There are only few things that are more nostalgic to me than my old Nintendo 64 and some of the soundtracks you can find on the system's lineup of games. Booting up Ocarina of Time and hearing that iconic melody play over the start menu always sends me back to the good old days. The first time running into Gruntilda's lair in Banjo-Kazooie and hearing that sweet overworld theme. Finally, the entire soundtrack of Tony Hawk Pro Skater just gives me all those nostalgic feelings inside.
Now many of us have our own ranking of the skating series popular soundtracks. However, what about the man who graces the cover himself? In a recent interview with Noisy, Tony Hawk ranked his games' soundtracks which you can find listed below.
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
- Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
- Tony Hawk's Underground
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
- Tony Hawk's Underground 2
- Tony Hawk's Proving Ground
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
- Tony Hawk's Project 8
- Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
- Tony Hawk: Ride
- Tony Hawk: Shred
- Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5
As you can see in the list, many of his favorite soundtracks came way back around the height of the games' popularity. It is also a surprise to nobody that the When asked why the latest entry was at the bottom of the list, Hawk responded by saying:
"Because of the lack of resources we had to do it, by the time that game was finished, they had completely gone through their budget, for the most part, for the development. There was very little left for the soundtrack. We had to just go with bands that would give us songs for very cheap. It doesn’t mean that the quality was different, it just wasn’t as big of a soundtrack. I guess, ironically, a lot of the songs were chosen by me personally because they were favors from friends."
Hawk listed his very first game as his favorite soundtrack, and I wholeheartedly agree with him. The original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater has one of the greatest soundtracks of all time. When asked what the first discussion about the music was like, Hawk Responded:
"Whatever was connected to skating and my history of skating was my first go-to. Like, Dead Kennedys and Primus, those were top of the heap. It’s funny, because I threw out Dead Kennedys thinking there’s no way we could ever use a Dead Kennedys song because of the lyrics. And when they came back and said, “Oh, yeah, we can use ‘Police Truck.’” I was like, “Did you guys listen to ‘Police Truck?’ Do you know what they’re singing about?”
While I am not into skateboarding at all, even though I certainly tried and failed many times when I was a kid, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is one of my fondest gaming memories and I love that after all these years, everyone still respects its iconic track set. I think it might be time to dust off the old N64 and play for a while.