Some of our readers of a particular age may remember a time in the early 2000s when you couldn’t move without bumping in to another extreme sports videogame. This gaming movement was pioneered by the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater released for the Playstation 1 in 1999 – a game that would go on to see eight main sequels, various spin-offs and countless imitators.
The games were known for their intuitive gameplay, smooth controls and incredible soundtracks – helped along by the popularity of skate culture & fashion at the time, thanks in part to shows like Jackass. Although the series lost it’s way somewhat as the years passed, one early entry in the franchise is still surprisingly fun to play even now – Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3.
In the video below, Youtuber Hamish Black takes a look back at what he argues was the peak of the Tony Hawk’s series, analysing what made the game so enjoyable and what went wrong in the titles that followed.
Hamish Black runs Writing on Games, a Youtube Channel that offers “video essays and in-depth analysis of games, their designs and their narratives”.