There were times when a Pro Skater game was the greatest thing on the planet. First was in 1999 with the launch of the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, then in 2002 when the series realized its full potentional through pushing freedom.

THP2 introduced manual skating in 2001, which made grinding the easiest way to combo, ruining the scoring system. THPS3 remedied that by adding the ability to revert off the ramps, but the gameplay was still limited to only timed-runs. THPS4 combined all of the best ideas, took away the stupid timer and let players ride freely through 9 environments. You could talk to people for new challenges or access missions via a simple menu. Great!

And since then it's been all downhill. Tony Hawk's Underground added too much story and some silly parkour nonsense. American Wasteland was a waste of time, Project 8 didn't work for Playstation online, and Proving Grounds no one remembers. We all remember Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 though, even though we try to block it out. Right now let's just honor the Tony Hawk series through a musical mashup of old skool hip hop and punk rock.