10 Video Game Franchises That ALWAYS Get It Wrong

For a certain demographic, the Tony Hawk Pro Skater games were the reason why 'professional skateboarder' became a popular career aspiration in the mid-2000s. Whilst I was perfectly happy just aimlessly skating around back in the day, early games like Tony Hawk's Underground proved a strong storyline could accompany arcade-style gameplay.

Sadly though, this winning formula wouldn't be something the franchise would be keen on continuing. Starting with Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, a strange 2006 racing title, the series would rack up a long list of entries that all seemed to insist on being unlike what gamers had come to know the franchise for.

As its heyday on the PS2 gave way to more releases on more contemporary hardware, the developers would fall back to simplistic gameplay mechanics and a new line of bland characters to play as.

Perhaps the best example of Activision not understanding what was needed for the series on modern equipment is 2012's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD. An arcade-style title designed to bring the feel of the first two entries in the franchise, the game felt incredibly lacklustre and eventually found itself delisted from Steam in 2017.

These classic first two entries in the series would end up getting a more-than-solid remake in 2020, however, when it was revealed developers Vicarious Visions would be merging with Blizzard and no further remasters would be on the horizon, it was another reminder that Activision still don't really know what they're doing with the IP.

To not have a remake of Tony Hawk 3, one of the greatest video games of all time, immediately following on the heels of 1+2's remastering is the biggest crime to skateboaring since the last time this article's author picked up a board for himself.