Tony Hawk's Pro Skater/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Broken Base: It's debated when the series truly began it's epic fall from grace which came to an end in the wake of the disastrous RIDE and franchise killing SHRED.
    • Some fans point to as early as Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 beginning the downward trend in quality, citing it's Obvious Beta status and it being an inferior follow up to the much loved third entry.
    • Whilst more might look at the two THUG games as heralding the end while others see them as being flawed but ultimately enjoyable.
    • And finally depending on who you ask THAW was a step in the right direction after the THUG games, the last 'classic' Tony Hawk game or an ill omen of what was to come.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: One of the consistent high points of the series is its mix of licensed music, which offers a little bit of something for fans of many music genres (hard rock, heavy metal, rap, etc.), though mostly punk rock/hardcore, and from Underground on, emo as well.
    • However, such variation may lead to YMMV cases. Take Underground 2 for example: how about busting a combo while Johnny Cash is playing on the background? Some would find it out of place enough to go "WTF?" while others would find it pretty cool.
  • Dork Age: Undoubtedly got swept up into one with the release of RIDE, but it can be argued that the gears were already turning as far back as Underground 2 (or even before that, following the release of THPS4). Might be on the upswing with HD.
  • Dude, Not Funny: Of the Driven to Suicide type. THAW was that sort of game.

Depression? Here's a quarter. Tell someone who cares.

  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: In the New Orleans level of THUG2, you can trigger an event that causes the whole area to look much more dilapidated, with all the people turned into walking corpses. The game was released less than a year before Hurricane Katrina hit.
  • Game Breaker:
    • THPS2 and THPS3 would add up the total amount of degrees you spin in a combo and multiply your entire combo's score as if it was one air. For example, if you do a combo with five grinds and five 180 degree spins, you get credit for five 900 grinds.
    • In THUG, certain hidden double-tap grinds like darkslides reset your balance to the center. In certain levels, like Moscow, you can keep grinding circles around the level forever.
    • Also in THUG, walking. If your balance was weakening or you feared that you were going to bail at a fall, you can simply get off your board to avoid a bail. No matter how high the skater is or where the skater stands, their legs will be perfectly fine.
    • Grinds in Sk8Land don't cause the balance meter to appear until about half a second into the grind, so if you jump again within half a second, you cannot bail the grind. If your combo consists only of grinds and wallplants, you can combo forever.
  • "Grand Theft Auto" Effect: Such is the popularity of the THPS soundtrack that cover bands dedicated to performing songs featured in the series were formed such as The 900 and Downhill Jam among others.
  • Les Yay: In THUG, if you select a girl character the dialog in story mode doesn't change. This leads to some interesting dialog involving your love of Russian women and a woman who wants to "show you a few tricks".
  • No Export for You: Japan was denied several games in the series, including 4 and Underground 2.
  • The Scrappy: Eric Sparrow. Your former friend turned rival from Tony Hawk Underground. Long after he's proven himself an untrustworthy jerkass the game has your character continues to trust him when any reasonable person would have told him to go to hell ages ago. Worse still it gets to the point where he's actively trying to destroy your life and none of your other team mates notice or care.
  • Scrappy Mechanic: A lot of critics and fans were finding the combo system to be more insane by the second. The first game rewarded you well for making one move in the air. When the later editions came, making 50-trick combos was practically a breeze, even required, and one mistake would discredit the entire combo.
  • Sequelitis: It's debated by fans where and why exactly public perception of the series started to go downhill (pardon the pun). General consensus is that the decline started somewhere between Underground and American Wasteland, and hit a low with Tony Hawk: RIDE, which has been derided for being overly expensive and gimmicky (since the player is forced to use a skateboard peripheral to control the action - and a faulty one at that, as mentioned above).
  • Take That, Scrappy!: Seemingly aware of how much the player would loathe Eric Sparrow THUG delivers an alternate ending when you've beaten the game a second time. Instead of accepting Eric's challenge to win back the skating footage he stole the Player Character simply takes the tape off him and slams an elbow into his smug face. All in one beautiful motion of the arm.
    • In THUG 2 he basically becomes the Butt Monkey for the team and even after trying to cheat you out of your place eventually gets caught out and is the first booted off the tour. And you'll love every second of his torment.
  • Waggle: Ride.
  • Win Back the Crowd: Seems to be the objective with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD: an HD-ification of select levels from the first two Tony Hawk games, reimagined using Unreal Engine 3. After years of so-so to downright unwanted sequels, this is the move many fans have been calling for Activision to make, if only for Pro Skater HD to end up receiving middling reviews from both publications and fans. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 on the other hand was more positively received as a faithful remake (or remaster depending on who you ask) of the first two games, with all of the classic THPS cast returning as their middle-aged selves and the parks remodelled to account for newer generation consoles.
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