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Tom's Guide
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
I bought a PS5 just to play the new Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 remake — and I have no regrets
Platforms: PC, PS5 (reviewed), PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo SwitchPrice: $49Release Date: June 11, 2025Genre: Sports The Bird Man is back, with a single-game remake of the classic Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4 games, originally released in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Having put away thousands of hours playing those games in my youth (with no regrets), my expectations for the new THPS 3+4 were sky-high. Thankfully, 2025's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 largely follows the same formula as the 2020 remake of THPS 1+2, despite being worked on by a different developer. Long story short, if you loved the original THPS games or the COVID-19-era remake, you'll likely find this new version deeply satisfying. The latest installment is available for a wide range of systems and PC, and features the same general game dynamics, objectives, and controls as most THPS games before it. Reworked levels look highly detailed while still feeling deeply nostalgic, new skaters join the OGs crew, the updated soundtrack is a mix of classic tunes and modern bops, and the gameplay is just as addictive as I remember. The first time I played Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was probably in 2001. I was in the seventh grade and got my initial taste for the now quintessential high-energy skateboarding game at a friend's house — shout out to Jon Mindas — because my parents weren't big on gaming at the time. The epic soundtrack, mind-melting trick combos, and objective-oriented single-player 'Career Mode' had me hooked. Some months later, I conspired with my brother to pool our money and buy a secondhand PlayStation 1 off of a friend — shout out to Ryan Monahan — something we kept secret from our parents for a comically long time. This was all to get my THPS fix (though the PS1 game, 2Xtreme, was another favorite). I played countless hours of THPS 2 on that system. However, when the third iteration of the game dropped in late 2001/early 2002, I knew I wanted to play it on the latest/greatest. While I settled for the PS1 version upon the game's launch, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 was a major reason I ultimately upgraded to a PS2 (my folks were thankfully cool with gaming by this point). Fast-forward roughly twenty years. We're in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis. Life is boring/terrifying, but wait… a shred of good news: A remastered version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2, approved by the Bird Man himself, was set to launch. And so, I bought a used PS4 from a homie and beat the game in a few nights. I've been playing it on and off ever since. Are you noticing a theme here? Well, with this year's release of the latest THPS remaster, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4, I figured it was high time to jump to a PS5... I'm now the proud owner of a Sony-certified model (much to my girlfriend's vexation). In the week since its release, I've logged just over eight hours of gameplay. While I still have a small handful of levels to unlock and objectives to check off, my mind is 100% made up about this game. With that, here's everything you need to know about the new 2025 version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4. For better or for worse — I can't decide — the gameplay in the new THPS 3+4 is essentially unchanged from the original series launched all the way back when. While there are updates to the graphics and refinements to the dynamics, the objective of the latest release remains essentially the same, i.e., rather arcade-y. At the start of each level, you're presented with a list of challenges to check off: A mix of trick and point-based objectives, along with sillier task-based goals. While the developer could've easily expanded on the complexity of tasks like 'tear down the posters,' or 'save the painter,' or 'fix the satellite dish,' — all of which require little more than exploring the level and knocking/grinding over things — they kept these non-trick-based objectives especially simple. That's a good thing for younger gamers who might just be getting into the series. But as an old-fart gamer fueled largely by nostalgia, I'm yearning for a fresh challenge. After all, if I were able to 'find the lost packages' with ease as a 13-year-old, completing essentially the same task 25 years later feels rather uneventful. As always, runs in Career Mode are two minutes long. Need more time to explore the level uninterrupted? Head to the main menu and choose a 'Free Skate.' Of course, you'll need to knock out some of the objectives on each level to unlock additional ones. To improve your skaters' skills, scattered throughout each level are 'Stat Points.' You'll need to collect these, just like in the original game, to upgrade your character's various skill specs like speed, hang time, rail balance, and air. While checking off the various objectives on the level list and unlocking new areas to skate is part of the fun, the real appeal of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is stringing together impossibly long lines (trick combos) for big, big points. And the newest installment gives you all the tools to do that, including manuals (duh), reverts-to-manual when landing air tricks, wall plants, customizable 'Special Trick' button combos, and more. So far, my highest trick combo in THPS 3+4 — roughly ~200,000 points — was achieved at the Movie Studio, one of several entirely new levels added to the game. Another new level, the Waterpark, is worth mentioning as one of the most visually stunning and enjoyable maps to explore (kudos to Iron Galaxy). That said, my highest-scoring two-minute session to date, ~690,000 points, occurred in the Shipyard level, where the rail tracks are perfectly greased for epic combos. While you'll need to manually select a 'Special Trick' button combination from the menus to perform a 540-flip, each and every trick looks immersive and gorgeous in 4K, even a simple acid drop. Moreover, the gameplay is smooth yet responsive, and load times on PS5 are lightning fast (not the case on PS4). The levels are mostly the same in the new version of the game as they were in the originals, with a few exceptions, but everything has been thoroughly overhauled from its pixelated, spartan state to something much more detailed and immersive with dynamic shadows and realistic textures. Some of the levels, like San Francisco in THPS 4, feel like revisiting a long-lost, yet joy-filled location from my youth. Other levels that similarly felt like stepping into a time machine include the Airport and the College. You never forget how to ride a bike, and you never forget how to do a 360-flip to Rowley Darkslide to nose manual to hardflip crooked grind… You get the point. Having mostly only played Tony Hawk's Pro Skater on the PlayStation system my entire life, I love the fact that the buttons and trick combos remain exactly the same decades later. Of course, to get the most out of THPS 3+4 in Career Mode, you'll want to customize your Special Tricks as noted above — these are the ones you can only perform when your 'Special Bar' hits the max and glows orange — to post the biggest point combinations. The new Tony Hawk game offers no fewer than 31 skaters to choose from. That may sound like a lot, but the reasoning behind the overwhelming selection is sound. In addition to all the OG pros — most of whom are now in their late forties or fifties and long retired — you can also select from a contemporary cast of world-class skaters. From Bam Margera to Rayssa Leal, it's awesome to have such a wide range of shredders to choose from. Of course, my favorite THPS skater always has and always will be Andrew Reynolds. Not only did I own countless pairs of his official Emerica sneakers back in my teenage years, but I still love his oh-so-clean style on the board, both in the game and IRL. The soundtracks from the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games have risen to near-mythological levels with folks (including myself) citing them as the springboard to their modern taste in music. (Thank you, Tony, for introducing me to punk rock). Unfortunately, the developers were only able to secure the rights to ten songs from the original games out of roughly 55. Sorry, no Ramones 'Blitzkrieg Bop' for you, though Motorhead's 'Ace of Spades' did make the cut. Still, I commend those behind the updated soundtrack for substituting in songs from a wide range of awesome modern musicians, all of which fit the vibe of the game beautifully. While there are a handful of 'skips' which I'll keep to myself, some of my favorite new tunes featured in the remake include 'yankee and the brave (ep. 4)' from Run the Jewels, Turnstile's 'Realthing,' and 'Gift Horse' by Idols. The 2025 remake of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 is a faithful update to a classic Millennial video game franchise: The graphics are impressive, the original levels have been recreated with stunning detail, the controls are familiar, smooth and responsive, the music slaps, and the gameplay is just as addictive as I remember. However, there's a notable absence of new features and objectives. This is to say, the developers played it safe and kept this remake as true to the original as possible. That's better than botching the whole thing. Ultimately, I can't wait to beat the game — something I anticipate happening within a week or so — and have no doubt that THPS 3+4 will keep me mentally stimulated for months, if not years to come. That said, as I continue playing the latest THPS release, I can't help but think to myself, 'This is nice, but a remake of Tony Hawk's Underground is what I really want.' Less arcade-y and more storyline-based than the four THPS games before it, 2003's 'Underground' was ultimately the most engaging installment in the original series, IMHO. (The first level is also set in suburban New Jersey, something I find all too relatable.) Given past timelines, I reckon I can expect a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Underground remake to drop sometime around 2030. Notably, this is also when I plan on upgrading to the PS6.
Digital Trends
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
The best PlayStation launch games, ranked
The most important time in a console's life is its launch. This is when a new piece of hardware needs to prove that it is worth investing in, which always comes down to games. Launch titles are rarely the best games on the system, although some of Nintendo's launch games buck that trend, but at least need to show off what the system can do. PlayStation always had a secondary selling point with its consoles, such as doubling as a CD player or DVD player, so it is interesting to speculate how successful those early consoles would've been judged solely on their games. We now have launch titles from the PS1 all the way up to the PS5 (and soon to be PS6) to look back on with fresh eyes to see just how good those first games were. Air Combat – PlayStation 1 As PlayStation's first home console, it needed to come out strong. Your memory might tell you that games like Crash Bandicoot or Spyro were there to help kick things off, but that's not the case at all. The only mascot in the launch lineup was Ubisoft's Rayman, and while that was a great 2D platformer, it didn't help the PS1 stand out. This was the dawn of the 3D era, so games that pushed those limits were what people wanted. There were a few options at launch, including Jumping Flash!, Ridge Racer, and Wipeout, but Air Combat felt like the biggest technical leap. This was originally an arcade game and featured fast and tense air battles. There were tons of planes to unlock, varied missions, and an awesome 2-player mode to engage in dogfights with friends. SSX – PlayStation 2 Unlike the PS1, the PS2 had a huge launch lineup of games. Even if you ignore all the annual sports games, there are a ton of great games that make picking a winner very tough. We're talking about Dynasty Warriors 2, Armored Core 2, FantaVision, and Tekken Tag Tournament, just to name a few. However, after I reviewed that entire list again, there was only one game I felt an intense urge to play again, and that's SSX. Extreme sports games had taken off on the PS1 after the first Tony Hawk game, and developers were racing to find another sport that could fit the mold. I wouldn't have guessed snowboarding would have been the one to do it best, but here we are. Shredding down the slopes, nailing tricks, and rocking out to the soundtrack is just as fun today as it was all those years ago. Resistance: Fall of Man – PlayStation 3 It wasn't until I looked back at it that I realized just how many racing games the PS3 launched with. There was Need For Speed Carbon, Ridge Racer 7, and MotorStorm to satisfy any specific racing tastes. Besides those, the usual suspects of sports games, and Call of Duty 3, I struggled to remember any of the games on offer. Who remembers Genji: Days of the Blade or Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom? No, there was only one game that could win here, and that was the first Resistance title. This was the most heavily pushed game ahead of the PS3 launch and featured a great twist on the typical WW2 FPS genre by adding in aliens. The sequels were far better, but the original was an impressive and fun shooter to kick the generation off with. Resogun – PlayStation 4 The PS4 generation is where launch titles get a little muddled. The list is inflated by a ton of cross-gen games that also appeared on PS3, which I won't be counting for this list (sorry, Assassin's Creed: Black Flag). That leaves us with a scant few true PS4 launch games. Knack is the meme answer, and Killzone: Shadowfall is the one most people remember. The latter is very impressive on a technical level to show the PS4's power, but not that fun. The game I spent way too much time playing after getting my PS4 was Resogun. It might look simple, but seeing this game in action, with the hundreds of voxels and effects going off, is a visual treat. The arcade-inspired gameplay is ruthlessly addicting and timeless. Demon's Souls – PlayStation 5 Again, I've got to cut out all those pesky cross-gen games from the list when talking about the PS5 launch. That drops the number from 17 down to basically three games, and one almost doesn't even qualify. Still, I'm tempted to give this pick to Astro's Playroom despite being such a short experience. It is the one game I feel that everyone who grabs a PS5 must play, but it is now overshadowed by the fully fleshed-out Astro Bot. There's no way I'm giving the spot to Godfall, which leaves me with Demon's Souls. I admit the difficulty can be off-putting, and it might feel lazy saying a remake is the best launch game, but hear me out. To this day, this game has some of the best graphics on PS5, full stop. And I won't say it isn't tough and a bit obtuse at times, but it isn't a cruel game. If you are willing to meet it on its own terms and learn its language, I think it has a wider appeal than it gets credit for.
Metro
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 review
Activision remake two more of the original PS1 and PS2 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games, adding in new content and taking away some of the original music. Tony Hawk is easily one of the planet's most affable and unassuming celebrities, regularly recounting tales of his own failure to be recognised in public places and gently refusing to take part in any form of social media outrage. However, despite illustrious early outings, the skateboarding video game franchise that bears his name hasn't had quite such a mellow ride. The first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater came out in 1999 and up to 2012 received annual sequels that gradually got less and less inspiring. The series' nadir arrived with the unmitigated disaster that was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5, after which things went quiet until 2020's excellent remake of Pro Skater 1 + 2. That was made by Vicarious Visions, who also worked on several of the earliest and greatest Tony Hawk games. Unfortunately, and despite the critical and commercial success of 1 + 2, Vicarious Visions 'merged' with Blizzard and effectively disappeared forever, leaving development work on Pro Skater 3 + 4 to Iron Galaxy. Very sensibly they retained the structure and mechanics of 1 + 2, which means you get a broad roster of skaters, both old school and new, along with the ability to play either of the games whenever you like. As in the originals, you start with a single skate park, unlocking the others by completing goals. These goals are warmly familiar and involve hitting high scores, finding the letters S-K-A-T-E, grinding your way to a hidden VHS tape, and a clutch of other nostalgia-triggering area specific objectives. Once you've completed all the missions in a park, a fresh set of Pro Goals becomes available, which will stretch even the most finely honed virtual skating skills. This is a remake, so technically it's a completely new game and not just a remaster, but thankfully the finely judged controls and difficulty remain the same. Getting to know how to grind, ollie, and do tricks is just the beginning. Those moves and their button combinations have to be committed to muscle memory before each park's more esoteric goals become accessible. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. Every area has been lovingly recreated to create as many lines as possible. This encourages you to combo tricks together, linking them using manuals – the skateboard equivalent of a wheelie – and reverts, which let you continue a combo when you land from a half-pipe or ramp. With the addition of those two moves you can effectively extend combos indefinitely, provided you have the balance and dexterity to continue chaining further tricks. That introduces a knife edge risk vs. reward mechanic to gameplay, in that longer combos rack up far larger point totals, but a single bail loses everything you've accumulated. While it's tempting to keep combos going, there's an enduring counter pull to bank your points before a momentary lapse of concentration makes you lose the lot. By default, you have two minutes to play each level, nailing as many of its goals as you can within that time, and while you can now extend the countdown to a finger-bleeding hour the games make more sense with the original limit in place. That now applies to Pro Skater 4 as well. It originally shipped with a more open world approach, with new goals acquired by tooling around and engaging fellow skaters in conversation. All that's been removed in favour of more traditional upfront goals against a two-minute clock, and the experience is tighter and more consistent for it. There are also a couple of new levels that weren't in the original, including the memorable Waterpark, which presents you with a network of drained pools and winding old waterslides to grind your way around. Along with the pre-made line-up you'll be able to customise your own competitors and levels with create-a-skater and create-a-park. The latter now also lets you add our own goals, giving player-created levels more focus and direction than simply cruising around them, something that left them feeling a little redundant in Pro Skater 1 + 2. More Trending Veterans of the original games may bemoan changes to the games' music playlists. Song licensing is notoriously tough and litigious, and the fact that there's still a scattering of tunes from the early 2000 versions – including the iconic introduction accompanied by Motörhead's Ace of Spades – is testament to Activision's persistence. And anyway, the additional songs are perfectly in keeping with the feel of the originals. Nostalgia is fickle and highly personal, making it impossible to please everyone all of the time, as the current owners of the Star Wars franchise have repeatedly discovered. In Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4, you'll find a technically adept and atmospherically well-tuned remake, that requires the same dedication to skill learning and tactical exploration as the originals did, while adding a sprinkling of modern extras. In Short: Another excellent remake, in the vein of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, this retains the glorious character of the original games, while adding a coat of modern polish and a smattering of new content. Pros: Tight controls that demand practise to perfect. Pro Skater 4 works better without its tacked-on open world elements and the new levels are so well designed that a new player would never guess they weren't originals. Cons: The changes to the musical line-up might upset some purists and the absence of H-O-R-S-E mode in multiplayer is an unfortunate omission. Score: 8/10 Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PCPrice: £39.99*Publisher: ActivisionDeveloper: Iron Galaxy (originals: Neversoft)Release Date: 11th July 2025 Age Rating: 12 *available on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass from day one Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: PS1 classic WipEout gets unofficial Xbox release MORE: Donkey Kong Bananza director is a Nintendo newbie MORE: Subnautica 2 delayed so publisher can avoid paying devs a bonus claims report
Stuff.tv
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Stuff.tv
Sony PS One at 25 – we remember Sony's first portable console
Sony may be a console giant today, but back in 2000 the company was still figuring out how to take over the world. A major step on that ruthless march to dominance was the release of the PS One. Ah, the PS1 – I loved that thing. The moment when gaming finally became cool! We're not talking about the original PlayStation, which wasn't even called the PS1 back then (well, that would have been wildly presumptuous). This is the PS One – and it was no mere name change. Sony's sleeker, curvier console – half the footprint, a third of the weight – was aimed at a younger, wider audience less obsessed with mean, angular hardware. And you could buy a screw-on 5in screen that arguably made it Sony's first portable console. A portable PlayStation? Were they expecting you to play serious games on the bus? Sort of. Slap on that screen and, boom, instant self-contained portable gaming. Now, obviously you couldn't play it anywhere – unless you had the world's longest extension lead. But it freed the console from the family telly and gave us our first hint of AAA gaming on the go, years before the Steam Deck was a glint in Valve's eye. Plus the car adapter could keep kids quiet in the back, blazing around virtual race circuits while parents – ironically – sat there grumbling in a traffic jam. So did anyone really buy this thing, or was it just for weird 2000s retro heads? People loved it. The PS One crushed the competition in 2000, outselling everything from Sony's own supply-constrained PS2 to Sega's beleaguered Dreamcast. Even with the screen it was a bargain, giving budget-conscious gamers access to a quality machine with a huge library of titles – enough to keep it going until 2006, just before the PS3 arrived. It wasn't flash. It wasn't 'next gen'. But smart decisions ensured it was a stellar success. There's a moral for the games industry in there… Sony PlayStation side quests (hardware edition) The PS One wasn't the only time Sony decided to remix a hit console. Here are four other efforts that found the company wandering off the main PlayStation path. The PS2 Slim: so sharp it could slice cheese. Probably. PS2 Slim (2004): Realising not everyone wanted a console the size of a fridge, Sony slimmed down the PS2, even improving a few bits (beyond reduced heft) while doing so. It was a hit to the degree Sony repeated the trick for subsequent generations. The PS3 even got a 'Super Slim' edition. PlayStation TV (2013): Handheld console games on the big screen? That'll never catch on. Cough. But it was Sony that got there first, with a Vita minus a screen that lived under your telly. Alas, early compatibility issues and general bafflement made this one a rare misfire. Shame. PS4 Pro (2016): If the very thought of 1080p disgusted you after upgrading to a 4K TV, Sony was ready to dangle a PS4 Pro in front of your face. Updated games shone. Older ones pretended to shine due to upscaling. And 4K Blu-rays… weren't supported. Erm. Well, you can't have everything. PlayStation Classic (2018): This dinky plug-and-play retro box went right back to the start, cramming in 20 PS1 classics – but not the ones you wanted, obvs. Sony also cunningly made the controller cables approx. 1cm long. Still, the gamepads could be swapped for something better – as could the games if you risked Sony's ire and modded the unit. Now read: The 25 best PlayStation games of all time
Gizmodo
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
The Opening of ‘Final Fantasy IX' Is a Love Letter to Fantasy Itself
Final Fantasy games are known for their big, bombastic openings. Final Fantasy VII's legendary bombing mission, the brainwashed Terra being sent through the snowy paths into Narshe in Final Fantasy VI, the destruction of Zanarkand in Final Fantasy X—these are grand set pieces with high stakes, introducing threats and conflicts central to their epic narratives. They are big and loud, meant to immediately hook you into a journey that will last dozens upon dozens (upon dozens) of hours. They're all iconic in their own rights, but there's only one Final Fantasy opening that I've played over and over growing up with the franchise and keep revisiting even if I don't actually carry on playing beyond it that much: Final Fantasy IX's theatrical, whimsical introduction to Alexandria. Final Fantasy IX, which turns 25 today, opens in stark contrast to its PS1 predecessors. Already a major divergence in returning to the classic fantasy aesthetic that had defined much of Final Fantasy's earliest days—and had been, to much success, diverged from itself at that point in succession with VI, VII, and particularly VIII's leaning into more steampunk and modern sci-fi trappings—Final Fantasy IX opens in a far more subdued manner. We're steadily introduced to the various initial players in IX's party across three interwoven storylines, all threading around a special performance of a play called 'I Want to Be Your Canary,' held to celebrate the Alexandrian princess Garnet's birthday. There's Vivi, a young boy new to the city but eager to see the sights and attend the play, only to find that the ticket he was sold is a fake. There's Captain of the Guard Steiner, tasked with ensuring the evening goes off without a hitch. There's Zidane and the crew of the Tantalus, masquerading as the theater troupe putting on the performance but secretly tasked with kidnapping Princess Garnet at the behest of a rival nation-state—and Garnet herself, who actually wants to be kidnapped so she can escape the control of her increasingly erratic mother, Queen Brahne, and see the world beyond Alexandria's walls. Aside from its clever interwoven stories, what makes Final Fantasy IX's opening act stand out next to its contemporaries is how playful it is with the genre the series has returned to. This isn't Final Fantasy VII's daring act of eco-terrorism or Final Fantasy VIII's deliberate shattering of its initial school setting with the reality of conflict. That's not to say there aren't stakes that are real to the rest of the story's opening, of course—Garnet's concerns about her mother's behavior are for her potential to plunge the world into chaos, and the Tantalus troupe's mission has similar stakes where failure could lead to war between Alexandria and the neighboring city-state of Lindblum. But the opening is wrapped in a layer of metanarrative that is really about the idea of fantasy itself and what it means for Final Fantasy to have returned to this classical, medieval-inspired tradition. Each of the characters we're introduced to throughout the opening act are longing for something bigger and beyond their current lots in life: Vivi wants community and friendship as he takes in the world, even if it means he gets hoodwinked a few times. Garnet, more than just out of worry for Queen Brahne's decline, wants to be free of the expectations placed upon her as a princess. Although he may not initially realize it until Garnet asks him to whisk her away, Zidane finds himself immediately enchanted by the princess he's been tasked with rescuing and the prospect of a life beyond his thievery. Even 'I Want to Be Your Canary' itself, a riff on Shakespearean classics, is about this kind of longing: a Romeo and Juliet-esque tale of star-crossed lovers, Cornelia and Marcus, whose love transcends their perspectives on either side of a conflict between warring kingdoms. 'I Want to Be Your Canary' itself even becomes mechanically important to this romantic view of fantasy. Much of the early battles you fight in Final Fantasy IX's opening are not, as they are in the other games, actual fights: they're presented, even beyond tutorialization, with a layer of artifice. The duels in the play, from Zidane and his Tantalus comrade Blank's famous minigame, to the portrayal of the play's fight scenes as otherwise classic Final Fantasy turn-based combat (including 'SFX' commands to cast magical spells that don't actually harm but dazzle the viewing audience), there's a layer of fantasy beneath the fantasy IX is already engaging with, a love letter to the romantic archetypes of the genre. There's a sense of yearning throughout IX's opening—for the player returning to Final Fantasy's traditional aesthetics, for its characters and their desires to see beyond their current lives, and for the game itself to play with the wanderlust of it all. It remains as infectious now as it did 25 years ago, a call to adventure that doesn't open with the promise of world-ending calamities or huge evils to fight, but a simple desire to embrace that fantasy. And see, as IX's overworld theme asks us to consider, what's over that hill, and what's beyond the next horizon. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
