When you’re a kid, especially a “nerdy” one, it can be tough growing up. It can be hard to find a place where you belong, and easy to feel like an outcast compared to the other kids you grew up with. For a lot of us who grew up feeling like that, it was easy to find an escape from that feeling through video games - whether it was escaping to the far off worlds of Final Fantasy, or getting frustrations out playing as Master Chief in Halo, every kid who felt like an outcast had a go-to video game to get away from those feelings and found a place where they felt like they belonged.
For myself, personally, I found a place where I felt like I belonged when I was young in the most unlikely of places: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater - specifically, the music of the Tony Hawk games.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater needs no introduction - if you grew up in the extreme 90s, you know all about Birdman and the Master of the 900, and the classic skateboarding games that bore his name. My experience with the Tony Hawk games, however, I need to preface a little bit for context: I was a home-schooled kid who grew up in a mixed-race family. I was super nerdy, not very athletic, and loved video games and anime… To say this was a perfect mix of things that gets a kid picked on would be an understatement.
Being home-schooled, I didn’t have a whole lot of friends growing up. And growing up in a mixed-race family, I would sometimes have trouble feeling like I fit in with different sides of my family. It was frustrating, lonely, and, to put it bluntly, sad. Like any other nerdy kid, I found an escape from these frustrations through video games, and that’s when I picked up the Tony Hawk games.
I had played the first three games in the series, and I liked them well enough. But it wasn’t until I first played Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 that I really started to pay attention to one of the most integral parts of the series - the soundtrack.
Picture this: you’re a nerdy kid who’s angry and frustrated at the world, and you feel like you don’t belong anywhere. You pop in this Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 game, and one of the first things you hear is the roaring chords of “Anarchy in the U.K.”
I can remember this life-changing moment like it was yesterday.
This music was wild! This was intense music that, even if I couldn’t relate to the lyrics at all, I felt like it matched all of the frustrations and angst I held inside as a young kid - this was punk rock music, and Tony Hawk introduced me to it.
My introduction to punk rock came through these games, and I had fallen in love with the punk songs and bands featured on the Tony Hawk games - bands like Hot Water Music, Bouncing Souls, Alkaline Trio, and more. I couldn’t get enough of it. In punk rock, you could turn your anger and sadness into something positive, and it gave me a sense of belonging that I hadn’t felt up until that point - In true punk rock, no one should feel like an outcast. It didn’t matter if you were big or small, cool or nerdy, or any color under the sun - all that mattered was the music and having a good time.
The Tony Hawk games definitely helped me get through some tough times growing up, and the music it introduced me to has shaped the way I think even to this day - to this day, even if I’m still that same old nerd who can’t even skate for real (I still can’t ollie, and please don’t ask me to do a Kickflip), I’ve always tried to carry that punk rock ethos and PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) in every aspect of my life. Through Tony Hawk and its music, I’ve learned that, through the good times and the bad times, you can always find a place where you belong - whether it’s through music, video games, or anything else that makes you happy.
- Written by Fair Game Staff Member Cody E.