The video game industry is no stranger to long-running franchises. Pick up popular titles like EA FC or NBA, and you’ll see a plethora of renditions. But the series we’re talking about today is one that does not get the credit it deserves: Tony Hawk.
Now, not only has the Tony Hawk series been one of the most popular skateboarding series around, but it’s been going since 1999. With over 12 iterations of the main series and a multitude of spinoffs and remakes, it’s definitely seen its fair share of success over the years. Today, we’re taking a trip down memory lane, recounting all the Tony Hawk games in chronological order.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (1999)
Right off the bat, we’re starting with the oldest and first game of the series, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Developed by Neversoft and published by Activision, Pro Skater was released in September ’99 for the PlayStation. This game started the snowball effect for a series that would go on to see more than 10 new editions. At the time, Pro Skater was your basic skateboarding game.
The goal of the game was to perform as many tricks as you could in different rinks. More complex tricks meant more points. Stay in the air, perform flips, grinds, and aerials, and significantly increase your total score. But that wasn’t all. The game also had a career and multiplayer mode. Career mode had nine levels with different objectives in each. Multiplayer could only be played between two players, and had three different game types: Graffiti, Horse, and Trick Attack. Lastly, you could test your skills in Free Skate or Single Session as practice.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (2000)
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 was the second iteration in the Tony Hawk series and was launched a year after the first game. The developers and publishers remained the same, as did the platform. The game was officially available to play on September 20, 2000. It is the second-highest scoring video game ever reviewed, surpassed only by The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, according to Metacritic.
The game introduced a mission mechanic, where players could complete missions for cash. Through this in-game currency, you could then upgrade your skateboarding skills and purchase better skateboards for your avatar. The groundbreaking features, however, were the Create-a-Skater and Park Editor features, a huge step up from its predecessor.
Aside from those, the game introduced manuals, allowing players to connect different tricks into a combo. You also had a balance bar, customizable tricks, and stance switches, all of which went on to become staple features in future Tony Hawk games.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 (2001)
Next up, you guessed it, we’ve got Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, the third edition in the Tony Hawk game series. The major difference for Pro Skater 3 was that the PlayStation 2 had been released, adding another platform to the mix. The world finally got to experience the enhanced gameplay of Pro Skater 3 on October 30, 2001. It should also be noted that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 was the first game featured on the PlayStation 2 that supported online play, something which has become a necessity for games today.
Pro Skater 3 was a revolutionary game since it brought online multiplayer to the gaming scene. You could finally play with your friends online from the comfort of your home, or go up against some of the best players to see how well you fare. Other notable additions were the Revert move, hidden combo tricks, and lip/rail balance bar. The Revert move allowed players to combine two vert combos for longer chained tricks. As we said, more complexity, more points.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 (2002)
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 was the last entry in the Pro Skater series before it went on a decade-long hiatus, with Pro Skater 5 not arriving until 2015. Released in October ’02, the game was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision, the same devs and publishers for all the Pro Skater games. Pro Skater 4 was also the only edition to be released on multiple platforms, i.e., PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube. Previous games also had spinoffs for other platforms or were later added, but all were initially released only on PlayStation.
Pro Skater 4’s career mode received a significant revamp. Ditching the previous objective-centered style of gameplay, Pro Skater 4 opted for an open-world approach, a bold choice at that point in time. You could explore the area, meet NPCs, and get objectives from them. Your story would start in college and take you to different areas of the world, exploring new rinks and learning new tricks.
Animals and network play were the highlight of this edition, along with some new gameplay mechanics like skitching, level out, spine transfer, etc.
Tony Hawk’s Underground (2003)
The next game in the Tony Hawk’s video game series was Tony Hawk’s Underground. While the publishers remained the same, two new companies were taken on board during development, Beenox and Vicarious Visions. The game was released on October 27, 2003, for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, and Game Boy Advance. Even though the games were only released a year apart, Underground’s gameplay was focused on other aspects of the game.
First off, the game’s story mode. We did see a drastic change in the career mode from Pro Skater 3 to 4, but Underground was the first game where we had a proper storyline. Not only that, devs also put in an alternate ending after the first time you finish the game. As for what the plot was, we won’t be spoiling it here.
There weren’t any once-in-a-generation changes in Underground besides the story, but a few notable mechanics added were combo run-out, wall plant, hip transfer, driving, and face maps. Face mapping was definitely an interesting feature for that time.
Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 (2004)
We’ve reached the halfway point in the series, and it’s highlighted by Tony Hawk’s Underground 2. It followed suit in many ways; same publisher, same devs, and a very similar selection of platforms on release. There’s not a lot to say about this game since it’s not drastically different compared to Underground.
Since the game is a sequel to Underground, the plot follows the story of the main character after the events of Underground. The story is shorter in comparison to the previous iteration, but still loaded with interesting cutscenes and objectives. An interesting feature devs added to Underground 2 was Classic Mode. In Classic Mode, players could play older levels from the Tony Hawk’s series with gameplay from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3. The Natas Spin was introduced in Underground 2, allowing players to hop on poles and fire hydrants to perform spins. You could also modify aerial tricks to your liking to outshine your friends in Free Skate.
Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland (2005)
Getting midway through the 2000s, we received Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland game. The Underground run only had two games till we switched to this masterpiece. American Wasteland was the first Tony Hawk game to be released on PC at launch. The game was released on October 18, 2005, and featured BMX riding as well for the first time. The main differentiating point in American Wasteland was that it allowed players to play one large level without loading screens in between, meaning it was all one uninterrupted sequence. The game also featured a Classic Mode similar to Underground 2.
Building on Pro Skater 3, American Wasteland’s online multiplayer mode could support up to 8 players. It was also the first series to support Xbox Live, a paid service offered by Microsoft for players to compete against each other. The biggest change this edition brought, however, was the introduction of local co-op play. At the time, co-op play was very new to games. In American Wasteland, players would work together to complete goals faster, rather than competing against each other. You also had the Pot O’ Gold, a new multiplayer addition.
Tony Hawk’s Project 8 (2006)
A fitting name for the eighth iteration in the Tony Hawks series, Tony Hawk’s Project 8. Project 8 was released in November ’06 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Xbox 360 gaming consoles. It was released for the PlayStation 3 10 days later, making it the first Tony Hawks game for the new console. Similar to previous games, Project 8 featured one enormous map you could skate on. Go ahead and explore different parts of the map, unlock new characters, build up your own skill set, and obviously, try to get the best skateboard possible.
One of the new mechanics in Project 8 was the ‘nail the trick’ animation and controlling your character while bailing. Both of these features had separate circumstances and were not extremely important from a gameplay point of view. The game mostly just revolved around exploring the town and finding new places to skate. Due to the captivating plot, however, players remained busy for a good chunk of time until the next game came out.
Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground (2007)
Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground is the ninth installment in the Tony Hawks series. It was released on October 16, 2007, with much the same team of developers and publishers. However, this was the last game developed by Neversoft, as after Proving Ground, Robomodo took over development for future titles. By this point, the game was released for a multitude of platforms, including the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, and Wii. Proving Ground was also the last game that was part of the main series before a long hiatus until Pro Skater 5.
Proving Ground introduced the concept of Skater Paths. A skater path was mostly about what type of gameplay you wanted. You had Career Skater if you wanted career-mode gameplay, Rigger Skater if you were more inclined towards creating your own ramps and exploring the environment, and Hardcore Skater for those that want to test their skills. Each had unique attributes and was impressive in its own right. Aside from Skater Paths, it included all the features from previous games. Take note that some of these features were missing in the handheld version for memory accommodations.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 (2015)
The latest and final edition in the Tony Hawk’s series was Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5. Here we saw the revival of the Pro Skater series, but the main Tony Hawks series ended with this game. It was the first game of the main story developed by Robomodo and Disruptive Games, and was published by Activision. The game was released on September 29, 2015, for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Due to licensing issues afterwards, we only received remakes and spin-offs following this game.
Now, what was new to Pro Skater 5? Being released after an 8-year hiatus and falling back to its roots, fans had high expectations from the game. Unfortunately, it could not live up to the mark, and soon the servers were taken offline. However, the game did introduce a couple of new features, namely Power-ups and Slam.
Power-ups granted players new and enhanced abilities, which helped them perform better tricks. Players could also unlock new goals around these power-ups to level up their score. The other feature was Slam. Slam was simply dropping to the ground without bailing. Unfortunately, due to several bug issues and backend problems, the game could not sustain itself.
Spin-Offs And Remakes
The Tony Hawks series received global recognition, prompting developers and publishers alike to produce several spin-offs, repackages, and remakes. Here’s a compiled list of all the Tony Hawk games aside from the main story:
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Story 2X – 2001 (Remake)
- Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 Remix – 2005 (Remake)
- Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land – 2005 (Remake)
- Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam – 2006 (Spin-Off)
- Tony Hawk’s Motion – 2008 (Spin-Off)
- Tony Hawk: Ride – 2009 (Spin-Off)
- Tony Hawk: Shred – 2010 (Spin-Off)
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD – 2012 (Remake)
- Tony Hawk’s Shred Session – 2014 (Spin-Off)
- Tony Hawk’s Skate Jam – 2018 (Spin-Off)
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 – 2020 (Repackage)
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 – 2025 (Repackage)
There was also one game in the main story that was cancelled called Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater X. It was supposed to come out after Proving Ground, but never saw the light of day.
