Skateboarder Nick Heflin, 24, and behind-the-camera pair Eric Ward, 26, and TJ Kolesnik, 27, have earned more than 100,000 upvotes on discussion website Reddit with their video “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater in real life”.
Mr Ward, from California, said he wanted to produce something fun during a difficult time, with 2020 dominated so far by the coronavirus pandemic.
“I wanted to deliver a glimpse of the past and help people realise we can still have some fun during these tough times,” he told the PA news agency.
“I heard about the new Tony Hawk Pro Skater game being released this month and I’ve always had this cool idea of overlaying video game graphics on top of real footage.
“My only goal was to recreate that feeling of happiness playing this timeless game on a Saturday morning without a care in the world.”
The recreated live version sees Mr Heflin complete a number of tricks and challenges, accumulating points and gathering the letters to spell “SKATE” while on his board.
The video also runs through a number of style options such as hats, shirts and sunglasses.
“Personally, I would really love if Tony Hawk gets to see this video and wants us to recreate this video with him,” Mr Ward said.
“I want us to meet Tony and give him something of value like he gave the entire world with his series of timeless video games.”
