The Tony Hawk series was, for a brief time during the PS2 era, a huge franchise. It cleverly mixed up open levels, platforming, and sports, while sprinkling it with plenty of that early ’00s snotty attitude that used to pass for rebellion. It was a game where you could push Bam Margera down a hill in a shopping cart.
Sadly, the franchise was undone by the fad for tactile motion controls: Tony Hawk: Ride pretty much put a bullet in the franchise with low sales and terrible reviews. If I’m being honest, the game wasn’t as bad as it was painted, although it desperately needed more work on the controls; still, it was a poorly timed release. Thankfully, a recent update of the original game sold well, and now we’re back with a new, proper entry in the series. And they’ve kept every tradition from the series, right down to the, ah, modest graphical prowess.
I used to be great at Tony Hawk, but I haven’t played the franchise in nearly a decade… so I’m probably going to be hilariously bad at it. If you’d like to see me make respected athletes stumble around like they’re wasted, we’ll be firing up the livestream today on Twitch between 2:50 p.m. EST and 4:50 p.m. EST. Or, of course, you can watch it below.