The Best Trick in 'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 2'? Double Nostalgia

Skating through a hi-def recreation of the late-1990s shopping mall in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 2 is, uh, strange. Everything is right where you left it 20 years ago: the smash-able glass, the empty storefronts, the bizarre nouveau-art display that for so long seemed like the epitome of consumerist architecture. And despite the fact that the video game franchise has felt beyond dead, it's all here in glorious, remastered detail. Yet none of that is what makes it feel odd. What's peculiar about Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 2 is its doubled nostalgia: nostalgia for the time when I obsessed over the original games, for that world, and also for the world itself, the place that existed before Covid-19 quarantines and pandemic isolation.