Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 dev says it’s removing a cheeky Guitar Hero reference and ‘investigating’ how it happened
Fans have pushed back at Iron Galaxy, calling it “just a silly gag”
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 developer Iron Galaxy has said it’s “investigating” how a reference to Guitar Hero, and previous Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater developer NeverSoft, made it into the new pair of remakes.
In the Waterpark level, which is an original level developed by Iron Galaxy that wasn’t in the original pair of games, players can find a large box inside a bin. The box, which you can view below, is clearly modelled after the box art for Guitar Hero World Tour. However, here it’s a box for the fictional Banjo Hero.
Commenting on Reddit, the Iron Galaxy Dev team wrote, “We have the utmost respect for anyone who makes games, we’re investigating how that got in there in the first place. Thank you to the community for bringing this to our attention, and we’ll be removing that from the environment art in the next update.”
The developer of the fictional game is the now-shuttered NeverSoft. The studio, which worked on the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series and several Guitar Hero games, became a support studio for Call of Duty. The studio was closed in 2014.
Fans have pushed back at Iron Galaxy for the planned removal, with one fan writing, “There is literally no reason, at all, to remove it. Devs have been doing this for ages. Removing it is disrespectful to YOUR devs. This fits the tone of skater game perfectly.”
Another called it “just a silly gag.”
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 is referential to the rest of the series and features NeverSoft nods beyond the Banjo Hero joke. It’s possible that due to the Banjo Hero game being found in a bin on the level, some may interpret it as disrespectful to the original developers; however, social media commentary from fans who have discovered the Easter Egg has been largely positive.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that THPS 3 + 4 locks a SpongeBob SquarePants Easter Egg behind the $70/£60 Deluxe Edition of the game.
Ahead of the game’s full release, VGC got the chance to talk to Bam Margera for a special episode of VGC: The Video Game Podcast. The early 2000s skate star talked about his road to recovery, finding his love of skating again, and more.
