From "Tony Hawk" to "720°" the Greatest Skateboarding Games Ever

Image via Complex Original

720° is an arcade game that was released in 1986 by Atari.

It was ported to the commodore 64, NES, Gameboy and other systems only your dad could possibly remember. 720° was about going to skate events and earning cash. In the game you would skate around a local neighborhood looking for events to compete in.

This game didn’t feature any spectacular tricks, the player would just jump off ramps, speed downhill, or maneuver the board through obstacles. Your game ends when you complete the 16 events or get stung by the hoard of bees chasing you as your time runs out.

Town & Country Surf Designs Wood & Water Rage was released in 1988 for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The game was based around the surfboard manufacturer Town & Country Surf Designs and it’s mascot characters. Only half the game was skateboarding but at that time there wasn’t much variety for gamers to choose from so skaters and surfers willingly shared the play time.

The game supported up to 2 players alternating turns. People never let that stop them from having groups of friends over to play T&C, 2 players turned into 4 or more players.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was released in 1999 and it became the go-to skateboarding title because of its easy pick up and play appeal.

It was first released on the Sony PlayStation, and it was a fairly easy game for anyone to play and that’s what made it so popular amongst non-skaters. THPS introduced a combo system and aerial tricks that haven’t really been seen in any skateboarding game title before this time.

Tony Hawk also helped with the design of the game to fulfill his dream of being able to help make a videogame. THPS is the first game that usually comes to mind when you ask people about skateboarding video games.

Thrasher: Skate & Destroy was a game based off the popular skateboarding magazine.

Thrasher was released the same year as Tony Hawk’s game, which caused a bit of a rivalry when it comes to skateboarding titles. Thrasher was not an easy pick up and play game; it was more of an actual skater simulation, which gave it a more difficult learning curve.

Once you got over the tough learning curve, you got to experience one of the greatest skateboarding games ever made. Unlike THPS, this game didn’t feature any actual real life pro skaters, instead it featured six slightly customizable skaters. You could even get arrested in this game, if you got arrested you would lose your score and have to start the level over.

The soundtrack alone was memorable, it featured authentic hip-hop music. Artists like Gangstarr and A Tribe Called Quest provided the tunes as you kicked & pushed to give it that authentic skate park feel. Thrasher never really got the shine it deserves because of the THPS series but it’s definitely a favorite for the challenge seeking gamers, hip-hop lovers, and actual skaters.

Street Sk8er was a PlayStation exclusive that was released in 1998.

This game mixes the track formula of racing games with pro skateboarding. You race down a closed track trying to complete the most tricks and grind as you make your way to the end. It wasn’t a real skateboarding simulation game, instead it was more cartoony and fun.

At first glance, the game seems cheesy, but it was surprisingly enjoyable. Street Sk8er made its way to the U.S from Japan and it performed so well that they decided to make a sequel. The sequel (Street Sk8er 2) received better reviews than the original and it was also a PS exclusive.

Released in 2001, THPS3 took the Tony Hawk franchise to an entirely new level.

This game had so many skateboard tricks that weren’t even humanly possible in real life. THPS3 was the first game to allow players to do a manual at the end of a vert trick, which allowed you to seriously rack up those combo points. THPS3 is also the first skateboarding game to feature online gameplay.

You no longer had to split a screen or alternate turns; you could finally share the half pipe online. The customization options in this game also played a major role in its success. THPS3 received best sports game of the year award in 2001-2002. This game definitely belongs at the top of the list when it comes to skateboarding games.

Tony Hawk’s Underground (THUG) became the first skateboarding game that allowed players to get off the skateboard and roam the levels on foot.

The ability to hop off the board added new moves like the wall plant and hip transfer. You could also hop into vehicles and cruise around if just skateboarding isn’t enough for you. Released in 2003, THUG is the first Tony Hawk game to not have a professional skateboarding driven storyline. The main character is literally you, a custom created character that can even have your face through face mapping technology.

THUG is a great game because it introduced skateboarding to the sandbox gaming genre.

Skate is the series that destroyed Tony Hawk’s reign as the king of skateboarding video games.

This was the game skaters have been waiting for, when you played this game it felt as if you were really skateboarding. Released in 2007, Skate introduced a revolutionary new way to play skateboarding games. All of the tricks are done with just the flick of the control stick. The buttons were only used to kick & push. There was no button to do a grind like in the Tony Hawk games, in this game you grind the same way you do in real life.

All the tricks in this game are done in similar fashion as they are done in real life. The downfall to that is the real world frustration that skaters get from having to constantly do a trick over and over. You may become frustrated but at least you don’t end up with those real world injuries and pain from real world trick failures. Skate is the true skateboarding experience; there is nothing else out there like it.

Practicing your moves on this game will actually help you learn how to set up and practice the tricks in real life, that’s how authentic it is.

Skate 2 (2009) picks up where the original Skate left off.

This time around, you are now a professional skater building up your endorsements and skating with other pros as your peers. You spend your time filming skateboarding videos and shooting skate tricks for popular skate magazines. This game takes place 5 years after the first title and skateboarding is now outlawed because of your crazy antics in the first game.

Skate 2 features a mode called Hall of Meat. Hall of Meat gives crappy skaters the advantage because the object of the game is to fall in the most hideous way and deal out the most damage to your skater. Hall of Meat is very popular online, the creative ways people come up with to hurt themselves during the game is guaranteed entertainment. The coolest aspect about Skate 2 is that it supplements Skate 1 so you don’t feel bad for owning both titles as you would feel when buying a new sports title.

In Skate 3, you are now at the peak of your career as a skater.

You are now famous and building up your own team of skaters to continue on with your legacy. You can create teams with your friends online and battle against other gamers across the world. The emphasis in Skate 3 is mostly placed on team gameplay this time around. Skate 3 allows you and your team of friends to free roam in an open world and cause havoc in empty pools as if you were the Lords of Dogtown.

EA really did a great job of fluidly making all 3 of the Skate storylines function together. They created a storyline that encourages the gamer to play all 3 of the titles because they each represent a different phase of your skater’s career. At the moment, the series stopped at 3 but Tony Hawk still hasn’t recovered from the digital beatdown. Skate as a series is the best skateboarding experience you will get on a gaming console.