Introduction
With the newly launched Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2 game that dropped just this month, the hype for the video games franchise is certainly all the talk for the Tony Hawk gamer fans out there. Read on to find out what our ranking of the games in the Tony Hawk franchise looks like and be sure to get a good gaming mice to play them! Take note though, this article will cover purely the console and PC games and will exclude the newest release.
15. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5
Launched as a sequel to the series, the Pro Skater 5 is a big disappointment. With barely any content, it is missing a load of features. With eight poorly designed and ugly levels to go through, a questionable new ‘slam’ mechanic mapped to the grand button, and clumsily implemented the multiplayer function, there is much to nitpick on.
14. Tony Hawk’s Ride
Based on the idea that with the player standing on a plastic board, he or she controls the game by learning to turn, and by using the foot to push along. Infrared sensors located at the sides would then pick up movements and propel the player forward in the game. Newcomers would get slapped with the steep learning curve, while it had little to no precision for the hardcore fans, where tricks could barely be pulled off.
13. Tony Hawk’s Shred
There were certainly some improvements made for Tony Hawk’s Shred, which is the sequel to Tony Hawk’s Ride. The controls got slightly better, and snowboard was added in, which made much more sense when taking the plastic peripheral into consideration. With that said, it’s not much better.
12. Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam
As an okay game that does seem fun on first play, the Downhill Jam is merely a racing game, but with the concept of skateboards plus some tricks. With such a common concept, the game gets boring fast. More could have been done to make the game more outstanding.
11. Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD
Though a remake of the original game, the Pro Skater HD is really just a weird combination of the two editions of Pro Skater but with much less content, as only seven of the possible 20 levels were included. The gameplay was a major failure, where the sense of speed and momentum were much slower, while the jump height seemed much higher. The Pro Skater HD also suffered from a great deal of glitches and bugs.
10. Tony Hawk’s 2x
Released in 2001 as a launch game for Xbox, the 2x was born, but possibly out of haste. There was definitely improvement in the graphics, thus rendering the 2x the best way to experience the Pro Skater 2 levels. However, the new gameplay also meant that the original levels became way too easy to tackle, and the new levels did not quite impress when compared to Neversoft’s brilliance.
9. Tony Hawk Project 8
With Project 8 came the Nail-the-Trick, which was where there was the camera zooming and slow-motion, as well as the enabled use of analog sticks to flick around the board and create tricks, and that was a lot of fun. There was also the ranking feature, where players start at rank 200 and have to then work their way up through the game to get into the top eight. Project 8 was also the first to be equipped with a proper open-world, which was a well-designed city with cool spots to locate. However, there was the removal of the ability to build a skate park, and a lack of options when it came to customization. Overall, though lacking the excitement factor of prior games, Project 8 is still a great game.
8. Tony Hawk American Wasteland
The American Wasteland sports a grungy and punk rock vibe, based on the idea that the player is a runaway that ends up joining a punk-skater gang, and they then create the ultimate skatepark by demolishing and stealing the city’s landmarks. As cool as the idea sounds, the game is sadly lifeless and is just filled with pathetic missions that force the player into cutscenes, even for the most basic objectives.
7. Tony Hawk Underground 2
Underground 2 brought a heavy focus to Bam Margera, which you might recall from Jackass, which was reflected everywhere in the game. The game characters were detestable, and there was also the underwhelming gimmick about destroying parts of the world so as to open up new finds to skate. With that said, the skating felt great, as all prior abilities and tricks were brought over. The design of the levels were done well too. In particular, the Classic Mode was impressive and fun to play.
6. Tony Hawk Proving Ground
Proving Ground got much hate, but it’s actually a solid game. While the choice of career type was rather pointless, the photo and video mechanics were cool. With additions like carving and aggro kicks, the Nail-the-Trick mode also got enhanced. Proving Ground is probably the most pack-filled game with a lot to do.
5. Tony Hawk Pro Skater
The classic Pro Skater is a game that many adore but will be least likely to be replayed due to how basic the gameplay is. With that said, this game was a fantastic one at its time, and which would lay the foundation for the rest of the franchise.
4. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2
The Pro Skater 2 built on its predecessor in all ways possible and was a huge improvement in the way that players could earn cash from completing levels which would be used to increase stats and purchase new tricks. The levels were also well-developed and flowed together wonderfully.
3. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4
With the bold removal of the timed runs in favor of a structured career mode, players no longer had to work with the time crunch but could play more leisurely. There were also new gameplay additions that allowed skilled players to achieve brilliantly absurd combos.
2. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3
The Pro Skater 3 wins Pro Skater 4 with the extent of interactive ideas. It was also the game where online multiplayer was introduced and was just a fun game to play overall.
1. Tony Hawk Underground
The Underground deserves the top spot with its decent game characters, focus on customization, and realistic storyline. The best part is that players could design their own missions, create objectives, and add custom dialogue easily. The physics felt brilliant, controls were tight, the extent of tricks were decent, and levels were well done.
Conclusion
To conclude, the list is certainly debatable as there are no rights or wrongs. The Tony Hawk series is certainly legendary, and we are excited to see if the newest remake of the Pro Skater will be the best one yet.
