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Less than a decade ago, extreme sports such as skateboarding, snowboarding, and motocross were looked down upon as activities that the socially inept would take part in. But with increased media coverage and the emergence of stars such as Tony Hawk and the advent of the X Games, extreme sports have become legitimized in the eyes of many and recognized as real sports. With this in mind, we bring you the absolute best extreme sports games that the world of video games has to offer. So strap on your pads and helmet and get ripping!
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 - PlayStation 2 (2001)
Street Price: $44.26
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The Tony Hawk series has always had style. The first game reinvented a genre and set off a series of clones and pretenders that still flood the market today. The second game refined the formula, but its higher level of difficulty and steeper learning curve turned off casual players. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 brings it all together in one package that makes everything before it almost unplayable by comparison. With all-new levels, an online option, and tight gameplay, Tony Hawk 3 is a must-buy.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 - Game Boy Advance (2001)
Street Price: $19.99
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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is one of the Game Boy Advance's best games and is considered by some to be one of the best handheld games ever. It's rare when a 3D game makes a smooth transition to a handheld platform, but that's exactly what Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 has done. The development team at Vicarious Visions has captured the essence of THPS2 and, outside of a few necessary changes, has delivered most of what made the console versions of Tony Hawk 2 such classics.
1080 Snowboarding - Nintendo 64 (1998)
Street Price: $11.99
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1080 Snowboarding caused quite a stir when it was released in 1998. Sporting amazing graphics for its time and an involving control scheme, the realism achieved in the game was a benchmark for the industry. Innovative level design and gameplay that requires skill and rewards you for seeing your death-defying tricks through to completion, rather than just knowing the move, add up to one of the best values in both sports and racing gaming.
Grind Session - Sony PlayStation (2000)
Street Price: $9.99
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Grind Session is essentially Sony's answer to Activision's supersuccessful Tony Hawk game, featuring similar control and gameplay goals, thereby making it easy for Hawk fans to dive right in. But the game manages to differentiate itself from Hawk by offering a much more varied list of skateboarding tricks, as well as interesting new gameplay goals in the form of technical lines. Just because Grind Session is in many ways a Tony Hawk clone doesn't make it a bad game.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 - Sega Dreamcast (2000)
Street Price: $24.00
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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 served as a wake-up call for all the clones and pretenders that had hit the market in the year between the two Tony Hawk games. The game offers tons of replay value, amazing graphics on both the PlayStation and the Dreamcast, a top-notch soundtrack, and even a level editor to keep things entertaining once you've mastered all the existing levels. Most importantly, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 was developed with plenty of room for innovation and freestyling on the part of the player.
Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX - Sony PlayStation (2001)
Street Price: $19.01
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Those familiar with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater will find Hoffman to be familiar ground. The game's modes include the standard roundup of career, single-session, and free-ride modes, as well as a multiplayer horse mode. A fairly complex level editor is also included. While the game doesn't have the trick depth of its closest competitor, Dave Mirra, Hoffman simply blows Mirra out of the water in every other way imaginable and stands as the best BMX game on the market.
Skate or Die - NES (1988)
Street Price: $2.98
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Although it made its debut on the Commodore 64 computer in 1987, Skate or Die made its mark on the NES the year after and was the first game for the system dedicated entirely to skateboarding. The game contains various skateboarding activities, such as half-pipe riding, pool jousting, and downhill racing. Skate or Die truly lives up to its name, and along with 720°, is one of the most important skateboarding games of the '80s.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater - Sony PlayStation (1999)
Street Price: $8.50
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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater ushered in the new era of extreme sports video games. It was the first commercially accepted extreme sports game, and it set the standards that all future games would have to live up to. While the series has transformed over the past several years into a highly polished state, it's still hard to deny the charm and simplicity of the original. Newcomers to the franchise should pick up this game for a cheap price and see if it's for them.
California Games - Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Sega Genesis (1988)
Street Price: $2.99
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Like Skate or Die and 720°, California Games debuted outside the realm of console gaming. It was, however, eventually ported to several console systems, the Atari 2600 and the NES among them. The game includes six outdoor events: BMX, foot bag, roller skating, surfing, flying disc, and a half-pipe skateboarding event. With a wide variety of extreme sports represented and most pulled-off fairly well, California Games is one of the few extreme sports classics.
T&C Surf Designs - NES (1987)
Street Price: $4.00
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Named after the surfboard company of the same name, T&C Surf Designs introduced NES gamers to a tiki-masked skater and a groovy surfing gorilla, among other offbeat characters. You are a happening beach bum who belongs to an elite skate-surf group called "Da Boys." The game features separate surfing and skateboarding segments, as well as a gameplay mode that mixes the two. It was the first NES game to feature either extreme sport, not to mention the first to bundle them together. Above all, though, T&C rocks!
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