“Kids were into it, you know, because their parents hated it,” says Hawk. But in the ’90s, something changed in the skateboarding scene and an “us versus them” mentality emerged.
“I was a fading vert [vertical] skater, my income was getting cut in half every month, and so I started doing whatever I could,” says Hawk. And around that time, says former Neversoft producer Scott Pease, there was an idea “in the halls of Activision” to do a skateboarding video game.
The Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game series (which are now getting HD remasters) — which debuted in 1999 — would go on to revitalize the real-life sport and make household names of many of the skaters featured in the game. Says Mullen: “It was nuts what that game did not just for skateboarding but for us as individuals.”
Pretending I’m a Superman releases on digital platforms on Aug. 18. View the trailer below.
