I grew up playing Tony Hawk games, getting pumped up listening to Superman by Goldfinger so I could hone my concentration and pull off my best moves. I can remember playing Pro Skater for the very first time back in 1999; I can even remember the day I pulled off a 1080 too!
Synonymous for having amazing soundtracks and fast-paced gameplay to boot, Tony Hawk titles have dominated the genre for years now.
As someone who has played these games to death, I’m really happy to be talking about the best titles that I used to play with my friends and family as a kid.
And these titles meant I could finally skateboard without falling over and bleeding everywhere.
Today, I’m ranking all of the games from best to worst for you, listing every epic moment and downright faceplanting low that this series has to offer!
Table of Contents
1. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (2000)
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 isn’t just the best Tony Hawk game in existence, it’s one of the best titles of all time, period.
Pro Skater 1 brought the formula to the verts, but THPS2 perfected it and made Tony Hawk a household name.
Everything about this game is perfection, especially in the new remastered version for all next-gen consoles.
With tonnes of new tricks accompanying the old classics and the manual making the cut for the very first time, this game brought realistic moves and vibes to home consoles.
Add the chance to skate in famous parks all over the world into the mix, and you’ve got one heck of a game on your hands. You can even make and share parks with other players too, so go wild and make it super tough for them!
Pro Skater 2X came out a year later in 2001 incorporating all of the courses from the previous two games as well as five additional areas made exclusively for the new version. Bar some extra afterthoughts to make the courses feel busier, it’s the same core game!
2. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (1999)
The legendary title that started it all still remains one of the greatest games I and all the Retro Dodo team have ever played.
It’s just iconic; can you remember the first time that you turned it on and pulled off kickflip or grind without falling off and actually hurting yourself?
Collecting those videotapes felt so damn good back in 1999. Smashing through stuff and causing mayhem to collect one of those little VHS icons was all we lived for.
Then things got real in the competition mode – three heats to try and pull off the most points, dropping into bowls to get epic air, and grinding along every surface possible to try and beat previous high scores.
If you’ve never played any of these games before, make sure this is the one you start on. It’s a bona fide classic!
3. Tony Hawks’ Pro Skater 1 + 2 (2020)
Ok, now I’ve paid homage to the two first and best Tony Hawk’s games, I can place the remastered collection up next!
Yes, in today’s era of next-gen gaming, this title is more than likely going to be the one that you plump for, especially as younger readers might not even have a PS1 or PS2 anymore. And it is, admittedly, a great way to enjoy the action of the original titles with enhanced graphics that are crisp and clear on modern TVs.
But for me, Tony Hawk’s games are meant to look retro – that’s the magic of them and the reason that they provide so much nostalgia whenever I load them up.
If, however, you don’t have those same feelings as me from ‘back in the day’ or maybe never had Sony consoles while growing up, then this would be a great game to get you into the series as a whole.
All of the original modes make a comeback as well as the players and levels, all lovingly remastered and looking superb. And the original soundtrack that got us pumped while preparing to collect those tapes and pull off epic moves is back too!
The new feature that makes this collection even better is the option of heading online to play too, something that definitely wasn’t on the table when we played THPS1 back in 1999!
4. Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland (2005)
In Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland, you’re basically part of a skating gang. Their leader; a bona fide skating legend.
This was the Tony Hawk brand reinventing itself, the third age of Pro Skater, as it were. As well as being able to change the face of your character in greater detail, you can actually get off your board and jump on a BMX for the first time ever.
Don’t panic; a lot of the same features such as ‘Create a Park’ and having missions to repeat still make an appearance in the game.
The main core of the series is still present, it’s just had a bit of a home improvement makeover.
There’s even a 2-player co-op mode for gamers to team up on the streets with!
5. Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 (2004)
Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 adds to the epic new features brought to the table in the first THUG game.
This time, Team Hawk is squaring off against Team Bam. We’re talking about a contest of point-collecting and causing mayhem in every city over the globe.
The premise of hitting goals and the main modes are basically the same as the the first game, and there’s still the classic mode to test your mettle in too.
But to be honest, Number 2 just plays and feels better.
It looks better too, ironing out a few of the glitchy bits from the first game and making the whole thing smoother.
The PS2 boasted online play back in the day, but you can still get in on the 2-player split-screen mode even in 2022.
Unlock vehicles, levels, characters, and more. You can even create your own graffiti for when playing tag modes too.
No surprises for what word everyone’s going to use first, right?
6. Tony Hawk’s Underground (2003)
Tony Hawk’s Underground was the very first game in the series with a proper career mode. Like Skater 8 which would drop 3 years later, you aim to go from a nobody to a somebody, keen to buy a new board and show your skills to the masses.
Move from New Jersey through to Vancouver, Moscow, Hawaii, and more amazing locations.
That’s one way to see the world at least, right?
I know it might sound a little low-octane, but the newest feature to make it into Underground is actually getting off your board and walking around.
That means that you can do new features you would never have dreamt of back in the original Pro Skater days like climbing up towers to jump off or reaching epic jumps by sidling around buildings or shimmying along wires.
Drive vehicles anywhere too; it’s like Tony Hawk meets GTA!
And when you’re bored of the main game, you can create your own skate parks and make your own skaters to go crazy in them. You can even create your own goals to try and hit too!
7. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 (2001)
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 is up next, one of the games that hardly left my GameCube back in the day.
The upgrade in the graphics in this game felt unreal from THPS2 to 3. With new famous faces to choose from and loads of exciting areas to skate through, it felt like everything we deserved after putting so much time into the second title.
Play as Steve Caballero, Andrew Reynolds, Bam Margera, and many more famous faces from Tony Hawk’s world.
Mess around as your favourite skater or create your own custom player. Dodge cars (or grab hold of them), avoid humans, and cover massive jumps, all with the PS1 controller wedged between your sweaty palms.
8. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2X (2000)
Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2X dropped on the Xbox as one of the original launch titles. I guess they wanted to take a leaf out of Nintendo’s book when they went through that stint of putting ‘Super’ on the front of everything when the SNES came out and opted to stick an X on the end to make it cooler.
As I’ve mentioned above, 2X is essentially an amalgamation of the first two games with five extra levels added in for good measure. But, as our resident Tony Hawk superfan and video producer Rob told me the other day, there are some extra reasons to pick up this game.
The first reason is that the levels from THPS 1 and 2 run a lot better on the Xbox than they do on the PS1. That’s nothing really to write home about now that the newer collection is out, but back when the Xbox was first doing the rounds, it was definitely worth parting with the cash for.
And, for fans of manuals, you can now manual in the THPS1 levels, which is something that Rob told me with so much fervor in his voice that I had to promise I would put it down here.
9. Tony Hawk’s Underground 2: Remix (2005)
Unlike Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2X being an amalgamation of both previous Pro Skater games with a bit extra thrown in, Underground 2 Remix felt different with it being a PSP launch title and a Sony handheld offering from the Tony Hawk’s series.
The controls are just as tight as on the console version too, and I can pull off all of my favourite moves with ease. I honestly don’t know how the PSP managed to nail ports so well; this machine continually surprises me all these years later.
Though this is a console port, the graphics don’t feel intensely different like with the Nintendo DS versions of console titles (not to say that those are poor by any stretch of the imagination, however). It looks and plays like a PS2 game, and it’s just as enjoyable to play today as it was back in 2005.
Underground 2: Remix brought new characters and courses to the mix and features the same Bam vs Tony storyline that made THUG2 so exciting.
One thing that is missing, however, is the Create a Park mode. I mean, it’s not a massive problem considering there are new courses to play through to keep you occupied, and there were always going to be some sacrifices with making a portable version of the game.
10. Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground (2007)
Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground dropped on the PS2, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS. It’s an incredible game on all platforms, but as Theo managed to nab the game on DS recently, we’re going to feature the handheld port.
Unfortunately, the DS port isn’t as fluid as the PSP game and looks more like an upgraded GBA title than anything else, but it plays well and is a fun title to have on Ninty’s dual-screen marvel.
The DS port has a free-play mode which is nice to just kick back with too; I enjoy being competitive in Tony Hawk’s games, but it’s also nice to go wild and just pull off tricks for fun to practice too.
For Tony Hawk’s nostalgia lovers, this was the last game in the series that Neversoft was involved with. It bears a lot of resemblances to the original THPS titles in terms of gameplay; when I’m playing Proving Ground, I feel that same excitement and tension that I felt when first played Pro Skater 1, and the 9 levels are a joy to skate through.
The versions differ between all of the consoles, with the PS3 version being the preferred choice for most gamers. Both that and the Xbox 360 version have an open world to move around in rather than specifically selecting levels, and they come with trick-nailing modes including nail the trick, nail the manual, and nail the grab.
One thing that I will say about Proving Ground on the DS is that I love the more realistic character graphics as opposed the toony-stylings used in American Sk8land. It feels more like a true Tony Hawks game and not if Link decided to do a pop shove it while trying to save his sister on Outset Island.
11. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 (2002)
Tony Hawks Pro Skater 4, for me and many other Tony Hawk fans, was the last good Pro Skater game. And yes, I am fully aware that there is a Pro Skater 5… and you will see it a lot later in this list.
I loved this game on GameCube and hammered it with my friends in my games room (fancier term for the attic) when I was 12. And, just like my continuous commentary on why the later Pikmin games are better without the time limit function, THPS4 removing the time limits and allowing players to explore felt incredibly freeing and exciting.
And it seems like everyone else enjoyed that change too, as this was the formula that later games in the series would champion. I mean, once you remove time constraints, it’s hard to put players back in a box again, right?
As well as the usual suspects such as Tony Hawk and my all-time-personal favourite racer Rodney Mullen joining the fray for the fourth Pro Skater game, there are some other characters from famous franchises such as Star Wars and the World of Wrestling to play as.
Fancy taking Jango Fett or Mike Vallely out on the course, or maybe Eddie of Iron Maiden fame… though I wouldn’t want to be around if he fell off a railing. I imagine there would be bones and skin everywhere!
Slap was always a fun mode to play with friends, bringing a bit of SSX-style anger into the skateboarding world, along with my favourite Tony Hawk’s mode ‘Graffiti’.
Graphically, Pro Skater 4 was very impressive and played very well. Armed with my WaveBird, I was an unstoppable force in a halfpipe!
12. Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam (2006)
Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam is all about maximising your need for speed. There’s one thing you need to do in this game; get downhill as quickly as possible.
The courses are incredible too; speed down through Hong Kong, Edinburgh, Machu Picchu, and more.
There are so many obstacles to encounter too, or avoid, in this case.
This game works well on the PS2, but it’s the Wii version that I love the most. Tilting the Wiimote to gain speed and do flips never gets old, and the local 4-player multiplayer is perfect for having mates around for couch co-op nights.
It’s more like 1080 Snowboarding than a traditional Tony Hawk game, but it makes a nice change and makes for some interesting gameplay.
13. Tony Hawk’s Motion (2008)
Tony Hawk’s Motion heads back to the standard look and feel of the series, though this time with a motion pack accessory that turns your original DS into a motion-sensitive controller.
Oh yeah, stuff’s about to get real gnarly!
Players put the DS game in the top slot and the motion pack in the GBA slot on the bottom of the DS. That does mean that this game will only work with old-school DS consoles and not the DSi or 3DS.
How do you mix up a Tony Hawk game? How about adding snowboarding to it?
Yeah, that’ll probably do it… though it doesn’t always work as you’ll soon find out further down this list.
Board on powder and asphalt through the USA, UAE, Japan, and many more places as you complete challenges.
Tilt and turn to keep your manual going, use the shoulder buttons to grind, and pull off epic tricks as you hit verts and half pipes.
There’s also a weird game where you have to move a coloured blob around a course that I haven’t played much, but it’s there if you get bored of skating!
14. Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land (2005)
Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land remains one of my all-time favourite DS games. It’s just a shame that there are so many amazing Tony Hawk games, otherwise it would have ranked a lot higher!
The portable version of American Wasteland for the DS and the GBA might be based on said game, but it feels completely different while playing.
For starters, it’s cell-shaded. Imagine Wind Waker meets Tony Hawk, and you’ll get the idea.
The main mechanics of the game are basically the same, but the comic book style really makes it feel like a completely different stand-alone title.
And using touch-screen controls on the DS adds a whole new level of play too. It works really well on the GBA too, with players delving into make-your-own park and Create Skater modes on the fly.
Just make sure you’ve got a worm light, otherwise you’ll be playing under street lamps once the sun goes down!
15. Tony Hawk’s Project 8 (2006)
8 skaters are needed for Tony’s new project (hence the name), and he’s heading to your town to see if he can find any talent.
200 people working to win 8 spots in Tony’s elite group. Work your way up from a complete newbie to coveting the name of the best skater around.
Complete goals, improve your skills, and do everything in your power to catch Tony’s eye.
There’s the classic mode that we all know and love from the previous Tony Hawk titles, but Project 8 has some neat new features that will prove exciting to fans of the series as a whole.
Spot spray-painted lines that mark goals for you to reach, whether jumping or grinding a specific distance or keeping your balance while pulling off a manual.
There’s also a new feature that players can collect called ‘Stokens’, a currency used for clothing, shoes, tricks, and more.
If you get the PSP version, then there are 8 classic levels from the previous games including Alcatraz and The Mall.
16. Tony Hawk: Ride (2009)
I get the general appeal of pretending to skate along with the characters in Tony Hawk Ride, but standing in your living room on a skateboard with no wheels and doing moves in your living room is never going to end well.
For me, the whole idea of Tony Hawk games is making skateboarding accessible to all games by using the controller instead of pulling off moves. It’s why we have wrestling games and BMX games; I’m not going to step into a ring or do a 1080 on a tiny bike either, and THPS games, like Fifa titles, are about pulling off skill with your timing and technique and not using a motion sensor board.
Again, I can fully see the thought process behind this decision; we all loved the Guitar accessory for the Guitar Hero games, and getting the Drum Kit out for Rock Band never gets old.
Those peripherals work: the board for Ride doesn’t.
The controls are incredibly cumbersome and manage to take all of the fun out of the game for me. Graphically, it’s impressive, and the levels look very rich and textured. It’s just a shame that the whole concept of the game was a bit of a flop.
17. Tony Hawk’s Skate Jam (2018)
Skate Jam has Tony Hawk’s name on the cover, but in my opinion, it’s not really a true Tony Hawk game.
Once Hawk’s licensing deal with Activision ran out in 2015, the door was open for Tony to reach out to other companies on different platforms to play around with. One of those companies was mobile game maker Maple Media, which is why Skate Jam exists.
That means the levels are remakes of old courses in Skateboard Party, the skating mobile games that Maple Media have created over the years.
Mobile skating games always feel a little tough to get to grips with in my opinion, and the controls are never the easiest to master. Skate Jam is no exception, and while it looks and has the general vibe of a Tony Hawk’s game (you could be forgiven for thinking that this is an updated version of THPS1), it doesn’t quite meet the same heights.
I’m talking level of quality and not getting air on a vert there…
Tony Hawk’s name isn’t on the game anymore when you head to the App Store, so unfortunately the game won’t be the same today as it was when we first played back in 2018. Still, if you are looking for a mobile skating game for playing on the go and don’t have a copy of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 for the Switch, then this could be a great option (albeit without Tony).
18. Tony Hawk: Vert (2009)
Mobile gaming has come a long way since 2009, and while Tony Hawk: Vert was pretty innovative back in the day, it was never going to live up to the might of the console titles… or even the DS offerings.
This game dropped on the same day as Ride, and while this is much more playable than messing around on a board on the carpet, it lacked any real substance and was over incredibly quickly.
Players view the action from behind a halfpipe which feels a little lacklustre to me. I’m much more of a fan of the street elements of the game and enjoy diving into a bowl or tackling a vert from time to time, though due to the limitations of the hardware, it was only ever going to be possible to focus on one style of skating.
Vert was fun to play while on the train or waiting for a friend to make an order at McDonald’s, but it’s not something that I’ll be going back to to get some nostalgic feels today. It doesn’t last very long and is a bit simple, but did have its moments back when mobile gaming was still finding its feet.
19. Tony Hawk: Shred (2010)
Despite Tony Hawk: Ride not getting a great reception, Activision decided to run with the pointless board peripheral and make a sequel.
The main difference is that players could get their Mii or an Avatar on the Wii and Xbox 360 versions respectively, and that as well as struggling to skateboard on the board accessory, players have the option to snowboard too.
I’m not surprised that the Tony Hawk’s series of games took a break after this game. The whole bundle had an RRP of $120, and considering the poor reception for Ride, Shred was never going to get people’s pulses racing.
Admittedly, Shred does work a little better than Ride, but the graphics just aren’t as good, and the Snowboard mode should do us all a favour and melt into oblivion.
If there wasn’t a game that annoyed me more than Shred, it would go straight into last place… but that position always had Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5’s name written all over it from the moment I started this article.
20. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 (2015)
Rob lovingly buys every Tony Hawk game with the hope that it’s going to be like the first Pro Skater games, which is why we’ve got this incredible image of the game case for you to look at.
Unfortunately, the best bit about this game is the case, and the gameplay leaves little to be desired. It deserves to be in last place on our list, and that’s not something I ever wanted to say or thought I would say when playing Pro Skater 2 back in the day.
A quick bit of googling will show you that I’m not the only critic disappointed by this game, with other sites calling it the worst game of the year, a mess, a disgrace, and a title that tarnishes the brilliance of the THPS series as a whole.
So… not a lot of love in the room for Pro Skater 5.
You would think that a new game for the PS4/PS5 would have taken everything that we loved about the original games, everything that made the Underground titles amazing, and turned them up to 11.
Instead, it dialed everything back, with glitchy gameplay, janky controls, and graphics that definitely aren’t befitting of some of the most powerful consoles we’ve ever experienced to date.
Nothing is interesting about this game, nothing new, nothing noteworthy. To me, it feels like Activision just slapped this together in the last 5 minutes of a working week in the hope they could make a quick buck before clocking off.
Save your money and don’t buy this game. If you want a Pro Skater game that feels new and fresh, stick with the remake of 1 + 2.
