10 Overlooked Video Games That Were WAY Ahead Of Their Time

Skateboarding games, thanks to the venerable Tony Hawk series, were everywhere in the aughts, and I mean bloody *everywhere*. So much so that it was easy to lose the really good ones in the shuffle because they weren't plastered with Hawk's mug.

One of the most egregious examples of this was Criterion's Airblade, whose standout feature was using a hoverboard instead of a skateboard.

Airblade is one of the smoothest running games of its kind, with only the Tony Hawk titles to serve as competition for feeling just so damn good to control. But the difference is, of course, that Airblade gives you a board with no wheels, allowing you to pull off way more insane moves than you ever could in a Tony Hawk game. The airtime you can pull off with this thing is nothing short of maddening, and the game takes full advantage of that in every mission, with each chapter encouraging the player to lose themselves in the speed and velocity of this hoverboard. Which only makes sense, seeing as how this game was made by the same people who made the Burnout games.

Overall, your average Tony Hawk game runs rings around Airblade, but this hidden gem was doing things way different than its contemporaries at the time, and that should be appreciated.