Gaming: Tony Hawk Pro Skater shreds again; Iron Man VR delayed; Trollhunters game; more

Strap on your Vans and get set to shred. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2 are both bringing back that intoxicating nostalgic mix of late-‘90s music and insane air for modern-day game consoles.

The original pair of action-focused games, created first for PlayStation and released in 1999 and 2000, are getting a big HD upgrade, and they’ll be coming to both PlayStation and Xbox this September. The update looks super-fresh in side-by-side footage compared with the original, as the new trailer shows below:

Via his JablinskiGames YouTube channel, Jack Black also unpacked a few new details about the remastered version of the games in a lengthy hangout with Hawk, fellow old-school skating legend Steve Caballero, and versatile Devo musician Mark Mothersbaugh. Additional glimpses of the remastered gameplay begin around the 3-minute mark in the clip:

Via Gamesradar+, it looks as though this could be just the beginning of a string of remasters for one of gaming’s defining pop-culture successes from days past. Most of the original music reportedly has been cleared for use once again in the new versions, which will hit present-day consoles with expanded, online-shareable versions of the original series’ Create-A-Park and Create-A-Skater modes.

A demo version of the remastered games is reportedly in the works as well, though we’ll have to wait a little longer for details on when it might get airborne. The full package arrives in all its glory on Sept. 4, when the remasters of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2 hit PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Tony Stark must still be putting a few finishing touches on his newest exo-suit. Sony revealed this week that Iron Man VR, which has been in the works for more than a year (and even saw a playable version as early as last October), is being pushed back a couple of months from its planned May release.

The high-flying adventure for PlayStation VR headset owners has been shuffled to a new July 3 release date — and yep, it naturally falls on a F.R.I.D.A.Y.

Sony also revealed another unrelated, but suspiciously Marvel-ous-looking bit of news this week, announcing the creation of a new all-in-one umbrella for its first-party studios, beginning with the launch of first-party PlayStation 5 games later this year. Sony is reminding players of its sizable in-house gaming roster with the new video stinger below, which bears more than a passing resemblance to the visual splash of Marvel heroes we’ve gotten used to seeing at the start of MCU movies.

Say hello to PlayStation Studios — the new name that covers all the developers in Sony Interactive Entertainment’s first-party gaming stable:

As the video shows, PlayStation Studios is a branding move meant to convey the creative talent behind Sony exclusives like Uncharted and The Last of Us (Naughty Dog), Ratchet and Clank (Insomniac), Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games), Little Big Planet (Media Molecule), God of War (Sony Santa Monica), and more.

For reasons we can’t quite pin down, there’s just something stirring and satisfying about seeing a cinema-worthy parade of gaming heroes coming at you from all corners of the PlayStation pantheon — and fans appear to agree. Within hours of the brief opening animation going live, it had already racked up more than 600,000 views on Sony’s YouTube channel. Look for the new animation to appear at the start of all the first-party Sony exclusives heading to the PlayStation 5 this holiday.

Guillermo del Toro’s Trollhunters has always balanced out the Oscar-winning director’s dark catalog at the more lighthearted and colorful end of the creative spectrum. So it felt all but inevitable that the DreamWorks Animation franchise would eventually cross over from Netflix and into the world of video games.

Sure enough, the gaming version of Trollhunters is just what we’ll be getting this fall, when the just-announced Trollhunters Defenders of Arcadia lands on consoles and PC. Check out the announcement trailer below:

Anyone who’s enjoyed the small-screen version of Trollhunters can see the show’s visual DNA oozing into the gaming side of things, which puts the fate of the characters from the Netflix series in your hands. “Jump into the world of Trollhunters as Jim Lake Jr. to stop Porgon the Trickster Troll and his sneaky plans!” producer Outright Games teases at the game’s amped-up product page. “Team up with Claire in couch co-op and also get a helping hand from lots more loved characters to face unknown evil forces and help stop the Time-pocalypse!”

Netflix might be the only place to catch Trollhunters on TV, but players don’t have to be quite so picky about how they’ll get in on the gaming action. Trollhunters Defenders of Arcadia is set to hit PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on Sept. 25.