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We’ve recently been graced with a new “Tony Hawk's Pro Skater” game that has not done well — as in, at all. Negative reviews from both sites and players alike bring up graphical glitches, consistent bugs and an overall rushed-out-the-door presentation for “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5,” placing much of the blame on developer Robomodo’s shoulders. In short, it’s not the “Pro Skater” many of us have played in the past.

Original "Pro Skater" developer Neversoft stayed consistent through its run of making the games, offering up some of the most critically approved titles for major systems. These were the only sports games I would actually touch during the PlayStation 1 and 2 era growing up because I had more fun chaining flip tricks together and grinding a helicopter blade as Spider-Man than catching a digital football. That, and it was fun arguing with friends over which cheat codes to use as we passed the controller around during career mode. 

If I were to remember anything off the top of my head about my childhood gaming sessions, these games would spring to the forefront immediately. So here, in retrospect, is a brief look back at the original “Pro Skater” games.

"Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater"

Even as a kid, I always thought “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater” had this grimy, dirty edge to it that coupled perfectly with skateboard culture. It was my and many other’s real introduction to the world of board slides and nollies. I was enthralled by the concept.

Being able to trick off of nearly anything was the game’s benchmark; rails, lockers, sky-high fixtures and alien ships that begged to help you with that high score, all of which were just the start. Aside from the physics-breaking moves, it showed what could be possible with a board in real life, and from there I was hooked.

"THPS 2"

To this day, you’d be hard pressed to find a “Best of PlayStation” list without this game floating somewhere near the top. The critically acclaimed “THPS 2” was the game you’d spend hours trying to nail hard wall rides over school alarms or try to mark a personal best over the longest manual you could get. 

Not only did it tighten up the controls from the first iteration, but it also gave you the chance to create a skater or skate park of your own design, and even added some mild role-play-game elements by letting you build your skater's stats.

Backing all of this was an amazing soundtrack that coupled the era’s best rock and hip hop tracks. It’s early 2000s to the max, with Swinging Udders on a tracklist with a then-rapping Papa Roach. But I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t nearly perfect, with Rage Against the Machine solidifying that notion.

"THPS 3"

The revert was that trick you never knew you needed until “THPS3” introduced it. It quickly became a staple of the series — a necessary move to extend your combo score off of a ramp that was easy to learn. Elsewhere, the game maintained much of same aesthetics as far as controls and modes from its predecessor, but was the first in the series to offer online play.

There were bigger levels to play around in as well, my favorite being the cruise ship, which was a fun vert player’s heaven. Added to the mix in a bit of cross-promotion was pro surfer Kelly Slater, inserted here as an unlockable character that I couldn’t stop playing as when I got him. Slater hit ramps and rails on a surfboard with no wheels, and his presence propped up the series' seemingly random mentality when it came to humor.

Fun fact: "THPS 3" was the last game to grace the Nintendo 64 in 2002.

"THPS 4"

To offer up a disclaimer – I can't recall “THPS 4” as well as the others, which probably means I never got much of a chance to play it. However, I can't rightly skip it because it set the framework for future titles such as the “Underground" series and “American Wasteland." It killed off the usual timed mission modes, allowing more freedom in your sessions. 

The spine transfer move only added to the big bag of tricks the game already had, which included “skitching” (grabbing cars from behind for a ride, something I loved to do in “Underground”) and trick extensions. Another suite of random cross-promotion gave us “Star Wars'" Jango Fett, Iron Maiden mascot Eddie the Head and pro wrestler Mike Vallely as unlockable skaters.

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Reach the reporter at damionjrohman@gmail.com or follow @legendpenguin on Twitter

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