Skate And Tony Hawk: New Titles In Two Legendary Skateboarding Games Series

Gamers have been able to ollie, grind, flip or pop their virtual skaters to mega-points for more than thirty years at this point. A lot has changed since Atari’s 720 Degrees, released in 1986 – one of the earliest extreme sports titles – with numerous skateboarding games showing up in best seller lists over the years.

This article will focus on two legendary game franchises and their most recent offerings for seventh-generation gaming consoles: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. Some titles in the two franchises are also available on handheld consoles, mobile platforms and/or personal computers.

Most people think of the Tony Hawk franchise when they think of this genre. With sixteen titles released since 1999, when Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater hit the scene to huge acclaim and sales. Tony Hawk: Shred, the latest in the series, has an arcade look and gameplay style. After Activision announced that there would be no 2011 edition in February 2011, there have been rumors that Shred may be the last game in the franchise.

Although geared towards younger gamers, Tony Hawk: Shred comes packaged with the motion-sensitive controller that looks like a skateboard deck (first seen with TH: Ride) and has a fun ‘Go Big’ trick system and social aspect which should entice more than a few older fans to jump on and do some shredding.

Tricks, as always, are crazy and huge, and you have the option to carve up fresh powder, grab massive air or go hurtling down alpine peaks on a snowboard too. Released October 2010, Shred is available across all platforms. The franchise is, obviously, endorsed by pro-skater Tony Hawk, developed by Neversoft and published by Activision.

Electronic Arts’ innovative Skate series (Skate, Skate 2 and Skate 3 for the Xbox 360 and PS3, and Skate It for the Wii) has impressed critics, veteran- and novice gamers alike with its innovative Flick-It control system, feature-richness and awesome environments. Unlike the button-combinations (some would say button-mashing) traditionally used to pull off tricks, the first Skate introduced a control scheme made up of pulling, pushing and flicking the two analog sticks in certain patterns. Flick-It gives a much more tactile, precise feel to pulling off tricks, and the control scheme has only improved with each sequel.

The grainy, stark environments that typified San Vanelona, the fictional city setting of the previous games, has been replaced by the colorful skater-friendly cityscapes of Skate 3′s Port Caverton. Other new features include easy and hardcore modes, a Skate School where you can brush up on the basics and much-expanded online team play. There are now three online game modes, namely Domination, 1-Up and Own The Lot. This ups the replay-value of an already engaging and fun game. Skate 3 landed in May 2010 for Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms.

EA Black Box’s Skate franchise may be comparatively new (the first Skate debuted in September 2007), but it is immensely popular. The first Skate arrived at about the same time as Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground, yet has amassed nearly double the amount of sales. Shred had a bit of a dismal opening week in comparison to Skate 3′s too. Gaming fans have many predictions – the continuing dominance of Skate, the return to glory for TH in 2012 – but only time will tell which (if either) of these skateboarding games franchises will come out tops.

There are many free skateboarding games that you can play online. These skateboard games are available to play right now.