Iron Galaxy, the studio that made the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 remake, says it is investigating how an amusing, some might say slightly edgy, reference to Guitar Hero and developer Neversoft ended up in the game. It also committed to removing the image in question, even though players are now asking the studio to just leave it alone.
The offending image was initially brought to light on Reddit (via VGC) by someone who clearly wasn’t amused by the whole thing. “Copy of (legally distinct) Guitar Hero in the trash on waterpark,” they wrote. “Goes to show IG’s respect for Neversoft.”
Neversoft, founded in 1994 and acquired by Activision in ’99, was the developer of the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games, but in the mid-2000s was shifted over to the Guitar Hero series to capitalize on its then-massive popularity. Unfortunately, it came in just as Guitar Hero was peaking: Just a few years after Guitar Hero 3, its first game in the series, Neversoft pushed out its last game, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, which did not do well. The Guitar Hero series was put on ice and Neversoft briefly became a Call of Duty support studio, before being shuttered entirely in 2014.
Here’s a better look at front and back images—yes, Iron Galaxy covered the bases—courtesy of redditors The_Ghost_339 and One-Treat-5078:
So you can sort of understand why a die-hard Neversoft fan might see an image of Banjo Champion (complete with Neversoft logo) stuffed into a garbage pail as perhaps a little ungentlemanly. I think you could argue just as easily, though, that it’s a contextually appropriate tip of the hat to the studio that brought THPS to life in the first place.
In any event, Iron Galaxy, in fine corporate fashion, immediately overreacted.
“We have the utmost respect for anyone who makes games, we’re investigating how that got in there in the first place,” the Iron Galaxy Dev Team wrote on Reddit. “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.”
Okay, so let’s just get this out of the way:
And it didn’t take long for other Tony Hawk fans to chime in, asking Iron Galaxy to leave the Banjo Champion box in the game. “It’s just a silly gag, no need to remove it,” redditor xMau5kateer wrote. Crimsonclaw111 called the reference “a benign joke,” and LackingAGoodName added, “I’d like to think anyone from Neversoft would be perfectly fine with this, it’s clear there was no disrespect intended.”
“Don’t remove it,” AlexFlame116 wrote. “It’s both hilarious and a testament to the treatment that Acti gave the series. It absolutely must stay.”
Redditor swine_is_tall actually worked the presence of the box into a bit of Activision metaverse lore: “Most people who bought Guitar Hero (or in this case, Banjo Hero lol) threw out the packaging, so this box being in the trash says to me that someone is rocking out in the THPS universe.”
Myself, I think it’s entirely harmless, passingly amusing (reminds me of a joke: Guy parks his car in a rough neighborhood one night with his expensive banjo in the back seat, comes back a few hours later to find his window smashed in and three more banjos sitting in the car), and I sincerely doubt that any former Neversoft developer is going to take it as shots fired.
I also briefly held out hope that once the heat of the moment had cooled, Iron Galaxy might decide it’s not such a big deal after all, and that the box—and the memories—can stay. Alas, it is not to be: A studio rep confirmed that despite calls for the Banjo Champion box to remain, it will be removed in the next update.
