Tony Hawk responds to THPS 3+4 soundtrack woes, and it’s disappointing

The Tony Hawk Pro Skater soundtracks are an institution of culture, as their genre-spanning selections soundtracked the childhood of a generation. But licensing music is complicated, and it’s impacting the THPS 3+4 remakes. A huge number of songs are absent in the new remasters, but Tony Hawk believes there is a simple solution to your woes.

Speaking to gaming journalist Mel Ramsay in a recent BBC interview, Ramsay asks Hawk about Alien Ant Farm’s exclusion from the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 soundtrack. Although the removal of the band isn’t “personal,” Hawk expresses that the intent is “to make room for new songs, and new acts, and not everything makes the cut.” Despite offering over 50 tracks in the new Switch game collection, a meager 10 songs remain from the original titles.

Fan favorites such as CKY’s 96 Quite Bitter Beigns and The Adolescents’ Amoeba return, but AC/DC’s TNT is one of many songs missing from the sports games‘ final release. Concerning Alien Ant Farm’s track Wish, Hawk says that “I appreciate that people have a fondness for that song, especially in relation to our game. So you know, just fire it up on your streaming service if you’re so inclined.” Sure, it’s a solution, but an undoubtedly disappointing answer for long-time players.

It isn’t the first time Hawk’s shared his thoughts on the reworked soundtrack, either. Over on the vert skating pioneer’s Instagram, he comments the following: “It was my choice to pick some different songs by the same artists featured in THPS3+4 OST […] I’m hoping that discovery is half the fun, and a big reason that these soundtracks resonated in the first place.”

Following the complete overhaul of Pro Skater 4’s open-world game approach, Iron Galaxy Studios is taking some considerable liberties with these games. Levels such as Carnival and Chicago are gone, and the Alcatraz baseball mini-game from San Francisco isn’t here either.

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