Tony Hawk Explains Why His Video Games Are Such a Big Hit on Today's Pardon My Take
To send you into the first FOOTBALL weekend of 2020, the legend himself, Tony Hawk, joined today's Pardon My Take. The skater talked about being gnarly, doing sick tricks, and much more. He also discussed with Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter what made his video games work so well. Here is how that went down:
Mr. Cat: Is it crazy going from, obviously your game in 1999, PFT and I are both 33 years old, so we remember that game, we played that game, we were the ripe age for that game when it first came out. Is it wild to think back, and almost 20 years later, now you're doing mobile games, and seeing how far not only technology has come, but your own, you know, brand in the video game world?
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Tony Hawk: It is very surreal, especially with how far the technology has just come in the last five years. So to think that the level of graphics and motion we're doing on a game, on a mobile phone is something that was akin to console games five or seven years ago. We're living in the future.
Mr. Commenter: One of the best things about that original game was the soundtrack. I think you probably hear that all the time. But it's you know, it's pretty clear that like punk rock music and skateboarding have gone kind of hand in hand ever since, really, you know, both those things kind of took off in the late 80s, early 90s here in the United States. What is it about that music? Do you think that, like, it just gravitates itself towards a certain sport? I never really understood why, but I always loved it.
Tony Hawk: Well, I think that they were born together in the same era as well. Punk and skating started to sort of come into their own in the early 80s and late 70s. And so that's sort of driving energy. And the DIY attitude and the sort of rebellious sense of punk and skateboarding were very much in line. So a lot of the most popular or the most iconic punk bands were formed from skating or were very much embedded with skating. And so it's not lost on me that a lot of people expect that to be in the soundtrack and to expect it to be on the level of previous games. And so I was working extra hard to make that happen.
I'll be honest, I don't know much about skateboarding, but when Tony Hawk is on, you put down the remote. He is the GOAT for a reason, and was great on today's show.