20 PS2 Games That Prove It's The Best Console Ever

13. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
Activision

It was America's sweethearts OPM who proclaimed that "Heaven is a Halfpipe", which is totally true if they meant "heaven is a halfpipe on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3".

Mechanically speaking, the sequel is absolute perfection. The previous release brought manuals into the fold, but this follow-up introduced reverts that allowed players to rack up insane combos and chain together tricks even on a halfpipe.

Every single move in the game is essential in keeping the gameplay as tight as possible, and while sequels would add more variety, a lot of it was simply fluff that didn’t fundamentally improve the core experience.

Grinding a rail, jumping into a manual and going up the pipe to pull off a McTwist only to hit the ground and do the whole thing again felt amazing, and had an incredible flow that no amount of Jackass-inspired humour could beat in future games.

If you don’t believe me, then just know it’s the highest-rated PS2 game of all time by critics, tied only with Grand Theft Auto III - an accolade it more than deserves.

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Horror film junkie, burrito connoisseur, and serial cat stroker. WhatCulture's least favourite ginger.

Gaming Editor
Gaming Editor

WhatCulture's Head of Gaming.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.

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Video Editor and recent addition to the madness of the Gaming team, when she's not chatting about games, thinking about games, or playing games, she's streaming them on twitch. Tweet her pictures of dogs @DontRachQuit