Tony Hawk's is a skateboarding video game series published by Activision and endorsed by the American professional skateboarder of the same name. The series was primarily developed for home consoles by Neversoft with an annual release schedule from launch to 2007, until Activision transferred the franchise to Robomodo in 2008, who developed the franchise on a non-annual release basis until 2015 when Activision and Hawk's license expired, leaving the future of the series uncertain.[1] In 2020, the series returned under Activision with a remake of the original two games in the series, with development handled by Vicarious Visions. The series has spawned a total of 20 games.
Starting out with the initial Tony Hawk's Pro Skater in 1999,[2] the series proved to be one of the most popular and best-selling video game franchises of the early 2000s. Three more Pro Skater games were released from 2000 to 2002, after which the developers took a more story-oriented approach with the releases of Underground, Underground 2 and American Wasteland from 2003 to 2005. Project 8 in 2006 and Proving Ground in 2007 were the last games in the series developed by Neversoft. After that, developer Robomodo took the franchise in a different direction by developing the peripheral supported spin-offs Ride and Shred, released in 2009 and 2010, respectively. Both were commercial and critical failures. Robomodo tried unsuccessfully to revive the series with the back to the roots-oriented releases of Pro Skater HD and Pro Skater 5 in 2012 and 2015. The series spawned several other spin-offs, such as Downhill Jam in 2006, Motion in 2008, and Shred Session in 2014, along with several ports and re-releases.
Neversoft's first five Tony Hawk's received critical acclaim for their unique gameplay, varied soundtracks, and expansion over their predecessors. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 and Pro Skater 3 are critically ranked among the best games released for the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, respectively.[3][4][5] However, later entries started getting less favorable reviews, culminating in the games developed by Robomodo being critically panned, with Ride and Pro Skater 5 being named "Worst Games of the Year" by several outlets.[6][7][8] After this, Activision let the licensing deal expire while holding all publishing rights.[1][9] Fans continued to support the legacy of the series through an online multiplayer fangame called THUG Pro, which uses Underground 2's engine in an all-encompassing collection of levels from the series.[10]
The first game bearing the Tony Hawk's name not to be published by Activision, Tony Hawk's Skate Jam, was released in December 2018 for iOS and Android.[11] A second high-definition remake of the first two games, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, published by Activision and developed by Vicarious Visions (who previously developed ports of several Tony Hawk's games), was released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Windows in 2020.
