missed
from the series, and so I did pick up the
Original four and Project eight, but they didn't work in
my three sixty unfortunately their original Xbox games, and they
just weren't compatible, or my three sixties just busted one

(07:07):
of the two, so I couldn't play those ones. But
what I did play was Tonyok's Underground Too, which is
obviously a big blind spot for me, and since tonyox
Underground was my favorite growing up and I love Thaw,
so much and it's kind of nestled rate in there.
So I've played through that about half of that. The
reason I stopped is because on the three sixty. Once again,
this is the original Xbox game. I'm playing on three sixty,

(07:28):
and the frame rate and like the performance is just
super bad, which you know, looked up on Redd. Apparently
there's just the case it just doesn't run super well.
The emulation, I guess is kind of wacky. So I
played through about half the game, but it was not
the best way to play it, and so unfortunately, my
you know how honest it being in my rankings is
probably not true. And so if anyone's salty that I
don't have some of these maps higher, just notes because

(07:49):
I played kind of a borked version of the game.
So you know, I definitely will do another version of
this because there's other Tony Hawk games I haven't played,
so I can always revisit this ranking in the future.
So yeah, I played a little bit of that, and
then Tonyak's Pro Skater five, a much controversial, very poorly
reviewed game. I picked that up on PS four and
played through all of that, and I'll just say it

(08:10):
right off the top of that game absolutely sucks. It
is so slow, the mechanics feel awful. You can't they
took out someone of the ability like Combo Tricks. The
maps are so devoid of life or personality or anything
at all. You know, it was a game designed for multiplayer,
and multiplayer doesn't work anymore, and so it just feels
it feels like a single player game, or it feels

(08:30):
like a multiplayer game that has kind of been abandoned
in that way, Like so much of the mechanics and
activating missions and switching between levels, it feels very set
up for multiplayer, and it just feels like the single
player part was not really thought about. So that game
just spoiler here not making a dent on the top
twenty five. Like, there's a couple interesting ish sword levels,
but none of them are going to crack in with

(08:52):
one kind of minor exception, which I'll talk about when
we get there. So that is kind of my history
with the series. You know, maybe played a couple other
games at a friend's house here there, or you know,
some of the later games have remakes of levels from
the earlier games, so I've kind of seen them in
different versions over the years. But that's more or less
what it is. So what are the levels that are

(09:13):
eligible for this? It's gonna be a big list, So
get ready for this mouthful. So for all, for all
the one plus one through one two, three and four,
all of those games, I'm kind of ranking them for
their version in the one plus two and three plus
four remakes, although I've played some of these levels just
kind of in the original version or in there as
I mentioned the remakes from like Underground or American Wasteline,

(09:36):
that kind of stuff, but just so you're aware, But
from Tonyawk's one pro Skater one we have Warehouse School, Mall,
Skate Park, Downtown Downhill, jam Burnside Streets, and Roswell. We'reund Tonyak.
Two we have the Hangar School two Marseille, New York City, Venice,
Skate Street, Philadelphia, Chopper Drop, and skate Heaven. From three

(09:59):
we have Foundry, Canada, Rio, Suburbia, Airport, Skater Island, Los Angeles,
Tokyo Cruise Ship. From four we have College, San Francisco, Alcatraz,
ConA Shipyard, London Zoo. And then in the three plus
four remake, they actually added three completely brand new maps.
Those are movie Studio, water Park, and Pinball. From pro

(10:22):
Skater five, we have Barracks, Bonfire, Beach School, Three, Megapark, Rooftops, Bunker,
Asteroid Belt, Mountain, wild West, and the Underground. And then
from Tonyhaok's Underground we have that's kind of nice, nice
little segwe there. We have New Jersey, Manhattan, Tampa, San Diego, Hawaii, Vancouver,

(10:44):
Slam City, Jam Moscow, and Hotter than Hell. I guess
I forgot to mention this earlier, but I also back
in the day had Tonyok's Underground on the Game Boy Advance.
But man, I just don't like the top down isometric
Tonyhawk games, So I'm kind of I've played some of
the game, played a few of the levels, but you know,
it's not making a dent. So that is one game
I've played but not really worth discussion. In Thug two,

(11:06):
there is a Warehouse remake, but it has kind of
added sections to it, so kind of a Warehouse point five,
I guess you could call it. Boston, Barcelona, and Berlin.
Those only ones that I was able to get through.
From Tonyok's American Wasteland, you have Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Skate Ranch,
Downtown La East La, the Vans Skate Park, Casino, Santa Monica,

(11:27):
and the oil Rig and then also with American wastelines.
Kind of a tricky one because there's a lot of
transition areas. Like the whole all the levels are kind
of within the world, sort of loosely connected, so you
get like these little traversal sequences that connect the levels.
So those aren't really counted, I guess, in any of
the levels I just mentioned, but they're kind of there.
And then Downhill Jams, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Edinburgh, Matrepeachu Rio, Rome,

(11:52):
the Alps, and Chicago Mall. So that is I think
seventy nine seventy eight actually yeah, seventy eight eligible levels,
and I've picked my top twenty five, and twenty five
is quite a lot, so I don't have any honorable
mentions here, but there are some other ones that of
course did not make it on the list that you know,
are still good. A couple last preamble things, don't worry,

(12:13):
we're almost into the ranking. First up is like my
play style. I feel like I'm a very street style player,
you know, flip tricks into grinds into manuals. That's kind
of my bread and butter, trying to find cool lines.
I want to try and get as far as I
can in my combos, rather than being a big like
pool or like quarter pipe type or half pipe type
type player. Not a big fan of the downhill style,

(12:36):
you know, Downhill Jam obviously focused on that and does
a good job of it, but like just not really
my favorite types of levels in general. And then you
know what am I looking for? What is it's ranking
really about? You know, there's of course a pinchon nostalgia
that's going to be a factor in here, but there's
also I think that's actually one of the interesting balances
here is the nostalgia versus the recency bias, because I've

(12:58):
played so many of these games than the last two months,
and so comparing that with like my memories of these levels,
you know, from childhood is an interesting thing to kind
of have to weigh up. But that's you know, I've
tried to factor then in as best as I can.
Of course, I'm looking at the theming of the level,
you know, what is the setting of it and how
well does it bring that to life? The visuals all

(13:19):
that kind of stuff. Of course the gameplay, like does
it have good lines? Is that have good connectivity between
the different sections of the map, long rails that you
can connect you between different areas, that a rail into
a certain half pipe and do an acid drop, like
all these kinds of fun things.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
Do they connect well?

Speaker 1 (13:35):
Fun obstacles, right, of course, that's a big part of it.
I also factor that in with like you know, Underground
has like cars you can drive, or American Wasteline has
has bikes, so I have to factor in those things too,
and how fun it is to drive around in a level,
because of course it's more than just the skateboarding in
some of these games. Memorable missions of course, that is
for the games that like are pretty straightforward in like

(13:57):
the Underground American Wasteline style, but then also in like
the one through four and like those missions, how memorable
are they? Like the locations of the letters, skate the
combo letters, these other funny objectives you can do that
change the map in certain ways or open up secret areas,
and then yeah, kind of with that too, secret areas,
bonus things, finding hidden areas, All those kinds of things

(14:17):
are factored in here. So I don't know, maybe gameplay's
top gameplay and theme are kind of top of mind things,
but of course there's so many little little details that
factor into all of this, and maybe a couple other
things along the way. So I think with that we
can kind of get right into the list already. So
as I mentioned no honorable mentions, I'm just going right

(14:39):
into this and let's kick it off with Thug two
Tonno's Underground two. I have Barcelona here as my number
twenty five spot. This has been my favorite level in
the game so far. I will say I feel like
Thug two has a very a bit more of a
formulaic approach to the levels, Like all the levels feel
kind of square like in their shape in the street

(15:01):
aspect of it. So I'm curious if that changes in
the second half of the game that I haven't got
to yet. But yeah, this one definitely makes it in
the top twenty five for me. This one is pretty crazy,
you know, A Thug two is like a jackass game
as well, kind of, even though it's called Tony Ooks
Underground and this one you can like switch skaters with
Steve O who's on like a bucking bowl thing, and

(15:23):
you can like fly around the city and knock people
over and all that crazy stuff. You like throw tomatoes
at bowls to get them to run around the city.
It's it's you know, hectic, crazy Tony Hawk jackass madness.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
That you'd expect.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
But I think my favorite location in this map is
the kind of well I think of it as the North.
I don't know if it is the North, if these
maps even have cardinal directions, but there's an area with
like the gardens where there's just you know a bunch
of halfpipes and you can kind of do transfers between
them and like acid drops and all that. You can
even get way up high above on like a gondola
type thing. You can even drop from that down into

(15:54):
this and just like you get huge air, huge combos,
and you can do that stuff and then it like
will combo into the rest of the You can kind
of fly all over these half pipes, do a big
transfer and then like comble that into a grind and
then just fly off into the distance. So really satisfying,
really fun. There's some good grind opportunities. There's like a
fun bridge you can grind across that leads to a
kind of almost a little bonus area that has a

(16:16):
fun couple objectives in there.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
I really like the verticality.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
I think that's a factor you might see in a
lot of the missions I pick here as I like
when there is some opportunity you can get really high
up above and look down at the streets below. And
this has that where you can hop into a couple
different elevator spots and it will pop you up to a
rooftop which you can use to jump to other rooftops
or just fly off, go up onto the gondola, that
kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
See.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
I really enjoy this level. I think it's really fun.
It's really goofy. There are some like tighter street areas
that are hard to kind of move through in an
interesting way, but I think there are also a lot
of it's kind of more moving around the edge of
this map, I think is the most interesting location part
of it. So yeah, shout outs to Barcelona at number
twenty five. Up there, we move over to Edinburgh from

(17:00):
on hill Jam and I will say that's my only
Thug two pick, and this is my only downhill Jam
pick for the top twenty five. So I wanted to
get a level from them in here, and so I
wont Edinburgh as my favorite. This one is just you know,
those beautiful kind of Scottish castles you're flying through, which
I think was a very unique setting for Tonyak And
I would actually like to see more castles because I

(17:22):
feel like just grinding around like the turrets or like
the walls could be like a really fun type location,
So I'd like to see that in a more traditional
Tony Hawk level. But Edinburgh for me, you know, it's
been a long time since I've played Downhill Jam, so
a lot of this is like pretty faded memories. But
I just watched some YouTube videos of like trying to remember, O, yeah,
what do all these maps look like a couple of them,
I'm like, man, I don't recognize this at all. Did

(17:44):
I even play this level? But Edinburgh was the one
that was like, oh yeah, I remember playing the heck
out of that level and absolutely loving it. So that
one is my number twenty four. Number twenty three. We
have Pinball from Tono's three plus four, so this is
a new map that they added to the game, so
I think they clock it in like Tony Knok's pro
Skater four in the actual game, like when you're level selecting,

(18:06):
But yeah, it is a new map, and you know,
I feel like there are a few of these kind
of silly maps, Like I know, one of the levels
you can get in one of the games ahead an
area is like a kitchen countertop and you're like a
little guy almost like on a tech deck, flying through
this kitchen. I don't know which game has that, but
that's like a weird secret area you can get access to.
But Pinball kind of has that vibe too, where you're
in this giant pinball machine, or at least you're a

(18:28):
little guy in a regular sized pinball machine. You can
look up and Tony Hawk is up there and he's
flicking the buttons and all that kind of crazy stuff.
This map just has like really good momentum to it.
There are a couple like speed up boosters that you
can get on that just launch you across the map,
really great grind combos, there's kind of a vertical section,
and I just think it's a really fun setting. I
feel like I generally do prefer a more realistic type

(18:51):
of setting, but this one really stood out to me
as just being a map that has really fun, big
combo opportunities, really big air you know, really fun color
palette as well, and then some of the objectives that
you have to do on it to complete it are
quite engaging as well. So yeah, really enjoy Pinball. And
then we move up to spot number twenty two, and

(19:13):
this one on the list is going to be Skate
Ranch for me from Tony Hawk's America and Wasteland.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
You know, I think big.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
Part of this is just the factor of like the
whole story is kind of centered around this.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
You get access to the skate park.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
When you first go there, it's pretty barren, pretty empty,
but as you're going around to the different areas, you're
kind of you know, hitting this grind to break it
off its railing, or breaking off this big dinosaur head,
you know, breaking this rooftop, and then you're kind of
transporting that stuff back to the park and just seeing
it grow over time into like the ultimate skate park
with all these memorable obstacles and set pieces from these

(19:48):
locations you're going to throughout the game.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Just really satisfying.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
I remember always going back there anytime you completed admission
and just being really thrilled to see, like, where is
it going to be? Where's that grind that I just
got where is it gonna get added on here? And
it is just a totally solid, like pretty traditional skate
park level and obviously of course has like no connectivity
or cohesion to its theming, but I think that's kind

(20:12):
of perfectly fitting for the American wasteline vibe that that
whole game has. So yeah, big shout out to the
skate ranch. From there up to spot number twenty one,
we're gonna go to Kona, which is from Tonyaks pro
Skater four and yeah, this is a one of the
competition levels, and it's a pretty traditional skate park. It
kind of has two, i'd say, yeah, two or three

(20:33):
major zones to it. One of the zones is like
a really fun almost like a snakelike almost like a
river bed. It's not it's like made of concrete, so
it's not an actual riverbed, but that's really fun to
like manual down or convert into a grind and it
pops you down in like a pool area. There's the
more traditional skater era on the other side that has
some big half pipes and like some grinds that go

(20:55):
all the way around, and yeah, I feel like the
you might see on this list that I don't have
a lot of like the traditional just skate park maps.
I feel like I generally like skating around like just
real life kind of locations that are integrated into skateboarding
maneuvers rather than like just the skate parks. But this
one is pretty memorable for me. I think the reason

(21:15):
maybe it drops down further than it could be is
just because in general, like the competition levels, I feel
like are gonna lose some points for me because all
you're doing is there is getting big score, and you
don't have like collect the skate, collect the secret tape,
do these other bonus objectives. I think those things help
make the levels more memorable and they highlight key set
piece moments, But obviously the competition levels don't really have

(21:38):
that as much unless you're getting super creative with them.
So yeah, I think that that's maybe why it drops
down a little bit. But still really enjoy that one.
And then at number twenty, I have Santa Monica from
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. This one, for me is definitely
the most memorable level for me in that game, and
it might not even be the best in terms of
like big lines, but I think it just has like

(22:00):
the amusement park area, which is super iconic, you know,
grinding like the roller coaster or doing like the elliptricks
on the ferris wheel, like a big bowl in there,
and that's kind of on the Santa Monica Pier where
you can like grind all the way down off to
like this little dock area. I think there is another
game that had like an amusement park, I forget which
one it was in the series, maybe just Project eight
or something like that, which I feel like is just

(22:22):
an area that I actually do want to try that
level and whatever game that is, because I feel like
that is very ripe kind of level for what is
super fun, and I feel like Santa Monica gives you
a bit of that.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
And then there's the.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Area kind of more where there's some shops where you
get some really just big nice pools and like halfpipes
that kind of thing. And then there's a back area
that has some really fun grinding with like the amphitheater.
I think it is where you get like the funny
shape rooftop, which I think is one of the props
you bring back to the skate ranch at some point.
And none of these areas are truly that super connected
to each other. But I just always remember this being

(22:52):
a super fun level to come back to over and
over again. So shout outs to Santa Monica. I think
that is our last American wasteland level on the list
if I'm correct here. But we're gonna jump over to
a new game we haven't seen yet, and that is
Tony's pro Skater two with School two. I really like
this one. This is one I think it's the first

(23:14):
level in the game, right, So I remember playing this
one a lot as a kid, because, like I said,
I wasn't good at that game on the N sixty four,
so I spent a lot of time on the first
level in the game because I couldn't get much further
than that. Yeah, I think this level has like some
really it's pretty massive, sprawling level, but I feel like
there is some pretty good connectivity to it. But also
the areas kind of just distinctly on their own are

(23:34):
pretty memorable. A lot of really good grinds down like
a lot of big staircases. You can do the roll
call grinds, which open up the gym area so you
have like a big bowl in the pool, and then
you have the gym area, which has some fun set
pieces to it. There's like a whole hidden area if
you like, jump off this one rooftop you get to
and there's not much there, truthfully, but it's just like, whoa,
this whole big hidden area that's pretty cool. So yeah,

(23:55):
I feel like it's just a very grind heavy kind
of place. Jumping off rooftop has some good verticality to it,
but it's a pretty big, sprawling map and just a
really fun one to almost like warm up on. It's
like a fun level to jump into first. So obviously
it being positioned as the first game or the first
level in its game is obviously very well placed. And
going up from there, we're going to go to Tony
Hawks prostk Or one for the first time with Streets

(24:19):
also known as I guess San Francisco, which I feel
like it's funny that they just named it Streets. They
could have given it like a more memorable name, but
maybe they didn't realize this series would have, you know,
twenty games and they needed to differentiate the levels with
better names.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
But yeah, I really like this level.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
I think a factor of this one that hasn't come
up yet, but I think is really important is like
the start of a level, you know where it spawns
you when you load up the level for the first time,
And I think this level really succeeded that because it
starts at the top of a classic kind of San
Francisco hill and you have like the Brick the Red
Brick kind of winding path that you can try and
manual down, which is fun, or you can do grinding

(24:53):
on either side of the buildings from the top or
on either side, which just drops you down into the
city and then you can kind of go left, forward
or right from there whichever area you want to go
to next, and so it's always fun to boot up
this level for the first time. You can also get
a bunch of speed off like a quarter pipe and
then just fly down that hill, so that's always super satisfying.
Over on the left side, you kind of have this

(25:14):
fun like stair set piece with a big kicker to
jump over this bridge, and then there's like the more
Park area where you get some fun grinding opportunities and
a weird big sculpture that's really fun to just ride up,
and that kind of leads into this one area of
the map where you can jump up on this rooftop,
convert over on the rooftop, go up these ramps and
you can get like way way high up above the city,

(25:35):
and then you can get this huge ramp that's set
up there. Just fly through, smash through this per smash
a bunch of glass everywhere. That's where the secret tape
is hidden. I believe, just super fun to go up
there every single time and get like a huge combo
starter right off the top, and then kind of around
the outside of the map there's like a good pool
pool area inside like a dish almost inside of a

(25:56):
building that you can smash into. A couple other buildings
you can get into, which I always like in any
video game whenever I can go inside of a building,
it's always an exciting things. That feels like most buildings
and games are just the wall, you know, but it's
fun when you can break through that glass and actually
go inside of them. And there's like an area that's
almost like a little Chinatown section that I kind of
wish that area is more integrated into the rest of

(26:16):
the map. It feels like very out of the way,
but it is a cool little set piece area, and
I just wish it connected into it more. But this map,
because it is another pretty big one in terms of
like just the surface area of the space of it.
It's a really fun one to try and route out
the speed run for it in the remake of one
plus two, because yeah, you just really have to plan out. Okay,
I don't want to have to backtrack it all. So

(26:37):
what's my How can I knock out all these objectives
in one place, grind all these cop cars as quick
as I can, get up to that rooftop as quick
as I can.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
So really fun level. I love the visuals of it.

Speaker 1 (26:47):
I think there's gonna be maybe another San Francisco that
pops up later on as well. But yeah, I think
it makes for a really good skateboarding location.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
Apparently.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
Next up is another level from tonyox perskater once and
I was at number seventeen, and that is going to
be downtown also known as the Minneapolis This is level
set at nighttime, which I like. I feel like not
a lot of levels typically are in Tony Hawk and
I think they did that more with the remake of
one plus two and three plus fours. They tried to
switch up the setting for some of them to give
a little bit of a different vibe.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
This level is very cool.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
It's very technical, I feel like at times to get
some of the objectives, so it's a tricky one. But
this one has some good verticality to it. There's like
a little tunnel you can take to get up on
top of this rooftop which you can blast off in
like all sorts of different directions, and there's fun stuff
to be had there, really aggressive like vehicles. I think
in this one you're gonna like jump over like the
crazy taxi drivers, some really good grind opportunities, some kind

(27:38):
of silly stuff around the edges. So yeah, I really
like this one. I think it's quite fun. Just I
feel like a good vertical map and even trying to
get up onto those rooftops with some like cheeky wall
ride grind combos is also really fun. So yeah, I
really enjoy that one that takes us into level sixteen.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
This is going to be Rio from pre pro skater Free.
I really love this one.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
This is like a pretty traditional skate park level that
has kind of in the middle is where you have
you know, your half pipes, your quarter pipes, your transfer opportunities,
and I feel like that's where you kind of start
your combo and then you kind of blast that out
into the sides. And this kind of this map around
the skate park is like all sorts of different grinds
that have different props. You know, some are like these

(28:23):
big wood plank things set up. Some of them are
just like ledges or like staircase type things, but you can,
you know, if you can keep it going, you can
get like a full combo and just grind a complete
loop around this huge skate park, which is super satisfying.
I love maps that have that kind of thing, just
one long grind opportunity. You have to jump between the grinds,
but you can just really connect all this stuff and
it's super fun. And then even outside that there's like

(28:45):
a street and then there's like kind of some other
props along the outside. But to me, this is just
like a really great skate park level, a pretty simple one,
a pretty small one, but it's just really tight compact,
and like every square inch of it is like factored
into just be the ultimate fun experience. This one is
another competition level, but it is one that you know
just because of how fun the level is and how

(29:07):
tight and compact it is. It's one that I'm like
happy to do over and over again, even though it
doesn't have like as fun of objectives coming out from it.
We are now into the top fifteen and at number
fifteen from pro Skate or four, I have London. This
is one that the first time I played it, first
couple of times I played it, was not a fan.
There's some objectives here that you have to like, you know,

(29:28):
wall ride like two buses, or you have to like
you know, combo is stitched together or something like that.
These objectives I found just too hard. I found the
buses like not connected super well in these areas, Like
there's rooftop grinds, but I didn't really see.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
How they all connected.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
There was this mission like Jack Blacks on this level
he's like a cop and you got to chase him around,
and I was just getting kind of annoyed to buy
a lot of the things that were going on here.
But the more and more I played it, the more
I kind of mastered it. The more I kind of
mastered these objectives, the more I fell in love with
this map, Like it starts out really well of having
like these two big fountain areas, with has a good
grind opportunity and are also great kickers. But then like

(30:04):
there really is just like vertically a huge like wires
connecting all these buildings that you can connect all these
areas vertically. There's a whole like under I don't think
it's I think it's like a skate park or like
a parking lot area like under the bridge that is
like a fun and almost hidden area that you can
get to some really good grind connectivity between like the
different parts of the city. There's like this other rooftop

(30:27):
that has just like some big quarter pipes on it,
which is super fun. Yes, it just feels feels like
a very expansive map, and actually, once I got used
to it, like comboing some of these tricks with like
the big double decker London buses is really satisfying. So yeah,
I've really grown to love this level and it might
even climb up higher the more I play it, but
for now I'm happy.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
With it being at number four on my list.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
Number fourteen is gonna go to the og map, the
first ever Tony Hawk's pro skater map, and that is
Warehouse from of course don Out pro Skater one. It's
a simple level. It's a small level. You know, you
blast down the hill at the start. You got the
big kind of ramp on the right side that also
has a half pipe in the middle, smashing through that
glass to get through there, get the secret tape. You

(31:11):
got like the big grind that you can connect around
the whole kind of right side of the map, right
off that half pipe that connects all the way around,
and then there's like that big rail kind of in
the middle, and then you have like the kind of
three quarter pipes right next to each other that have
the gaps in between so you can kind of jump
between them on wall what is it called wallplant to
jump back and like do that back and forth, back

(31:33):
and forth, and like, you know, that's pretty much it.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
Like it is a small level.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
There isn't much to it, but I just think it
is a small compact level, super fun, really good combos
and I don't know, just you know any I feel
like this level has been remade over and over again.
I think in Thug two there's like a semi remake
of Warehouse. And this is also where my shout out
for Tonaux's pro Skater five is because this that game
also has a partial remake of Warehouse that takes that

(31:59):
base level. It re jigs a couple things, changes a
couple of things up, and then adds a couple zones.
And actually those added zones were pretty decent as well
in pro Skater five. But I'm still going with just
the og Warehouse here, which of course has been premade
multiple times as well. But yeah, I think this is
a classic map, and even comparing it to like in
pro Skater two, they tried to have the I guess, yeah,
the first level was actually Hanger and then School two

(32:21):
is the second one. I fudged that earlier, but yeah,
I think even just comparing this to two Hangar, this
map is like ten times better. I don't know, there's
something about it that I just can't get enough of it.
It's always super fun nailing those objectives, getting the speed
around on it, just super engaging stuff that takes us
over to thirteen. And actually, now that I mentioned, I

(32:44):
think that actually was our last game from pro Skater one,
and yeah, so that one's officially out of the ranking,
but I gave it. Yeah, pro Skater one Warehouse, that
was my favorite level from that game, and now we
are getting our first introduction of Thug one on first
underground map on the list, and I'm going to give
it to Vancouver, my place of residence. So of course,

(33:07):
you know, a big factor of this is that it's like,
oh yeah, I've been to these locations. It is my
stomping grounds. Seeing those locations put into a video game
and like turn to you know, the Tony Hawk madness
is super satisfying. So that's definitely, you know, something that
gives it a bonus and edge above something else. I
love the little hockey rank area with like the kind

(33:29):
of figure eight type grind that they have designed for it.
There's like some solid kind of transfer and quarter pipe opportunities.
I also really like that, you know, there's another level,
slam City Jam, which like takes place in I guess
was like what should be Roger's Arena, but they just don't.
They don't call that in the game, of course, but
I like that there's kind of that just connectivity, like
you're kind of doing the missions in Vancouver to get

(33:51):
into that level and then you like go through the
door and you enter that level and then you know,
lows into a whole nother zone. But I think there's
that connectivity too, that is really interesting. So yeah, honestly,
I admit that I give this level probably a bigger
bump than it deserves just because.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
It is where I live, so I will say that.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
But jumping right from there, speaking of Canada, let's talk
about Canada from pro Skater three. This is one that
I feel like I've always heard about and seen, but
I haven't actually played it until recently, so it was
fun to do that. And this one is a much
more generic Canada stuff. Snow everywhere. It's like, how is
the skateboard riding through the snow? It doesn't make any
sense at all, but you know, that's what Canada is
the people in America, so of course that's what the

(34:32):
level is going to look like. In here really fun level.
You know, half of it is like a traditional skate
park with all the pipes and grinds and transfers that
you'd expect, and then there's kind of big grind opportunities
on some telephone wires which are really fun. And then
there's the kind of wild forested area which you know
has some kind of traditional skate park set up to it,
and then it also has like the almost boardwalk type

(34:54):
area along like the icy sea, and you kind of
go through there to transfer up and then fly up
onto this other wooden area and then that leads into
like this little mind cart thing which you can grind
to fly back into the main level. So yeah, quite
a vertical level, which I like about it. I think
some of the connective parts of it I find it
confusing and don't connect super duper well. But I think

(35:15):
the individual areas are quite fun. And yeah, I feel
like it's a bit of a harder map and that
makes it kind of more satisfying when you get a
really good combo to it, just because it isn't quite
as intuitively connected as some other maps are. So shout
outs to Canada and my little thirteen twelve Canada connective
there between Canada and Vancouver. Next up on the list

(35:36):
we are going to go to I think this is
near San Franco or in San Francisco, but is Alcatraz
from pro Skater four. I mean, really fun setting, right obviously,
like having a prison type area, really dark, gritty, grungey
type location. Some areas are kind of still under construction.
You can get into the building eventually, like where the
cells are and do some of course, they turn it

(35:57):
into a big half pipe situation where you can fly around,
do some crazy grinds, get up onto the rooftop, and
then fly off in any direction you could possibly want.
There's kind of some decrepit buildings that have kind of
fallen to time and are kind of semi destroyed, so
you get like some ruins kind of flavored to it,
the verticality to it, and like the teleporters, like going
through the little doors that take you up to the

(36:19):
next level. There's like a huge ramp with like the
full loopy loop that you can do that flies you
off into like a trampoline in the middle of the
ocean or the bay or whatever it is. So yeah,
just a super duper fun map. I really really enjoy Alcatraz.
Just one that I found myself keep coming back to.
I love just starting to combo up top on the
peak of that top roof and then just comboing that

(36:40):
down and down as to the lower areas, and then
even comboing right back up if you want, if you
want to go through those teleporters. So just an endlessly
super duper fun map. So shout outs to Alcatraz. We
are officially now into the top ten and at number three,
or sorry, at number ten. From kind of x prost
grade to three for me is going to be suburbia.

(37:02):
I just love this kind of setting. You know, there's
another level that it might just come up in a
little bit here higher on the list.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
I just like this kind of suburb setting. I feel
like that's kind of the perfect skate location for me.
Combo in between these different houses, you have one construction
area that's pretty fun, and then you have just like
the backyard. Like that, getting that combo bonus objective of
the combo letters together was a really fun little string
to get together. You have like the creepy house with
the door that mysteriously opens. You got to give the

(37:30):
guy the axe to break down the door, and then
you go in the bag and there's like a spooky
graveyard type area. It's just it's a very goofy map.
But getting up onto that top roof and then there's
a grinding down the telephone wire all the way down,
you know, doing the manual all the way around the
the what is it called the cul de sac?

Speaker 2 (37:47):
Super fun?

Speaker 1 (37:48):
Yeah, like I like too, especially with the three plus
four remake, they made it a bit more halloween centric,
where you got to smash some pumpkins and do all
that kind of fun stuff. So yeah, I just I
really like this map. And then you almost also on
the side have just like a traditional kind of skate
park area with some good quarter.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Pipes and whatnot.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
So I will say I feel like the different areas,
the different houses and backyards and all that don't really
connect super duper well together, like they're almost little isolated zones,
but it is still fun to find ways to make
those connections happen, even if they aren't super intuitive. So yeah,
I really really like Suburbia. And I think actually we
got we got one more from three coming up, so

(38:24):
I'll talk about that in a minute. But we have
our last one from two up next, and that is Philadelphia,
which I don't know what it is about this map,
but I just keep When I pull up the game
and I just want to play level, I want to
turn my brain off, listen to a podcast, I often
just jump to this map. I find it super duper fun.
It's another big one in terms of the just horizontal

(38:47):
space of it all, and because of that, maybe some
of the parts don't connect super duper well, but I
think it is really fun to find those connections between them,
and yeah, I think this is great.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
So there's like the.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
Early point where you spawn in. You can go over
to the right jump off that kicker to get up
on the rooftop or like the balcony, and then you
kind of have to do a wall ride wall jump
combo to get up onto the top roof. And then
there's like two directions you can go from there. You
can grind all the way on the telephone wires around
like the outside of the perimeter of the map, or
you can do the one that just goes vert like
kind of right through the center of the map. Super

(39:17):
fun to start a combo from either of those locations.
You have like the big fountain area, which once you
empty it is like two just endless grinds. That's like
my favorite thing is a big circular grind where I
can just get a ton of combo and points built
up and multiplier built up, and then of course there's
you know, you go over to the other balcony. You
can grind over some telephone wires that knocks over the

(39:39):
telephone pole which cracks open to the skate park, which
is kind of fills in exactly what the rest of
the map is missing, which is just some big vert
kind of area. There's big quarter pipes and pool type things,
a big transfer you can do, and then they'll also
perfectly lead into some rails that take you back into
the regular city area. So it's just super duper well designed,
super fun kind of around the whole perimeter, there's like

(40:01):
a big street area which doesn't really have much going on,
so it feels like a bit of empty space, I guess,
But I guess it just makes the level feel a
bit more open because if you are doing a combo
and you end up on the perimeter of the map,
you don't just like lose, like, you know, that's a
mission I didn't have in here. Level I didn't have
is cruise ship, which I like, but you know, just
flying off the side accidentally and then like dipping in

(40:22):
the water and ruining your combo never feels great. And
I feel like that's what this map app adds, like
a little buffer with the streets on the outside to
prevent that kind of thing. So yeah, I just find
myself keep coming back to Philadelphia. Super duper fun level
Number eight is going to be Los Angeles, which I
believe is a level that's been remade a bunch of times,

(40:43):
but originally it came from Turn Next pro sk or three.
I feel like this one has some of the most
if not the most memorable missions and like things that
would change it.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
Right.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
So there's like early on, there's like a car up
on a street or up on like a highway, which
you can like knock down or I forget how all
this stuff connects, but you can essentially connect all these
different areas, get up on this like upper highway area,
which connects to another rooftop which connects this huge like
acid drop you can do. So all that stuff's very memorable.
You can get like the earthquake, I think, yeah, you

(41:13):
cause the earthquake which gets a car to fall, and
all this crazy objectives that are popping off. When you're
doing all this stuff, you kind of have like a
weird art architecture area in the center that has some
of course weird grind and like vert type areas to it.
You have like the more high rise buildings where you
can get some interesting combos over there too, and then yeah,

(41:36):
just like some really solid grinds, some weirdly shaped grinds
which I really like, down some staircases and all that.
So it just kind of feels like it has it all.
I really like this level super duper fun. Another one
that I can come back to over and over again,
and I think is worthy of all the remakes that
it's gotten over the years. And I think with that
that's our last level from TONAXX pro Skate or three.
So that's another one that officially removed from the ranking.

(41:58):
Now another one from Underground. We haven't heard from that
in a little bit, but it is slam City jams
that connective with the Vancouver that I mentioned earlier. And yeah,
this is my highest just straight up skate park mission
on my list here, and I think this one just
kind of has it all.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
Like it the theming of it.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
It's pretty basic, to be fair, but you know, through
the Middle has all the vert opportunities, grind opportunities, kick
your opportunities you could ask for. It has the I
forget how you do it, but you can like go
through a door which pops you out into the bleachers
and you can like do a huge grind like kick
you into the middle of the level and start off
a combo, and then I think the part that has
the best is like the complete perimeter grind that you

(42:37):
can do, whether that's like the outside stands, whether it's
like the actual skate park props that are set up
that it just is extremely fun, endlessly fun.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
I feel like this one.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
Followed the blue Oh my god, followed the blueprint that
is Rio and what I talked about like the inner
skate park with the out huge connective grind around the
whole thing, and I feel like this level just takes
that idea and just flies with it. So yeah, to me,
definitely the best skate park or straight up skate park
level in the whole game or in the whole series,
I should say, yeah, So shout outs to Slam City

(43:09):
Jam and then up from there we're going to number
six and this is gonna be Tampa. So for Tampa
is a goofy one where it has like the strip
club and it has like the car with the people,
you know, making love, and you can like grind it
to like stop them from doing that, which of course
is very silly, but like as.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
A kid, it was like, oh, oh, this is crazy.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
What is this game that I'm playing, and I will
say the Strip Club at least has a very fun
bowl in it that's like a actually really fun area
to like build up some big combos in. Yeah, I
think this this map has like a really solid skate
park section that starts out in a warehouse but like
connects to an open street area that's really fun. You
can get up on the rooftop and start some big
combos from there, and then it has like the similar

(43:50):
to Knat has like the big kind of snake cement
like area that you can manual through, which connects into
some grinds that you can get all the way down.
There's like the party boat off the side, which you know,
if you mess that up you fly into the water.
But yeah, I really really like Tampa. Tampa's a classic,
a really fun one. Yeah, just always infinitely replayable. Next up,

(44:11):
we've got our last level from Thomas pro Skater four
and this is gonna be San Francisco, which I don't
know if this is how it works in the original game,
but in pro Skater or I guess in yeah, pro
Skater three plus four the remake, this is like the
tutorial level, Like even if you're playing three. This is
like just the tutorial level for the game where it
teaches you a bunch of things, and so obviously I

(44:31):
was kind of introduced to it there, but then you
come back to it and actually is a fully fledged
level that has all it subjectives punched in there, and yeah,
this is one that I just love. I think it's
it's a super duper well designed level where it has,
you know, the main skate park area around the edges,
it has these buildings with grinds connected to like telephone
wires that give you some big combos around the sides.

(44:52):
It has like this whole other side of area that's
almost completely disconnected from the rest, which is like has
some trains that you can jump around and get some
grinds off of. And then it has like the boardwalk
area which has some fun vert sections, has some good
grind opportunities there. And then there's like the upper balcony
area that it's kind of above the skate park where
you get like the big challenge to do a long

(45:12):
manual across the whole boardwalk or across the whole walkway,
whatever you want to call it. And then all these things,
I think the part that makes this level sing is
that a lot of these areas are like very interconnected, right,
so you can kind of combo in between them. The
missions that you have to do here are really memorable.
So yeah, another one that I just find myself coming
back to over and over again trying to build up

(45:33):
these big combos get around. Doing the speed run challenge
for it was super fun, super engaging. So yeah, San
Francisco makes it into my top five at number five. Yeah,
and between that streets and then I guess Alcatraz, like
San Francisco, you know, has a big representation in my
list overall. Into number four is water Park. So this

(45:55):
is from the three plus four remake. So it's a
new map, one of the newest maps to the series.
It's only you know, two months old at this point,
but to me, this is like absolute peak level, one
of the best you have in the whole series. Obviously,
that's why I put it at number four. So it's
overtaking years of nostalgia from some of these maps to
get into my top four. And you know reason for that,

(46:17):
there's so many One the start of the level, you
start at the top of these kind of racing slides,
and that's like the perfect way. You can either grind
off to the right, which leads into this whole grind
and the right side of the map you can go
just do one huge grind right down through the middle,
convert that over to the left which has some other
connection over there, or you combo it into some other
grinds or takes you to this fountain area which takes

(46:38):
it all the way to the back of the map.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
So starting this.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
Level, hitting that replay button always satisfying because you know
you're gonna be in for like a big combo rate
off the start. The whole map, like the ground of
it is pretty much filled with pools, right because it's
a whole water park, so you just have quarter pipes,
half pipes, pools all the way littered around this whole thing.
I love the setting of it being like an abandoned
water park, so it gives it like this dark tone

(47:00):
to it where there's kind of the crustiness the abandonedness
to it. So it just makes it perfect where there's
no barely any water in any of these pools, like
it's just there for you to skate through them. Of course,
you have the big pirate ship. Pirate ship kind of
set piece to it, and that has some fun objectives
tied to it. And then at the back of the
map is where you have the entrance to I think
like three or four different slides, and that teleports you

(47:23):
to the top of the slide and then you can
grind through them, ride through them, get some big air
off them. And then there's like even the big Castle
area I talked about the Edinburgh area. You have like
a big castle here which has just like a huge
transfer you can do that just sends you out with
a ton of air right through the middle of the course.
And because the whole map has the pools all the
way through which you can grind on or you can

(47:44):
do vert in, every part of this map is just
like perfectly interconnected to the other areas. So this is
one of the reasons why like after A instead of
another remake of Especially you know, next up in the
series would be Underground, which is a game I'm deeply
nostalgic for and love so much. I just I want
this team to make a new Tony Hawk game because
if like this, this level alone shows that they got

(48:05):
the chops to make some of the best I also
had pinball there and then Movie Studio. The one I
didn't include, which is one of the new ones, is
also a really really great level that you know, if
I did top thirty, I think it would have been
in the list, So it's super close to making it.
So yeah, just these new maps were really really good.
But here's not a new map, and that is Hawaii
from Tony Hawk's Underground. This is where no stall is

(48:28):
coming in for sure. I mean, this is where you
do the mctwist over the helicopter, which of course is
a super iconic mission, maybe the most iconic mission in
the whole series for me. You have the like a
little Tiaki you can jump into which like converts you
takes you to hell for a moment. You can go
up on the top of these rooftops which leads into
these huge transfers. We can get a ton of air

(48:50):
combines into the swimming pools.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
You have like the beach area.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
You can grind up some like coconut trees, some palm trees.
You have like the area at the back that kind
of has like the just full on vert area. You
have the similar area to like the Kona or the
Tampa with like the kind of snaky area in between,
just a lot of verticality in this map. Everything is
super interconnected, everything works perfectly alongside one another. So yeah,

(49:16):
I love this map. I think it's just one of
the best of all time. Super fun. When I'll always
come back to number two, Tony Hawks Underground once again,
we have Manhattan.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
This is the New York level.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
We've had a couple of these so far, but yeah,
this one's the highest one on the ranking for me.
And yeah, I mean, what isn't there to say about this?
This one's fun to drive around in a car. It's
fun to skate around because like the whole map has
like a perimeter that is completely combable with big grinds.
You can get up on the highway up above, and
that you can jump down to the boardwalk below. You

(49:48):
don't really have a traditional skate park area, so to speak,
but you have like all the cars you can grind
on on the one.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
Side of the map.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
You can get up like into the inside of the building.
I guess you do have some more kind of traditional
skate park areas, but they're more like almost like an
art museum. You kind of have these weird props which
work perfectly as skateboarding, you know, props and all that.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
So yeah, just a super fun.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
Level, always infinitely replayable, feels massive because it's like pretty
big horizontally but also vertically. It's got that factor to it,
so it really encapsulates that perfect Manhattan energy to it.
And then that takes us to number one, my favorite
Tony Hawk level.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
This one.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
I didn't even have to question everything else on the list.
You know, there was multiple iterations of this list. I
moved things around, and move things up, I move things down.
This one was always number one without a shot of
a doubt. And that is New Jersey from Tonya's Underground.
So yeah, Underground making up my top three. So the
nostalgia is speaking there, but I think this is really
just they hit their stride and we're making some really
really great levels back in the day. This is the

(50:48):
first level in the game, and so obviously it's got
that sentimental value, but I think it also has that
bookend factor where you come back here near the end
of the game. We're at the very end of the
game due to that big combo contest against the Great
Eric Sparrow where you have to grind do a combo
across the whole city, and if you hadn't already found that,
that just kind of shows like, wow, this is a
big map horizontally, but the whole thing is interconnected and

(51:09):
you can do and will do a combo across the
entire thing, doing the perimeter, comboing through the middle of
the houses up above, down below. It just it's got
it all and like, I think that that mission really
highlights just how incredible this level is. And then yeah,
you kind of have like the two separate areas, like
there is a bridge that kind of breaks apart these

(51:30):
two areas, but because you can combo across the bridge
in multiple different ways, it of course does connect together
pretty well. And I think at the start of the game,
right you can't even get across the bridge.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
You have to unlock that.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
So there's even that little mini factor of unlocking a
bigger area, which leads to like a hotel type area
I think down into the train station, which has some
great vert in there. The vert between the houses is
super fun. Comboing along the pipes, like the gas League
pipes that are going around, which have like all the
sketchy people on the one part of the map, and
then kind of that what I can say to be

(52:00):
the South Once again, I don't think these games have
cardinal directions, but you have like the South area that
has all these other like vert areas that can easily
connect into some grinds that connect you out with the
rest of the city. You have like a many kind
of traditional skate park area in the very center there,
but that also has like a playground area where you
can grind around, like monkey bars and those kinds of
fun props. And then you have like the vehicle here

(52:22):
is like the green sports car, like the rally car
that you can fly around, which which is always you know,
super duper fun. So yeah, this level just great. And
I think this one too as a kid, really inspired
my imagination once again as Suburbia I mentioned at my
number ten, and this one kind of highlights that area
more where this was just like the place I wanted
to hang out and just I would get off my board.

(52:44):
I'd just walk around, climb the houses, climb the gutters,
go up on the rooftops, jump off, and I don't
just drive around, have a good time, do some fake parking,
you know. I would just have a great time with
this this level over and over again, and because it
does bookend the story, I think it also adds so much. Obviously,
Tonyak's Underground is my favorite game. I think the only
levels I didn't include here were San Diego, which is

(53:06):
still a solid map and Hotter than Hell like the
bonus level, and then I think I think Warehouse or
something is also in the games like a bonus level.
But yeah, pretty much every level from that game is
in there, and it made up you know, five of
my top ten and three of my top three. So
obviously I have a lot of nostalgia for the game.
I love the game so much, but yeah, it's just
an amazing game, and this whole series is so great

(53:28):
super well, not every game is great, but it does
have a lot of great games in the mix. So yeah,
like I said, I would love to redo this again
in the future, adding into some new levels into the mix,
if they get a new game in there, or if
I just play some of the older ones or spend
some more time with some of these older games.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
But yeah, this has been a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
Like I said, I've been playing so much of these games,
so it's fun to kind of endcap that by doing
my ranking here. My top twenty five levels. If you're
listening to this, let me know what your favorite levels
are or if you can't remember all of them. Just
let me know what your favorite game in the series is,
or your favorite you're ranking of just the series itself.
Let me know if your favorite skateboarder is.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
I don't know. Let me know whatever you want.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
I'd love to hear it. But thank you so much
for listening to this. I have a great October and
I will see you again next time.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
Bye bye,