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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater: Every Guest Character Ranked, From Shrek To Iron Man

Ewan Moore

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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater: Every Guest Character Ranked, From Shrek To Iron Man

Featured Image Credit: Activision

One of my favourite things about the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise (and its many spinoffs and side entries) is the weird and wonderful array of guest characters that have appeared over the years. 

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From Iron Man to Shrek, the skater boi sim has never failed to put a smile on my face with an unexpected cameo from a familiar friend. So I decided to rank the best of the bunch! To be clear, we’re talking guest characters only, which means they have to have come over from another IP. Secret characters like Alien and Officer Dick are ace, but they don’t count. 

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Roberta the Robomodo Mascot

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Roberta the Robomodo Mascot is in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD for the same reason that the Neversoft Eyeball appeared as a secret character in many of the early THPS games - as a fun way of representing the developer.

Unfortunately, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD is absolute shite, so both Robomodo and Roberta should be ashamed. 

Call Of Duty Soldier

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Nothing captures the freewheeling anarchic spirit of skateboarding in Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 quite like a United States soldier pulling off a flawless pop shove-it, right? 

Have a word with yourself Activision, jesus. 

Nick Kang Wilson

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If you agree that a Call Of Duty soldier riding around in Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 is a little too close to an actual authority figure, you’ll be glad to know the PC version of the game instead decided to include… an LAPD detective. Much better. 

To be fair Nick is from True Crime: Streets Of LA, which is also a banger. So it is a step-up from having a generic soldier, at least. 

Judy Nails

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If you’ve never played Tony Hawk’s Proving Grounds… well, you’re not really missing out because it’s one of the weaker entries. However, Judy Nails, one of the rockers from the excellent Guitar Hero 3 is a wonderful unlockable character that reminds me of a better time. A time when rhythm games were enjoying a real moment in the sun. 

Jango Fett

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 / Credit: Activision
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 / Credit: Activision

You could give me 1,000 years and I’d never figure out why Activision decided Jango Fett would be a better option for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 than Boba Fett. I suppose you could argue that the two look almost exactly the same so it doesn’t matter, but it does matter, damnit. It matters very much. 

Eddie

Few unlockable characters better represent the entire THPS franchise than a demon who has literally appeared on some of the greatest metal album covers of all time. Eddie, Iron Maiden’s iconic mascot, is a playable skater in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4. I don’t know who came up with this or who had to do what to make it happen, but I love them for it. Watching Eddie tear it up never gets old. 

Iron Man

What’s really funny to me about Iron Man appearing in Tony Hawk’s Underground is that there is no way in hell Activision would ever be able to pull this off again. 

Released in 2003, this was half a decade before Robert Downey Jr. made the character famous and kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s hard to imagine a time where Iron Man wasn’t a household name, but in Tony Hawk’s Underground? He really wasn’t that big a deal. How things change. 

Wolverine

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 / Credit: Activision
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 / Credit: Activision

Unlike Iron Man, Wolverine was always a huge deal in terms of Marvel heroes. You could grab the X-Man in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, and use those adamantium claws to pull of all kinds of tricks a stupid regular human Tony Hawk could never in a million years manage. Even better, Neversoft elected to deck Wolverine out in his classic yellow suit rather than the boring black leather jacket that the movies and comics of the time had stuck him in. 

Doomguy

Doomguy took a welcome break from ripping demon’s hearts out through their anuses for a while in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, though he was a PC exclusive character. Incredibly, he is the only video game icon to ever have appeared in a THPS game if we don’t count Call Of Duty soldier or Nick. Which we don’t. 

Darth Maul

The best thing to have come from the Star Wars prequels outside of the memes, Darth Maul is as awesome as ever in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3. He also somehow has more to do in this one skateboarding game than he ever managed in the prequel trilogy. 

Neversoft Eyeball

I love the Neversoft eyeball with all my heart. When you saw this little guy squelching and squirming along the screen at the start of a game, you knew you were in for an amazing time. From Spider-Man to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, this freakish mascot represents one of the most important developers of the original PlayStation era, and absolutely deserves a spot at the top of this list. I’m honestly a little hurt that he didn’t find his way into the recent remakes. 

Shrek

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 / Credit: Activision
Tony Hawk's Underground 2 / Credit: Activision

The first time I saw Shrek kickflipping his way through Tony Hawk’s Underground 2, I assumed it was a mod. The ogre has, after all, become the living embodiment of the internet shitpost, and it seems weird to think there was ever a time when he was anything other than a giant meme. 

But no! Shrek was included in Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 to promote Shrek 2. A banger of a game working hand-in-hand with a banger of a film. It’s a level of corporate synergy that brings a tear to my eye. 

Spider-Man

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 / Credit: Activision
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 / Credit: Activision

It takes a heck of a character to beat Shrek to the very top spot on this list, and Spider-Man is the only one who could possibly ever manage it. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 gave skateboarding nerds everywhere the crossover they never knew they needed when the wall-crawler showed up in the game as a secret character with his own set of web-based tricks. As an incredible added bonus, players could choose between his classic suit and the gorgeous black costume. Guest characters don’t get much better than this. 

Developers, if you’re reading this, please put Spidey in your game. 

Topics: Tony Hawks Pro Skater, Activision

Ewan Moore
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