Bread’s Game Journal 09/14/20: 900-900 Vision: The Mall
Haha, wow, Vicarious Visions really just didn't pull any of their punches when it came to updating "The Mall" for 2020 did they? Let's be honest here, the concept of the shopping mall is dead, relegated to the fond memories of people like me who used to buy his comic books there, and 80's Nostalgia like Stranger Things. In the 90's when Tony Hawk had come out though, the shopping mall was still a strong place, full of stores to shop at, food courts to eat at, and in my case at least, one awesome arcade to spend your allowance in. In 2020 you'd be lucky if you have a mall at all, I still do, but i'll be real with you, I do not shop there, aside from the occasional visit to the Target within.
So how was Vicarious Visions going to portray this long faded American institution? Well, by cranking up the faded part to an absurd degree, turns out. The Mall in THPS 1+2 isn't so much as "closed" as it is "post apocalyptic". It looks less like the people running this thing closed it down due to a lack of profit, and more like the people running this thing accidentally unleashed the plague that wiped out the human race save for the brave skaters. Vegetation is overgrown, shops are boarded up at best, and left to rot to the elements at worst. There's holes in the ceiling letting in the moonlight, and you really do get the sense that no living thing has been in this place for a long time.
Now, The Mall has always been at least a little creepy. I remember it outright creeping kid me out in the same way a couple other PS1 games did back in the day. It was always empty, and it was always dark. I believe the implication at the time was that you were skating through the mall at night, to avoid the crowds of people there, but to me it always just felt like the place was abandoned, or even haunted. So color me surprised in 2020 that I clearly wasn't the only kid that felt that way in 1999. This grungy, broken mall is how it felt in my head at the time, even though the PS1 simply couldn't get such vibes through at the time.
Hell, in the end, The Mall's sorry state is maybe 2020's most effective bit of societal satire...and it's from a Tony Hawk game! We live in strange times.
Yeah, "Dead" is right on the money there, gaudy neon sign.