8 Video Games That Actually Made Us Want To Go Outside

1. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

Made Us Want To: Grind that really, really long rail that we see everyday. The beginning level of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (Warehouse) sees you crash through a glass wall into a warehouse filled with ramps, rails and jumps. 'Superman' by Goldfinger will start playing and you'll undoubtedly scream out: "THIS IS AWESOME!" (Well, maybe not nowadays but for us Tony Hawk's veterans, it's the stuff of nostalgic glory). Like most of the games on this list, it made the in-game activity look so easy. Gathering momentum just requires a bit of a push, and pulling off a 900 (one of the most technically demanding tricks in skateboarding) simply requires a full special meter. So revolutionary was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater that it arguably brought skateboarding to the masses for the first time, undoubtedly making it the coolest thing to be seen doing. It's a lot harder than you might think though. Sure, anybody can put their foot on a board and push but at speed? It's terrifying. Also (don't sue Activision over this incredible discovery), when Tony falls in-game, he gets up with no problem. Falling over in real-life hurts. Even worse, real-life human limitations (damn you fleshy body!) means that stringing together endless combos of moves is impossible. If you tried a flip trick to grind and back to another flip trick before attempting a manual in real-life, you'd end up on your face faster than you can say "Tony Hawk lied!". Thanks to modern technology, you'd probably also end up on YouTube too. So there we have it, eight games that made us want to go outside but also lied to us about the dangers and disappointments we'd face out there. Do you have another example of games that lied to you about the joys of the outside? Leave them in the comments below.