Tony Hawk's Pro Skater: Every Game Ranked Worst To Best

During this very experimental period for the pined after skating simulators, there were a lot of different ideas being thrown into the ring. There were some that shouldn't have been made, some that shouldn't have been envisaged by a human mind, and then there were titles that surprisingly worked. Downhill Jam thankfully falls into the tertiary of these and was an unprecedented shock upon release, totally discarding everything that came before and reinventing the formula to give the fans what they didn't exactly expect.

A racing game.

A Tony Hawk racing game!? We hear you exclaim with a look of utter dismay, likely followed by a shake of the head, to which we respond; give it a chance.

Yes, this is an entry that absolutely nobody or their dog was asking for and it sounds like the video game equivalent of jumping the shark on the surface. It has all the makings of that very thing, but the mechanics actually complement one another well, especially when played on the Nintendo Wii, which was clearly the hardware Activision designed it for.

Downhill Jam is extremely similar to games such as Road Rash and even Twisted Metal - without the sadistic murder - as players race against the opposition while physically annihilating their opponents to eliminate them from the race.

When combined with some old-school tricks, familiar faces and maybe a few friends, if you can find any to play a nearly two decade old, vaguely remembered game, Downhill Jam becomes more fun than facade. It has a somewhat classic 90s arcade feel to it, which might advocate for its criminally short length.