So when did Tony Hawk games stop being good?

[Kanova]

It is shit now because it is ridiculous. You grind and go 50km/h and ollie and fly 10 feet in the air, jump off buildings and be fine, it is just silly. Now, as for me and everyone we know, we want to just chill and skate as if it was real. In comes Skate. It is way more realistic which is what we wanted. And shhh those people that will point out the unrealistic parts. I know it isn't just like real life, but at least you don't fly and have a body that can withstand a 100 meter fall. Anyways, yeah. Tony Hawk is dying or dead because of EA Skate.
Oh, and last Tony Hawk that I played or whatever? That one where you start in your little shitty neighborhood and have to cross a bridge to get other places by impressing a cop with your 50 km/h grind. Oh, and KISS had a very appearances. Thats all I remember.

 

[davogovernor]

the only one i've played is tony hawk underground 2, i remember i really liked it but i think since i've played one of them i think i've played all of them

 

[CoL0sS]

For me ? I'd say after THPS4. I haven't really played "open world" ones.

 

[ninja51]

It is shit now because it is ridiculous. You grind and go 50km/h and ollie and fly 10 feet in the air, jump off buildings and be fine, it is just silly. Now, as for me and everyone we know, we want to just chill and skate as if it was real. In comes Skate. It is way more realistic which is what we wanted. And shhh those people that will point out the unrealistic parts. I know it isn't just like real life, but at least you don't fly and have a body that can withstand a 100 meter fall. Anyways, yeah. Tony Hawk is dying or dead because of EA Skate.
Oh, and last Tony Hawk that I played or whatever? That one where you start in your little shitty neighborhood and have to cross a bridge to get other places by impressing a cop with your 50 km/h grind. Oh, and KISS had a very appearances. Thats all I remember.

You are missing the point completely. Tony Hawk has never ever been a "realistic depiction of skateing" its the Saints Row of skateboarding games. Thats what made it fun. No one wants to just "chill and skate as if it were real" the people who would do that would simply go out and skateboard. EA's Skate is a boring mindnumbing mess of a game.

To answer the OP, I'd say they stopped being good just about the time Skateboarding stopped being as big as it was. When Viva La Bam was ending, when Jackass was over and all those guys were fading from the public eye. As for specific gameplay changes that stopped the Tony Hawk series being good, I couldnt help you. I havnt played them for quite awhile. But I do know they started being regarded as shit, about the same time as I described. There are no more Skate heroes, the Jackass crew were the last big ones. Perhaps it was a cultural shift that ruined the Tony Hawk series.

 

[Dellaudis]

There's a Tony Hawk: Downhill Jam joke in here somewhere, I just know it.

THPS4 I suppose, the open world ones weren't all bad but they just didn't really do anything for me. I still usually just bust out the original and get my Goldfinger on if I need a Tony Hawk fix.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

1 through 4 were all amazingly fun. All of them after 4 are somewhere between mediocre and downright awful.

I put more hours into THPS 1 and 2 than I care to admit. They're still among my favorite games ever.

Edit: I think I agree about the soundtrack theory. The first game had one of, if not THE best game soundtrack ever. Goldfinger, Primus, Dead Kennedys, The Ernies, Suicidal Tendencies... it was like a who's who of great Skate Punk.

 

[Ando85]

I spent countless hours playing THPS 2 on PS1. After that I didn't bother with skateboard games. I have always wanted to try out the Skate. series but I never got around to it.

My gaming tastes have evolved however. I used to play a lot of fighting, racing, and sport games. Now 80 percent or more of my gaming is devoted to RPGs with the occasional action adventure or platformer.

 

[LilithSlave]

I think there's a place in the world for a skate simulator and all sports and tedious or expensive hobbies. As well I also think, being video games, there's plenty of room for the unrealistic. It's a large part of why we play video games, not just because something got in the way of us going skateboarding outside that day.

I remember having a lot of fun on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and others, after I had worn out all the challenge, going to some levels with absolute ridiculous unlocked cheat stats on, pretending I was superhuman, and having lots of fun with that.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

I remember playing 2, 3 and 4. I also liked underground but never played the rest. Sounds like I chose a good time to ditch the series.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I would think it stop being good when we simply outgrown it (however my statment isn't fully true since some of the recent ones were good).
What I mean is chances are we were in our teen/ youth when we first play the first Tony Hawk game in the PS1. It was susch a great game since it was unquie and original. When the many sequels came out it became less and less special.

 

[Ed Classified]

I've played a lot of Tony Hawk games back in the day, the last one that I liked was Project 8.
After that I've tried proving grounds it wasn't awful but there was one thing I didn't like.
In each new installment they introduce a new mechanic and that's fine for innovations sake, but by the time proving grounds came out you got loaded down with 10 hours worth of tutorials which made it hard to get into.

My personal top 5 TH games

1. Tony Hawk's Project 8
2. Tony Hawk's underground 2
3. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
4. Tony Hawk's Underground
5. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

 

[Kanova]

You are missing the point completely. Tony Hawk has never ever been a "realistic depiction of skateing" its the Saints Row of skateboarding games. Thats what made it fun. No one wants to just "chill and skate as if it were real" the people who would do that would simply go out and skateboard. EA's Skate is a boring mindnumbing mess of a game.

Nah man, it is because that was the only skating game. I didn't know of a different skate boarding game that was even slightly realistic, so Tony Hawk it was. Now there is Skate, and it is the superior. Soooo yeah.

 

[Aeshi]

If I had to wager a guess I'd say around the time they started letting you off the skateboard.

 

[Caliostro]

1 and 2 were amazing, 3 was arguably the best (2 or 3), 4 was still good. From there on the series didn't as much "fall", quality wise, as "took a nose dive, tied to heavy metal weights, straight into the Mariana Trench".

Since 4 the series has gone in no direction even remotely resembling upwards. Or even sideways. Just down. Straight down.

 

[WaReloaded]

In all honesty, I purchased and enjoyed all of the home-console Tony Hawk games, the last one I bought was Proving Ground and it was the only one I never ended up completing. My personal favourite goes against the general consensus but I found Project 8 to be the most enjoyable (and addictive) entry in the series , having said that, Tony Hawk's Underground 2 would be a close second.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Only ever played 2 and 3, of which 2 was the best. Massive levels, tons of secrets and just all round fun to play. I can't tell you how long I spent trying to finish the gap list, but I never managed it.

3 Was good, but not as good, and it didn't have a gap list to keep me going afterwards.

 

[Kilroy17]

Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 was the best one by far for me and when it moved on to 4, American Wasteland and so on I felt the series lost it's spark.

 

[elcamino41383]

Tony Hawk 3 is when it started getting stale for me, but 4 was when it went "bad." I honestly didn't play any after that. They are bringing out 1 and 2 in a special HD collection on PSN and XBox Live. Last I checked no confirmed date, but they are changing the roster to reflect more current skaters. I sure hope they keep some old ones though. I liked Bucky Lasek. And they better have Spider Man in it still!

 

[Brighton_Game_Trader]

Tony Hawks 1 and 2 were absolutely awesome - some of my favourite games ever.

3 and 4 were not too bad, but kept adding in cr*ppy new features that only served to dilute the skateboarding joy.

American Wasteland(s), Underground(s), Proving Ground etc. etc. all continued the trend of trying to impress with new shiny rubbish - and let the actual skateboarding fun die.

The only titles that I have played that have come close to the experience of TH1 and TH2, are the SKATE games. Skate 1 and Skate 2 were brilliant, fun and focused on the skateboarding - exactly what I wanted.

Sadly, it seems that this series is also going the way of the Hawk, as Skate 3 is rubbish in comparison and adds nothing to the series.

 

[Baradiel]

I put probably hundreds of hours into Pro Skater 3, and Underground 2 was the last one I played. UG2 was still very good, but after that they seem to have gotten worse.